off... for a bit

Ahh...off for almost a week. I'm looking forward to a little carp fishing, taking my dad to the Me and spending a great holiday weekend with my family and friends. The nearly twenty degree temperature drop that we've endured over the last couple days didn't bode well for the smallmouth fishing. Yesterday was one of the toughest days I've had on the water in a long time. It went from nearly ninety degrees and humid to barely sixty with a relentless wind. Bart and I had a two boat trip yesterday and everyone got fish, but we had to work our tails off for them. Sometimes that's just as satisfying as when you have a fifty fish day. The stretches in between fish can feel like an eternity, but when you finally hook up and slide that fish into the net, the smiles and hard work make it that much sweeter. Today was much better. It was a little warmer and the wind laid down early in the afternoon. We got a good number of popper fish, the minnows produced and the pike kept us busy in between bass. Other than that, it's been a great season thus far. Good numbers of fish, some good sized fish and great customers in the boat have kicked '09 off in a good way. Six or seven days off with a little R&R and we'll be back at it after the 4th weekend. Below on the right are some pictures from the last couple weeks.

hex and bass update

Hex fishing last night with Charlie was a little disappointing....as Hex fishing can be. A couple wrong turns and about 45 minutes late to the river already had me frustrated. Add to that the fact that I was hitting Hex with my truck driving through town and that Charlie was on the phone telling me that fish were already rising and it was maddening. There were a decent number of bugs on the water and fish were eating them. That is until we got to where we wanted to be. Charlie hooked a smallish fish on one of his first casts and I didn't make a cast to a rising fish all night. Just like that, they were done. There were bugs in the air, just not enough on the water to justify standing in tall grass with the mosquitoes and coyotes. The drive home in torrential downpours capped it all off. Hey, if you didn't have tough nights like that, it wouldn't be any fun. Part of the experience is the adventure factor. Bass fishing last week was good, albeit a tad sporadic. There were a few days where we consistently caught fish all day. We didn't have any doubles or any banks where we caught a dozen fish, but we got fish all day and lots of popper fish. There were also a few days where the fishing was great up until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. On those days it seemed like you couldn't buy a fish after that time. Even the little pike shut down ...that's when you know it's tough. The river rose a bunch last week after two of the dams released some water but she's back down to near summer levels now. The usual suspects were producing, minnows and poppers. We had a great afternoon on Sunday with a fire tiger Wiggle Minnow worked slow near the banks. That thing drives fish nuts. I think a slower, more deliberate hook set is the trick. That quick, high hook set will almost always result in a lost fish. Hopefully the weather cooperates and I can get out Hex fishing a couple more nights this week. It's good to finally see temps finally resembling summer.

busy again

The smallmouth season is in full swing again. The fish have been surprisingly cooperative despite some of the worst weather I can remember for the month of June. Yesterday afternoon was particularly dreary, with rain and temps in the mid-50's. Yesterday morning however, the fish may have sensed the impending front and were on an all out frenzy. We landed a fish just shy of 21 inches and plenty of fish in the 18-20 inch range. Pike kept us more than busy in between smallmouth, with oddly very few bite-offs and most fish coming to the net. Yellow and chartreuse poppers and Barto and Murdich streamers were the ticket (weird). Once the rain started (about 4 or 5 p.m.) the fishing drastically slowed. The day before was also good, with the majority of the fish activity between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Afternoon winds made things difficult for the latter half of the day. Thursday was a really good day, with warm weather, sun and manageable winds. One of the back channels was particularly good to us, producing quite a few fish and some very nice ones as well. Today I'm drying gear, tying some flies and spending some time with the fam. Tomorrow starts a stretch of eight days on the water, so my posts may start to become a little more spread out. I'm glad that Tim starts this Monday and Bart starts later in the week...it was getting boring up at the Terry by myself. One more day of crappy weather and then it's supposed to start acting like summer again. It's about time.

the kid has skills

2 1/2 months shy of two years old and he already has better form than his dad. Hopefully he picks up rowing a boat quickly :-)

guide's weekend

Bart, Matt and myself convened Friday evening at Bart's family's cottage near Lakewood, WI. The night was spent filling our bellies with a great steak dinner, enjoying a great fire and indulging in a few cocktails. Saturday morning we fished one of our favorite stretches of the Me and had a really good day. The fish were hungry, the wind was down for once this year and it was so familiar to be back up north with the guys. Saturday night, Timmy and Charlie met us when we got off the water and we ate dinner at the Four Seasons. After some post-dinner drinks we headed back to the camper, watched Hustle & Fish (which is great, by the way) and slept five deep (plus Marley). At some point in the night or early morning, Charlie had enough of the snoring and decided to sleep in the back of Timmy's truck. Bear in mind that Tim's truck has a little four-foot bed and apparently there was some sand and dirt in the bed...which found it's way into Charlie's hair. Sunday morning we stopped at Mary's for a breakfast sandwich and headed south to pick up Matt Kwitek. We floated six dudes and two boats down one of the lower stretches of the Me and again had a great day. Highlights had to include Charlie dropping my Boga Grip in the river (with a big ornery pike attached to it) and Bart snagging Timmy's glasses on a cast and firing them right off his face and into the river. I think he somehow managed to keep his Chums though. We don't get to fish as a crew very often, so when we do, memories are made and fun is had. Thanks guys.

and the phone lines are silent....

Not judging anyone's taste in television programming, but is anyone else glad that American Idol is over? At least for another eight or nine months. Too bad we can't get that many people to vote for things that really matter.

pre-spawn smallmouth report

Today brings to a close the first week of the smallmouth season for us at Tight Lines. We open up for one week of pre-spawn smallmouth trips on the Menominee River and then give the fish a few weeks to do their thing and start to recover. It was a week full of big fish, big smiles and lots and lots of wind. Wednesday was the only day that was fairly calm in the afternoon, other than that it was gusty pretty much all the time. All we could do was find shorelines that weren't as affected by the wind and do the best we could. The fish didn't seem to mind though, showing quite a bit of aggressiveness in the afternoons on big baitfish patterns and poppers. The Murdich, the Barto and the Angel Sculpin were the top sub-surface producers. On top, the fish loved the Boogle and the Ham Sandwich. The pike are showing their usual springtime grabbiness, biting off or deeply swallowing just about any fly they can get their greedy mouths on. We did see a fair number of beds that were being made, but only a couple with fish on them. By the end of next week they'll be doing their business in the shallows. It was great to be up north again.

happy mother's day

Today, hug a mom and tell them thanks for all the times they've let you go fishing.

there's still time...

I was just looking through a bunch of pictures from this winter/spring and found a great picture that my brother shot of a steelhead I caught on the Milwaukee. Inspiration for those that are ready to hang it up for the year for steelhead...they're still around.

first smallie float of the year

The trio of Matt Z., Timmy and myself broke Tim's new drift boat in yesterday in a big way. After lugging the trailer up for the summer and checking the falls (the log is gone boys) we spent the night and floated about 14 miles of the Menominee the next day (Tuesday). Our main objective was to do a little scouting for the string of pre-spawn trips that Tim and I have next week. The unanimous prediction was that we'd have to fish lower and slower and we'd catch about a dozen fish. We were way off. Matt started the day off with three or four really nice fish on the Murdich, which really was no huge surprise. Apparently that fly works all the time...no matter the conditions. The Murdich took a good number of fish until around lunch time when Timmy decided to try a popper. We had gotten a few eats on the Murdich that were so aggressive it really was a smart call. From about 2 p.m. until we got off the river at about 8 p.m., the poppers out fished the Murdich. Here it was, May 5th, slightly overcast and fairly cool water, and we were hammering on popper fish. The day far exceeded our expectations and we all went home dead tired and a little sore.

logan's first drift boat trip

Logan, Kristy and myself floated the Oconto today through the Flatrock section, christening my boat on Wisconsin waters. I didn't even pack a rod and even more regrettably I left my camera behind. I took the top half of an old eight-weight and tied about seven feet of old fly line to it, tied a tuft of yarn on the end and made a make shift grip for a first fly rod for Logan. I don't think he let go of it the whole time, flailing away as we drifted. If a fish would have grabbed that chunk of yarn I would have been ticked that there wasn't a hook in it, but I think our necks and heads were glad that there wasn't. It was a gorgeous afternoon with the exception of the extremely vulgar and loud locals fishing at one of the access points. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

more pics and one last shot at steel

Tony just sent me some more pictures from our trip to Montana. Click on the flickr link to check them out. The recent rain surely pushed some more steel into our rivers, but most of them are unfishable as of now. Try to get out when they drop a little for one last shot at a steelhead for the spring. The fish that were in there a month ago have mostly fallen back into the lake, but there are other strains of steelhead that will run later. This may be a great time to have more space on the rivers. Other anglers may be turkey hunting and the general fishing season opens this weekend, which will draw some people away to the lakes. It's a long wait until the next time you may have a shot at a steelhead, roughly five or six months at the earliest.

bighorn trip

I just rolled back into town from Montana. It feels good to be home...but it was awfully hard to leave such an amazing river. I'm already thinking about dates to go back there in the fall. Tony and I picked up my boat Thursday morning after a 13 hour drive from River Falls, grabbed our licenses, arranged a shuttle and hit the river. It proved to be really tough fishing that first day. No sleep the night before, high winds and tons of boats probably didn't help matters. I ended up getting a couple rainbows near the take out point and that was the end of the first day. We woke up the second morning and our tent and campsite were covered in snow. Needless to say that we were the only tent in the campground. I think people thought that we were nuts. Friday was a night and day difference from Thursday. Despite the colder temps and snow, the fish were cooperative. We tucked ourselves into little channels between islands and ran nymph rigs and did really well. A size 16 or 18 orange Ray Charles and an orange Bighorn scud were hot, as were size 20 red Copper Johns and zebra midges. We had a few big fish roll on streamers, but didn't get any hooks into them. I landed the biggest inland rainbow of my life, a hefty fish that Tony and I figured went 24 to 26 inches. It's odd out there that fish that size will eat a size 20 nymph, but they do. I hooked one that was maybe even bigger, only to lose her and realize that she'd completely straightened the hook on my zebra midge. As good as things were, that fish will haunt me. I will be back to exact my revenge on that one. The snow ceased in the afternoon and the sun even graced up with it's presence for a little while. We ended the day in a good run that gave up a couple fish and many more takes. It was an awesome trip and I'm thankful that things went smoothly and safely. I can't wait to get back there. Click on the flickr link to the right to see all the pics from the trip...there were too many to post them all here.

road time, river time, steelie time

Luke (my brother) made his annual pilgrimage this weekend to join me in a weekend of steelhead fishing. Saturday we fished the Kewaunee and had a couple runs to ourselves...for a brief time. We saw a few fish scooting around, but what was a river in prime form a couple weeks ago is now little more than a trickle. The water temp was around 52 degrees and slightly off-color. I haven't heard all the details, but I know there was a manure spill somewhere on the Kewaunee. Something like 100,000 gallons of manure leaked into the upper Kewaunee. DNR personnel and the farmers pumped out what they could and installed dams to stop the spread downriver. 250,000 trout and salmon were stocked into the river last week. Hopefully it doesn't spell the demise of those fish. We left early and headed up to the D.C. tribs. There is also very little water in the D.C. tribs and most of the fish are off the gravel. Suckers are starting to thin out as well. No fish on gravel means fewer fishermen. It also means drop-back fish. We saw a lot of nice fish, slightly colored up, heading back to the big pond. I hooked a nice hen that broke my tippet as I was tailing her and hooked another fish that went ballistic and broke me off in a heartbeat. We ended the day at the mouth of one of the rivers casting streamers into the lake...a last ditch effort to hook one more fish for the day. Today (Sunday), Luke and I headed down to the Milwaukee. We were the first ones there and had our choice of the runs. A couple bumps in the first two hours had me wondering if the front that dropped temps thirty degrees had shut the fish down. The water temp was around 50 and with the overcast skies, they should have been grabby. At about 9:30 I sent a cast to a long foamy slick behind a boulder and in an instant had a super-charged hen on. She spent more time out of the water than in it, tail-walking and jumping all over the place. We landed her, took a couple quick shots and pointed her back towards her lie. Awesome. Luke was still leading the run down and about a half-hour later, he was plowed and had a fish on that jumped a few times and then decided to fight like a smallmouth. This buck stuck his head down and refused to budge. I got down below Luke and tailed the fish, his first steelhead on a swung fly. I ended the day with an unexpected bonus fish, a 12 or 13 inch walleye on a swung fly. We were on the last run of the day and I was stripping in to re-cast when this ambitious little walleye hammered my string leech. I was so jacked that Luke got a fish that it made the drive much easier. Start looking at your calendar for next year, Luke. This is becoming a tradition that will yield some great memories.

someone do a rain dance

Monday, Bart and I joined Todd and Troy for a day on the Sheboygan. Even though I have mixed feelings about having to pay to fish a stretch of water, there is no denying that there are a lot of fish in said stretch. I hooked and landed a nice hen steelhead in the first hour on a black and purple string leech. Troy got his first steelhead of his career on a swung streamer and then duplicated the feat a couple hours later with another great fish, this time a bright hen that put on a great acrobatic display. Barto got rocked by a gorgeous lake-run brown (picture) just before we started dodging gun fire....literally. Apparently there's a reason it's called the Gun Run. All in all it was a super day. It would have been great if Todd could have gotten a fish as well. I was on some of the smaller tribs today and all I can say is WE NEED RAIN. It's not that there aren't any fish in, because there are, it's just that most of the rivers are running so low and the fish are spooky as all get out. I don't think the odds of landing a steelhead on 7x tippet are very favorable. My advice...get out early, stay low, make the first cast count, wear drab colors and find a cloudy day, if you can. The steelhead season is going to come to a screeching halt if we don't get some precip soon. Well, time to start tying flies for next week. Tony and I hit the asphalt for Montana on Wednesday to pick up my new Clack and spend a few days on the Big Horn. A new boat, big fish, cold beer and projected temps in the mid-70s....