CategoriesFishing Report

May 10th Fishing Report

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Areas of fog before 9am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 67. Light northwest wind becoming west 8 to 13 mph in the morning.
The rains yesterday were once again light, sparing our area from any major muddy water. Creeks remain clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the mid 50s. As the clouds depart later today, we expect to see caddis hatches (both black and tan) as well as crane flies on the surface. These are VERY active bugs, don’t forget to twitch your flies.
If the hatches are not around, fishing a beetle with a midge larvae or thin bodied bug with flash below is very effective too.

CategoriesFishing Report

May 9th FIshing Report

A 50 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 59. Northeast wind 6 to 13 mph. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Creeks are clear and still a bit low with temperatures in the low to mid 50s. We are seeing caddis and crane flies daily, although not always in abundance. Searching with a smaller foam pattern and bead head below is the way to prospect for trout below the riffles and near undercut banks.
Hatches have typically been mid day and into the evening.
On cloudy days like this, scuds and leeches are very good!

CategoriesFishing Report

May 8th Fishing Report

Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 72. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
The rains yesterday still did not muddy up the water. Everything remains clean to slightly stained. Temperatures are in the low to mid 50s area wide.
On these sunny days we have had some good emergences of craneflies and caddis. Watch for splashy rises and do not forget to twitch your dry flies!
Subsurface fishing has been solid on a little bit of everything. On a sunny day like this we prefer a thinner profile with a bit of flash as opposed to thicker profile patterns.

CategoriesFishing Report

May 7th Fishing Report

Showers and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly before 10am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 10am. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. High near 69. Breezy, with a southeast wind 10 to 16 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Lots of words to say things will drizzle this morning and the clouds could get caught in a valley and dump some heavier rain (yes please!)
Overall the forecast is not frightening at all. We still need the rain badly and rather than come all at once for a change, the showers predicted today through Thursday will go a long way to stabilizing flows in the area. The cloud cover will help too!
Overall the creeks remain clear to slightly stained. Temperatures are in the mid 50s
On cloudy days like today, fishing will mostly be subsurface while the rains are here. Scuds, leeches, and brush hogs will fish very well. If the rain lets up in the evening and afternoon we could see a few mayflies and caddis hatching, but usually days like this are subsurface days.
There is a lot of insect activity going on out there, so do not be afraid to twitch your flies (surface AND subsurface) as movement can be the trigger for fish to eat!

CategoriesFishing Report

May 3rd Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 69. West wind 3 to 6 mph.
A warm and sunny day after some light rains. The prefect recipe for a good day of caddis and potentially cranefly hatches in the driftless.
Creeks are clear to stained. The rains yesterday were good soaking rains that ended mid day. Anywhere up to 3/4 of an inch fell in the last 24 hours with most of it soaking into the ground.
Remember tomorrow is ‘season opener’ for trout. The creeks are historically VERY crowded on opening weekend, so make sure to fish as politely as possible. Respect each other, and respect landowners!

CategoriesFishing Report

May 2nd Fishing Report

Showers and thunderstorms before 3pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 3pm and 4pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. High near 64. Breezy, with a southeast wind 11 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
The forecast is a lot of world salad to say that it will spit and drizzle on and off with the chance of clouds getting stuck in one valley where it might briefly turn into a storm.
All in all, these are the best conditions to be out in the Driftless! Cloudy and drizzly, the only downside is the wind…
Creeks are clear to slightly stained. We are still in a drought, but these smaller soaking showers have started to help get us out without muddying up creeks in our area.
The hatches aren’t strong right now as we have not had a stable weather pattern over us, but fish are still eating caddis and the purple seam sipper happily on the surface. We have also started to have a lot of success on the magic beetle with a bead head dropped below.
On these cloudy days, leeches, scuds, and small streamers are great too!

CategoriesFishing Report

May 1st Fishing Report

Increasing clouds, with a high near 65. Breezy, with a west wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 16 to 21 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained and still a bit low. We have had some gentle rains recently and our creeks are clawing their way out of a drought thanks to some precipitation. Tomorrow we are due for some more light showers. The rains in our area have not been heavy enough to muddy things up. Our ground is still very dry and most of the moisture is soaking in.
Caddis are around pretty much daily, while some olives are showing up when there are clouds in the sky. Watch for rising fish mid day. Our guides have started to have success on beetles and ants. Fishing an indicator foam pattern and a bead head below (dry dropper) has been fantastic as a searching rig. Otherwise, bead heads with a bit of flash rolled in and below the riffles or small leeches and minnows twitched slowly near structure have been effective.

CategoriesFishing Report

April 29th Fishing Report

A 20 percent chance of showers before 8am. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 59. Breezy, with a south wind 7 to 16 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.
The rains were not at all heavy this past weekend. In the past 24 hours we had some light, soaking rain about a half of an inch maximum. This means the creeks remain clear to slightly stained. Temperatures are quite good. Levels are still very low.
Fishing was very good on leeches and small minnows this weekend as well as subsurface bead heads. The dry fly fishing was spotty with the changing weather and the winds. Today and through the week we should see the return of the caddis hatch.

CategoriesFishing Report

April 27th Fishing Update

Just a quick note on a busy Saturday. The rains were just a drizzle all day yesterday and through the night. Nothing heavy throughout our area, the creeks remain clear and the forecast is pretty dry until Sunday. Get out there and fish!

CategoriesFishing Report

April 26th Fishing Report

Showers likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 4pm. High near 56. Breezy, with a southeast wind 11 to 16 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
This weekend will have a handful of fishing groups in town and things will be more crowded than normal. Please remember the rule of etiquette! If there is a car at an access point, please move to another access point! There is plenty of water to spread out on here in the Driftless. Make sure you check in with other anglers and do not hop in upstream of where they are fishing (high holing). Finally, please respect landowners. Access at public points only and do not block and driveways, gates etc.
Fishing has been solid, and we welcome the clouds and light rain this weekend. Things are very low and clear and the fish have been extremely spooky. The clouds will help trout feel more comfortable and hopefully get them to feed a bit better.
With the weather, caddis might be slower to show up, but we are hoping the spring blue winged olive mayflies show up a bit this afternoon.
Subsurface fishing will be fantastic on pretty much anything, especially scuds and leeches.

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