Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 83. Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph.
Rains hit hard and fast last night dropping up to an inch of rain (south of us got hit with up to 2+). Luckily, thing soaked in and started clearing up quickly leaving many of our smaller creeks clear to slightly stained this morning.
The rain will have cooled down water temperatures a bit, after yesterdays 90 degree weather, temps were pushing into the 60s. Today expect mid to high 50s.
Caddis, craneflies, and some lighter colored mayflies are hatching, especially in the evenings. During the day we are fishing our standby hippie stomper with a bead head dropper (check the highlighted flies below for one of our hot bugs right now!)
On the cloudy water leeches and squirmy wormies.

Sunny, with a high near 90. Heat index values as high as 96. West wind 5 to 10 mph
Creeks are low and clear with temperatures in the mid to high 50s.
Yesterday was incredibly windy which means the hatches were blown about and fish were not rising well. Luckily the subsurface fishing made up for it! Bug wise, there have not been any super thick hatches lately but sporadic caddis, lighter colored mayflies and craneflies have fish rising here and there. The terrestrial bit is picking up! Ants, beetles, and attractors such as hippie stompers (orange) and training wheels (orange, yellow and purple royal) are getting some aggressive eats especially in shaded areas. Dropping a thin bodied bead head nymph or smaller scud below these has been excellent, especially mid day.
We’re in a summer type rythym right now. Early on fish will eat midges and some mayfly spinners, then when the sun hits the water around 10 they will switch to subsurface and opportunistically feed on terrestrials and attractors. In the evening, the hatches get fish looking up again.

Practice good social distancing on the water. The Centers for Disease Controlrecommends staying six feet apart from others. We’re taking it a step farther — we’re asking anglers to stay a rod’s length apart from their fishing partners whenever possible. The standard fly rod is nine feet long.

Wear a multi-layered face covering when in the vicinity of other anglers. Even a double-layered cloth mask can help slow the spread of the virus.

Avoid fishing from a boat with someone you haven’t been in lock-down with. In other words, if they’re not family, don’t fish from a boat with them — it’s just not possible to practice social distancing while in a drift boat.

Drive to the river separately to get to the angling destination.

Stay local, if at all possible, to limit exposure to others, and limit others’ exposure to you.

A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before noon. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 79. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Looks like the weather is blowing in some summer temperatures over the next few days. And, our fishing has become a bit like summer fishing. Meaning we are concentrating on fishing early, and late, and avoiding the bright mid day sun.
Creeks are clear and flowing in the mid to high 50s. Tan caddis are still round, but in fairly small numbers. If you see a splashy rise now it is more likely a cranefly eat than a caddis. In the evenings, we are getting sulphurs, pmds, and cahills. Mayflies in orange, green-ish, and white.
During the day, it is hippie stomper season! Tossing a big, visible foam fly as an indicator and dropping a bead head below is great. If there are clouds in the sky or a stain on the water, fish larger, thicker bodied patterns. The more clear the sky/water is, fish thin bodied patterns.
Guiding is back! We have finally put into place the last pieces to ensure that you, and our guides are safe while still being able to provide a great guided trip. Please call us for details.
We are finishing up the plans to re-open the shop to a limited amount of customers soon. Look for ‘re-opening’ later this week!

Sunny, with a high near 65. Northwest wind 6 to 13 mph.

Creeks will range from crystal clear to muddy area wide. If you aren’t happy with the clarity drive upstream bit for clearer water, and downstream a bit for stained water. Water temps are in the mid 50s.

On the stained water, leeches, scuds, and squirmy wormies are working well. On the clear stuff, smaller, thin bodied bead heads under a foam terrestrial.

Practice good social distancing on the water. The Centers for Disease Controlrecommends staying six feet apart from others. We’re taking it a step farther — we’re asking anglers to stay a rod’s length apart from their fishing partners whenever possible. The standard fly rod is nine feet long.

Wear a multi-layered face covering when in the vicinity of other anglers. Even a double-layered cloth mask can help slow the spread of the virus.

Avoid fishing from a boat with someone you haven’t been in lock-down with. In other words, if they’re not family, don’t fish from a boat with them — it’s just not possible to practice social distancing while in a drift boat.

Drive to the river separately to get to the angling destination.

Stay local, if at all possible, to limit exposure to others, and limit others’ exposure to you.

Showers, mainly before 1pm. Patchy fog before 10am. High near 72. North wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Anywhere from half and inch to two inches fell yesterday, and we are seeing light rains over the area now. While not all creeks are unfishable, expect most of them to have a heavy stain on them.
When the high water hits, fish leeches and san juan worms or larger nymph patterns!
Shop is closed today, will be open for curbside and drive through again tomorrow.

A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 81. South wind 5 to 8 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Rains last night dumped about a quarter to a half of an inch quickly. Creeks today are clear to slightly stained with some that are heavily stained. Looks like we are supposed to get 1-2 inches of rain tomorrow. Think of these as summer storms, but in May… The big rains shouldn’t mess things up for the weekend but we will keep you updated.
Today, expect good fishing subsurface on scuds and thread frenchies. Surface fishing has been good in the evenings on sulphurs and caddis, and on beetles and hippie stompers during the day. Foam with a dropper is the ticket again mid day in the sun!

Practice good social distancing on the water. The Centers for Disease Controlrecommends staying six feet apart from others. We’re taking it a step farther — we’re asking anglers to stay a rod’s length apart from their fishing partners whenever possible. The standard fly rod is nine feet long.

Wear a multi-layered face covering when in the vicinity of other anglers. Even a double-layered cloth mask can help slow the spread of the virus.

Avoid fishing from a boat with someone you haven’t been in lock-down with. In other words, if they’re not family, don’t fish from a boat with them — it’s just not possible to practice social distancing while in a drift boat.

Drive to the river separately to get to the angling destination.

Stay local, if at all possible, to limit exposure to others, and limit others’ exposure to you.

Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 5pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 82. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Recent rains have either missed us, hit hard then disappeared, or soaked into the ground. In our trip county area, creeks are clear to stained and up just a little.
While we are waiting for sulphurs, craneflies, or caddis to hatch and before the fish are rising, the hippie stomper and brush hog combo have been deadly! Nothing like fishing the old, familiar driftless guide combo.

Practice good social distancing on the water. The Centers for Disease Controlrecommends staying six feet apart from others. We’re taking it a step farther — we’re asking anglers to stay a rod’s length apart from their fishing partners whenever possible. The standard fly rod is nine feet long.

Wear a multi-layered face covering when in the vicinity of other anglers. Even a double-layered cloth mask can help slow the spread of the virus.

Avoid fishing from a boat with someone you haven’t been in lock-down with. In other words, if they’re not family, don’t fish from a boat with them — it’s just not possible to practice social distancing while in a drift boat.

Drive to the river separately to get to the angling destination.

Stay local, if at all possible, to limit exposure to others, and limit others’ exposure to you.

We’re still watching the virus cases in our area closely. They have recently showed up and are climbing. We’re following the advice of the CDC, WHO, and state and local health agencies and have the storefront and guiding closed until at least June 1st. We will begin curbside and drive through on Tuesday.

Showers and thunderstorms. High near 70. East wind 11 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
As of now creeks are clear and flowing a bit low. Sulphurs have arrived and are added to the bug soup along with olives, caddis, craneflies and midges. We have even spotted some yellow sallies here and there already.
Subsurface fishing has been good on heavy nymphs rolled along the bottom. Check out the featured fly below, the thread frenchie, as it has been excellent for us lately!
Chance of rains starting this afternoon and through most of next week. We will keep you posted!

We’re still shipping flies from the store every day, please shop using our online store, or email us your orders. The shop will remain closed the rest of the week and we are exploring the possibility of resuming curbside and drive through starting next week. The problem in our area is we are just now starting to see cases of coronavirus in our 3 counties and the numbers are rising. This has been a very difficult spring for everyone and we are asking for just a bit more patience while we sort out what the near future is going to bring. Anyone have a crystal ball for sale?

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 61. Breezy, with a southeast wind 7 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

Creeks are low and clear with temperatures in the 50s. Hatches have not been great with a few caddis showing up throughout the day, but not in great numbers. Subsurface fishing has been decent on scuds and brush hogs.

Creeks are low and clear. The recent rains did not do anything to our flows or clarity.

Tomorrow is regular season opener, which is the busiest day of the year on our trout creeks. This season it is more important than ever to respect landowners and each other if you decide to fish. We’re still recommending that you do not come here to fish. Vernon county had it’s first reported case of Corona virus last Friday with a gentleman with no travel or contact history. In other words, somebody brought it into our area. People here are nervous and many are still unhappy (understandably so) seeing out of state and out of area vehicles parked together on our creeks.

If you do fish, please remember that Wisconsin is still under a shelter in place mandate. All campgrounds in the county are closed. Resaturants are take out only and services are very limited. Make it a day trip, fill up at home and bring your own food. We also encourage you to be on even better behavior on stream. Do not park near anyone else, social distancing rules still apply in Wisconsin meaning you are supposed to be at least 6 feet from anyone else etc. Do not jump above another angler, if they are already fishing upstream they do have the right of way to the water upstream!! If in doubt, it is simple to ask the angler.

There have been numerous reports of trespassing, Please respect landowners!! Conservation easements give you a bit of land bankside. You are not allowed to walk access roads, crop fields, or pastures! If the crowding and bad behavior persist we are at risk of losing our angler friendly properties, as well as future easements. Respect our community, respect our property, and respect our landowners!

The shop is still closed and doing shipping only for a few more days/weeks.