Sunday Morning

Date: September 23, 2007
Location: Brule
Air temp: 60s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: ?
Fish landed: 1 brown, and scads of very, very small steelie

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

Xan
TP


We rose just before sunset to give the Brule one last go. We arrived at a canoe landing and made our way upstream, the first people on the river. I found a run and began to fish. I pulled in small steelie after small steelie. This pattern was broken up with a decent resident brown, but that would be the last decent fish I would catch that day.

As the area filled up with fishermen, we hiked a ways downstream, fishing here and there. Once the sun was high up in the sky, the action stopped. Eventually, we called it quits and hit the long road home.

Hope

Date: September 22, 2007
Location: Brule
Air temp: 60s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: ?
Fish landed: 1 very, very small steelie

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

Xan
TP


It is called the "River of Presidents." Probably the best known steelhead river in Wisconsin, the Brule, to me, has been known as a colder than fuck madhouse with no big fish. Sure, I've seen pictures. I've read articles. I've also used Photoshop and written blog posts.

My (two or three) previous outings to the Bois Brule have consisted of catching two inch fish, clearing glacial formations from my guides, swearing off vegetarianism through the most extreme channels, and wondering if I would ever be able to move my fingers and toes again. The highlight of my Brule resume is forming the correct hypothesis before our first and last campfire experiment, "The Effects On A Can Of Pabst Blue Ribbon When Placed In A Flame." For those who have never conducted this experiment, it explodes and sprays warm beer and ash on the two people closest to the fire.

There had been reports of lake run browns, steelies, and coho in the river. As we walked to find a spot, we came upon a couple fishermen who had a coho on a stringer. As I had never even seen a large fish, even one someone else had caught, this was a favorable omen. They are here. My next bit of good fortune came not long after, as I caught my first steelie, albeit a very small one, at the first run I fished.

We moved upstream a bit, where I began to fish a run I had been introduced to the previous year. My nymph/egg rig was heavily weighted. Snagging the bottom was becoming par for course, and when my indicator stopped suddenly, I set, thinking I had dug once more into a rock. Then, my line started to move. I started to add pressure to the rod, but whatever was on the other end of my line was staying low. It darted back and forth through the stream. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, until it jumped out of the water.

I can only remember in vague terms its color and size. It seemed to be a blueish green trout like mass, roughly 20 inches. When it sailed into the air, it stopped its flailing, creating an odd silence, returning to the river like an Olympic high diver. I called out to TP, hoping for a net, or at least a witness to this battle. At this point, he was too far upstream to hear me, though I began to notice another fisherman and a cabin owner across the stream turn their attention towards the commotion, and a hiker on the path behind me.

I fought with the fish for a while longer, watching in awe as it shot out of the stream a few more times. Then, in my excitement, I tried to horse it in and popped the fish off.

After multiple miserable experiences, I had now gotten a taste of the Brule's treasures. As had been the case a week prior with the Lion's two game win streak, I was dealing with a new feeling in a familiar situation. I can by no means claim I have paid my dues (in fishing the Brule, not as a Lions fan), but now, after failed but valuable attempts, I was granted the gift of hope.

We fished for the rest of the day with nary a hit. It seemed that once the sun came out, the action stopped. We finished the day at the Kro Bar, losing at pull tabs and waiting for the next morning.

Just Like Old Times

Date: September 17, 2007
Location: Canyon
Air temp: 70s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: ?
Fish landed: 8? I don't recall exactly

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

Xan
TP
TAFKAY
B-Chubnut


To continue our celebration of B-Chubnut's visit, TAFKAY and I took the day off of work, and with TP not having classes that day, we went to the Canyon. It was an overcast morning, so things were looking up for us. We settled in for a long session, and got to work catching fish.

Chubbers entered the river first, choosing to fish a run that has been very productive for me in the past. The rest of us went downstream a bit further, where I settled into Booter's money run, and began to land fish.

After some time, Chub found us and reported the catching of many a trout. We worked our way down to the Alpha Hole and back, putting in an honest day on the stream. While the levels were a touch low, we still found fish in all of the usual places. It was a good day of fishing, and a great day away from work.

TAFKAY fishing his money run

B-Chubnut and the Tokyo Drift

Date: September 15, 2007
Location: Famous Original Ray's
Air temp: 70s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: ?
Fish landed: nada

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

Fruit Booter
Quickdraw
Scotty Mac
TP
Xan
Tokyo Drift
B-Chubnut


When Saturday morning rolled around, I was useful for about 30 minutes. Just long enough to get some coffees, pick up Scotty Mac, and get us to the rendezvous spot (Booter's house #2). Once there, I promptly made cozy with a sleeping mat, trying to fight off the bad feelings that had come from the prior night of binge drinking on an empty stomach. Too much tequila, not enough nachos. The story of my life.

We jammed five people into Booter's Old Blue, and made our way to a gas station before leaving the cities. I dispatched the contents of my stomach, mostly apple juice and coffee (and perhaps some beer), into their lovely toilet, then slept for most of the ride to the river (waking occasionally to eat a Chicken McNugget or drink some water).

When we arrived at Famous Original Ray's, we met up with QD and TP. This was a special occasion, as we had an original F.A.G. visiting us in B-Chubnut. We were also graced with the presence of Tokyo Drift, a lousy nickname, but a fine fellow. Today, we would be seven strong, and as one could surmise, even without knowing it was a clear, sunny day with low water levels, the fishing sucked ass.

The water levels were quite low. For the first time in memory, the floor of the big pool was visible. Despite the conditions, B-chubnut was able to land a fish:



Booter claims to have caught "a bunch," but this was not witnessed by anyone. He did, however, manage to make some new friends of the beef and curd persuasion.


We finished the day at the EPB&G, with some burgers, curds and pull tabs.

Smile you sun of a B#~%@

Date: Sept. 10, 2007
Location: trizzy
Air temp: 70s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: ?
Fish landed: 1 muskie a few northerns and millions of bass

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

QuickDraw (spin fishing)
Naaz(non-F.A.G.)

Well it was another banner day on the Trizzy, we started out the day eating freshly microwave Lebanese meat pies that would haunt naaz' gut all day (white boy). We made our way out to the trizzy at the azz crack of 10am. It didn't take long to get rigged up and fishing.

We spent most of the day hitting the J-hole for the first few hours we would drift across the J-hole casting, it didn’t take long before the first fish was in the boat a nice bass. I hooked into him and pulled him in with a small fight, naas netted him and as I was dislodging the hook from his jaw he started flopping around which caused a hook to go through my index finger it hurt so much I was squealing like a little girl. Naas helped me unhook my finger and the fish, and then he took this picture.

Shortly after that we each hooked into northerns mine being a slight bit bigger than naazez. We estimated mine at 30" not a bad fish but no monster.

We then decided it was time to get our troll on. After a short time trolling I hooked into something large and since I was using my light weight rod with 8 pound test line I didn’t want to horse him in. I honestly don’t think the fish knew he was hooked until he got up to the boat the first time. Once he saw us he got pissed. For the next 10 minutes or so I was fighting the fish and he was taking out line like crazy. We ended up boating him without too much trouble.

We did see one really large muskie he was probably slightly over 40" and fat, but he didn't seem too interested in what we were throwing, just swimming through.

The rest of the day we caught millions of small bass with a few smaller muskie sightings peppered into the mix. It was a great day to be outside though.