Fishing Report

Driftless Angler > Fishing Report
CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

August 6th Fishing Report

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 11am. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph.
Here is what we are seeing, there is a chance for rain and scattered thunderstorms all weekend long. Nothing looks heavy at this point according to the forecast. These summer rains are helping to keep temperatures closer to 80 degree for the next few days. With the sporadic rains and cooler temperatures, we should continue to see stable water temperatures on most creeks and the fishing should continue to be decent.
It is mid summer, and the fishing has been good for summertime! The best fishing is early in the morning when things have cooled off overnight. Mid day fishing has been good on smaller, colder creeks (remember your thermometer!) on terrestrials with a dropper, and the evenings we are seeing some rising fish (parachute adams hatch) right before dark.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

August 5th Fishing Report

Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. South wind 5 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures right around 60. The weather has been quite good the past few days, and the fishing early and late has been quite good too! The normal summer weather will hold until early next week when it is forecasted to heat up again. We still recommend using your thermometer as any water over 65 degrees will be poor fishing, and much warmer than that and you can potentially be harming trout.
Tricos early, terrestrials (foam and a dropper is great) all day, then the last hour or so of sunlight is also good fishing. Anglers have been reporting some good mouse and large streamer fishing at night too!

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

August 4th Fishing Report

Widespread haze before 3pm, then widespread haze after 4pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon.
Another comfortable summer day out there! Water temperatures are in the high 50s to mid 60s area wide with creeks running clear to slightly stained.
Things have been on track for summer fishing. Tricos in the morning are around, although lately the spinner fall has been unpredictable. Right around 9, we are switching over to terrestrials (ants and smaller beetles as well as hopper/dropper). Subsurface fishing in the riffles and just below has been fantastic lately with fish gobbling up hot spot PT nymphs and the aptly named food fly.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

August 2nd Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph.
What a great weather week we are having! Compared to the high heat and humidity in recent memory, this weather has been more than enjoyable. Plus it has helped stabilize water temperatures. While we still encourage you to use your thermometer, there are more creeks on the map that are safe to fish.
Creeks are still low and clear to slightly stained.
Tricos in the mornings, terrestrials tossed near vegetation all day long, and hopper with a dropper are our summertime formulas for success. While the menu isn’t huge right now, the key is finding pods of happy fish. Look for fish in shin to thigh deep water in the riffles, as well as tucked underneath banks and overhanging vegetation.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 29th Fishing Report

Widespread haze between 3pm and 5pm. Areas of smoke after 5pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. North wind 8 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Last night around 1 am the area received about 2-3 inches of heavy rain. It was a true flash flood which means things are blown out as of this morning, but are already starting to drop and clear. By this evening we expect to have quite a few creeks fishable, and into the weekend we will be in great shape.
The blessing is that the cold water flush was much needed to drop water temperatures and get fish back in a good mood this summer. As a double bonus, it also was a send off for the heat dome which means we are looking at almost a week of high temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. Far more comfortable that the heat we had last week!!!
We will keep you posted, but again the muddy water will not last too long on most of the smaller creeks and headwaters, and the larger stuff should be in shape for us by the weekend.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 28th Fishing Report

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 1pm and 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 90. Heat index values as high as 102. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Super hot and humid out there. That on top of some locally flash flood style rains… Fishing will be difficult today.
The good news is that the rains were brief. While there is some minor flooding happening in some valleys, the creeks will clear out quickly and the rains should help cool things down temporarily. The next few days look to be FAR better than today. There is a high enough heat index today that we can not really recommend that you go fishing!

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 26th Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light west wind becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Everybody’s new favorite word to hate: “Heat dome”. The edge of it is sitting over us right now, and we are starting down a string of at least 3 more days of hot weather. The nights are not cooling off much, and the creeks are struggling to keep cool right now. While there is still some fishing available in headwater creeks and upper portions near the springs, the list keeps shrinking daily under these conditions.
It is a good week to switch species to fish for, or stay home and save on travel. If you are planning on fishing, please make sure to stay in the upper portion of the creeks and use your thermometer often. Any water temperature over 65 will be poor fishing and much higher than that can be lethal to trout.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 23rd Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Southwest wind 6 to 10 mph.

Creeks are low and clear and warming up quickly. There are a handful of waters still below 65 degrees, but that number is shrinking and will continue to do so with the heat we have coming over the next few days.
It isn’t a terrible idea to take a pass on trout fishing when the weather gets like this. It has been an exceptionally difficult season with low water and heat!
If you do fish this weekend and into next week, please use a thermometer!!! Anything over 65 will be poor fishing, and much warmer than that you can start harming or even killing trout. Seek out the shaded areas, headwaters, and colder tributaries. Fish very early and very late and avoid the mid day heat.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 22nd Fishing Report

Widespread haze before 11am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 84. South wind 5 to 9 mph.
Creeks are clear and low with temperatures in the low to mid 60s.
While there are creeks out there that have decent fishing temperatures (below 65 degrees), the number is shrinking again, and will continue to do so the next few coming days as we stare down reaching the upper 80s for the next 4-5 days. It might be a good weekend to go fish for warm water fish! If you are coming here to fish, please use a thermometer. Not only will you be sparing the trout from unnecessary stress in warmer water, but you will be doing yourself a favor as fishing slows down to a crawl above the 65 degree mark.
The best fishing is in the morning hours when the water has cooled down overnight. There is also a trico spinner fall in the am on many of the smaller creeks too.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 21st Fishing Report

Widespread haze. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Southeast wind around 7 mph.
It’s summer in the Driftless. That means lots of terrestrials with bead heads, tricos in the mornings, and using your thermometer to find the water below 65 degrees!
Fish early, fish late, avoid any mid day sun and heat for your best fishing. The key is finding cooler water and the happy fish. Be prepared to move to plan B or C in some cases.

Add to cart