Date: May 27, 2007
Location: WBL
Air temp: low 70s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: N/A
Fish landed: 1 Rock Bazz and a bunch of panfish
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
QuickDraw(spinfishing)
Non members:
Naaz
Well tonight was all about overcoming obstacles. We got to my Mom & Dad's place around 5pm and we proceeded to get the boat ready for it's first outing of the year, filled the tires up on the trailer and all of the batteries were good. and we were off to get some live bait and gas for the boat. I remember making the remark to Naaz, "So far we haven't had any problems".
Well, when we got to the boat landing we were about 7th in line, "not bad" I thought to my self "25 minutes tops". About 45 minutes later it was finally our turn after witnessing countless acts of dipshittery. well we got the boat in and it started on the first pull and then quickly died, the second pull the recoil got messed up and we couldn't get it to retract the pull. We decided to row out a ways and try to fix the boat out there. I forgot my leatherman so I didn't have any tools to work with. After about 15 minutes of tinkering the engine was fixed and we were on our way.
Well we made a run across the lake to a new spot that we had never tried, a small sunken island surrounded by waters 40 fathoms deep. looks like a good spot on paper, but all we managed to get was 1 rock bass and a few decent sunfish. no walleyes. after dark we got our troll on which was fruitless. oh well, at least we had plenty of booze. The moral of the story, Always bring more booze than you think you'll need, you may need more.
Date: May 28, 2007
Location: Super Awesome Double Secret New Spot
Air temp: high 70s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: Didn't notice any
Fish landed: 4 (browns)
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Xan
Memorial Day was scouting day, as I drove all up and down the WI heartland looking for new spots on the Warwick. The mosquitoes have yet to show themselves in great number, but the black flies and fucking ticks are a plenty. During the periods of my search on foot, I found many of both.
After finding nothing new of interest, I drove to the "new spot." As I headed down to the run of my previous successes, I spotted the gastronomical jewel of the Great North, morels. Along the stream side of the north facing bank, which was the backyard of a house, were 7 or 8 prime fungi, 4 or 5 which were bunched together.
I was now faced with a morel dilemma (Thank you! I'll be here all week). Is the side of the bank public or private land? Would the homeowners set my car on fire if they saw me taking their precious? There were cobwebs on a few of them, so they must have been there a while, meaning the homeowners had no idea they're there...
I chose to fish and decide later. That decision never came as I didn't really give a shit and forgot about them.
I was able to pick up a trout from the get-go, and proceeded to get numerous strikes and land some browns. I'm not sure as to the cause, but this season, nymphing has been difficult. Whether it's been a change in my perception, or the physics of my current tackle, my strike indicator rarely makes a pronounced movement when a fish hits. I've noticed frequently that when it slowly starts to sink, a fish is on the other end of my line.
The light bulb finally fired up, and I started to set the moment it even slightly submerged. This led to many fruitless sets, but also a number of flipped fish and a few to hand.
I tried some of the pools upstream with no luck, and after de-ticking myself, called it a day.
Date: May 27, 2007
Location: Kinda new spot on the Curd
Air temp: low 70s
Water temp: ??? (I really need to buy some new batteries)
Hatches: not much
Fish landed: zip
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Xan
Non members:
Mark
Mark and I headed out to the Curd, to a spot near the EPB&G. I had been there once before, though had never fished it.
There were a few cars along the way to the parking area, and a number of them at said area. Normally I would drive off to another spot, but due to my curiosity and Mark's success here in the winter, we decided to forge ahead.
Befitting the number of cars, the river was packed with fisherman. After a short hike down the river, we found a pool that Mark decided to try out. I went further downstream, finding numerous runs already spoken for.
I finally found a decent looking run, and proceeded to nymph away. After a mess of snags and no fish, I headed down to a small riffle. The trout stuck a few times, but my reflexes were slow, and the fortunes did not smile on a slow hook set.
In the midst of my poor concentration, I happened to glimpse through the brush, at what appeared to be an attractive young lady, jogging on the path along the river. As she got closer to where I was standing, I glanced again and noticed she was bobbing up and down and kinda tall. She rode up on a large horse to where the path met the river. She saw me and gestured, asking if it was cool if she crossed downstream from me. I nodded, and in that time, a number of other horse-people had gathered behind her.
They proceeded to cross slowly as the horses found their balance amongst the rocks in the stream. One by one by one by one by one by one by one by one they crossed. I looked down the path and saw an unbroken line of horses. As the 8th Cavalry strode through, a few of the horse-people asked me how the fishing was. Others apologized for disrupting the spot. And, in a display of true Wisconsin hospitality and decorum, a cougar offered me a beer from the saddle bag on her steed. It was a "girlie" beer, as she referred to the 8oz mini can of Bud Light (or Miller Light, the historical accuracy of this moment has been lost to time), but it was gratefully accepted.
I began to enjoy my beer as the hordes continued to move past. After the last horse had crossed, I walked slightly downstream to the next run. As I fished and drank at the same time, I noticed the horse-people had given me yet another gift. The run I was fishing was far enough downstream to where the fish were not spooked, but also the recipient of all the mud and silt they had kicked up. On a bright day with clear water, I finally had some tint to obscure me from the fish.
Of course, when I have a beer in one hand and my fly rod in the other, and a lack of concentration to boot, the fish that did hit only got a gentle tug, as I clumsily tried to set the hook.
Continuing my goose egg, I headed not far down to fish a deeper run. Mark met up with me and we kept our skunking alive. While I was aimlessly waving my rod in the wind, an interesting thing happened. When fishing, I tend to focus on a chunk of a river, and block out everything else. I heard a loud splash just upstream from my current chunk, where a fish had been rising earlier. I looked up to see a crane standing in that spot along the bank, with a decent trout in its mouth. The trout struggled, with the crane giving a few twists of its neck, and then, it gulped down the fish, sliding it down its gullet.
Well, at least someone was catching fish. Mark and I headed out and got some spicy curds to call it a day.
Date: May 20, 2007
Location: Club
Air temp: 50s
Water temp: ??? (I really need to buy some new batteries)
Hatches: not much
Fish landed: 1 brown
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Scotty Mac
Fruiter
Xan
We took a trip to the Club on a chilly Sunday morning. The water was fairly clear, though we hoped the cool conditions would still produce a solid fishing day. This would not be the case.
Before I could fish, however, the problem of my detached sole on my right wading boot had to be solved. The answer would be duct tape, and with the help of my cohorts, I was taped up like a football player. They were also nice enough to 'roid me up like a football player, getting me in the proper rage needed to fish for trout.
When we fish the Club, the point of convergence tends to be the large, slow pool behind the Club itself. Since Scotty Mac has yet to dabble in the dark arts of streamer fishing (or much nymphing for that matter), Booter and I fished the pig pool while he fished a dry not far upstream.
Having fished a streamer with no results on my way to the pool, I tied on a huge indicator dry instead. I was able to land a 12" brown when I was finally able to get my casts close to the far bank. Booter, slightly upstream from me, was tempting fish with a huge streamer, until the physics of doing so on a 3wt caught up with him and snapped a small portion of his middle ferrule. He was able to reattach the rod sections, with his rod being only slightly shorter than before.
We decided to move upstream to a couple deeper, more active (in terms of water flow) pools. Not much luck was had at either, with physics finally finishing off FB's rod. While he went searching for morels, SM and I continued to catch no trout.
We finished the day with a trip to the EPB&G for curds and a BBQ chicken buffet.
Date: May 19, 2007
Location: New spot on the Curd (The Great Lawn)
Air temp: low to high 70s
Water temp: ??? (I really need to buy some new batteries)
Hatches: not much
Fish landed: 4 browns
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Xan
Tim
TP and I headed off to the Curd River to check out a new spot. We were not too far upstream of QD's favorite spot. Most of the area is private land, so we were in the water for the majority of the day.
We started fishing after a short jaunt from the car. We both immediately started landing fish on dry flies. The browns were aggressive, sometimes even following the flies downstream before hitting.
We then proceeded to cover a large stretch, finding mostly shallow water with large numbers of fish that were holding in the deeper runs (which weren't many).
After moving upstream roughly a river mile, the sole on one of my wading boots finally gave way leaving it barely connected near the toes. After futilely trying to rig my 3x line to fix the problem, we hiked back through the stream with my right boot looking like a flip flop. Somehow, the last remaining bit of connection held all the way to the car.
Date: May 20, 2007
Location: P. Trizzy
Air Temp: 40s - 60s
Water temp: ?
Hatches:
Fish landed: 1 24"(or so)Northern Pike(Tim), Assorted Bass, Crappies, and Bluegills
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
QuickDraw
Tim
Well the day started out on the cold side, which is natural for outings with Tim and I to P. Trizzy. Today we were hunting the big boys of P. Trizzy, El Chupacabra and Pygmy SkunkApe be damned. We were out for a nautical adventure sipping on PBR and Bacardi Cokes in the morning while halfway around the world the Legendary Cutty Sark was engulfed in flames. By the time we were underway there was a mist coming off of the water, it was damym cold this morning, did I mention it was cold(and windy)?
well tim quickly picked up a decent Northern on a large black and redheaded streamer, it was sweet! Shortly after that I decided that it was time to bust out the heavy tackle, Tim then gave me a Quick lesson in Double Haul Casting which I think I actually understood, It's a must when casting my 8 weight in wind. Then We started to hit the top water flys, I was using a green "Joom Diver" and tim had a white and red, mouse like poper thingie, we were fishing basically in about 5' of water, casting up to shore. Suddenly Tim was like "OMG OMG OMG" when I looked over I saw a Large freshwater Croc folowing his poper, then the fish opened his mouth and took a grab at the tail. pretty insane, the fish quickly lost interest though and creeped out of sight into the deep. After that Tim needed to sit down a bit as he was shaking and nervous from the near miss. The PBR helped to calm his nerves.
We spent the next few hours trying to figure out what was going to work. We tried some of the usual good spots, drifting across the J-hole, the point, weed Island, then we tried the shallows in the cove behind the point. When we spotted a monster(est size around 35") in about 1' of water just chilling. I threw a clouser next to him and he was off like a prom dress.
well all in all not a bad day,
A)We were able to get the boat started
B)We actually caught fish
C)Tim Caught his first Pike on the fly
D)I learned to Double haul
E)PBR and Bacardi was consumed
F)Monsters were sighted and tempted
Date: May 12, 2007
Location: V
Air temp: mid 60s - 70s
Water temp: ?
Hatches:
Fish landed: skunk
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Xan
Woke up with the sun around 5:45am, decided to go hog hunting. Probably the first of many skunks on the V. Headed far upstream this time and saw some decent pools and a run or two holding some fish, but I could not tempt the beasts.
Date: May 14, 2007
Location: Holland Lake
Air temp: high 70s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: not much
Fish landed: millions of bluegills one crappie and a really nice bass
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
QuickDraw
So I got to further break in the new 3wt. Me and mark Headed out to Holland lake in Eagan with hopes of 'bows dancing in our heads. we when we got the canoe in the water and everything situated we found ourselves catching unbelievably small panfish on every cast. mark hooked into a few nice bass. I ended up catching a nice bass too. he put up quite a fight on the 3 weight. caught him on a small yellow woolybugger.
we alos did some morel foraging, we only found 4. Also found a deer Tick on my leg when I got home.
Date: May 12, 2007
Location: P. Trizzy
Air temp: low to high 70s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: N/A
Fish landed: 5 or 6 Crappies, a gang o pan fish and a few bass
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
QuickDraw
This year Regular season opener for MN found me on p. trizzy lake, with my brand spanking new 3 weight and my 8 weight. It was a really nice day. we found ourselves fishing the shallows, sightfishing to crappie and panfish. I got to break in the new rod right. we spotted a monster northern in about 6" of water, he looked like a small croc, we estimated him to be somewhere around 35" long and wide. He had fresh scars all the way down his back. we both tried to entice him to bite, I was using a small green woolybugger and Naaz had a large red bomber. needless to say we got him to follow all the way back to the boat and we both got hung up on some lillypads. oh well it was a great day!!!
Date: May 9, 2007
Location: Canyon
Air temp: low to high 70s
Water temp: ??? (I really need to buy some new batteries)
Hatches: not much
Fish landed: around 6 browns
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Xan
Day 2 of my midweek mini-vacation brought me to the Canyon. Summer seems to have arrived early, as it was already warm by the time I got to the stream. I got in around 9am and didn't see any cars at the head of the trail. I went down first to the beta hole, only to find two other fishermen.
I decided to hike down, and passed a few others along the way. Seeing more people than I expected, I made my way down to the alpha hole to waste some time throwing a bugger. After wasting a sufficient amount of time, I tied on some nymphs and started to fish my way back.
The water was very low today. Recent stream changes have also altered the good spots. There is a broken tree limb hanging over the Yeti's honey hole, though it is still fishable. Booter's glory hole has lost one of its logs, slowing down the current and the fish are now piled up along the bank.
While the water had some tint, the low levels and bright sun made it a slow day. I was also not so quick on my sets, and lost a lot of fish.
After nabbing a few browns, false-hooking others, and losing even more, I called it a day and got some Chinese food in town.
Date: May 8, 2007
Location: V
Air temp: low 70s
Water temp: ??? (I really need to buy some new batteries)
Hatches: not much
Fish landed: 1 brown
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Xan
I decided to take a few days off of work to go fishing. With these couple days, I also scheduled a doc appointment for a routine physical, as I had neglected to do so last year. Since my new HMO is located in Richfield, I decided to go a bit further south after my check up and give the V the old college try.
Quick D and I had scouted the V a few weeks ago. We didn't see a single friggin' fish, let alone trout, after visiting many spots on the stream. It looked good, but not a single rise or silhouette darting by was seen.
There were signs put up by the guvment declaring catch and release, so I figured there had to be something there.
When I got to the river, I went downstream and scoped things out. After fishing here and there, I false-hooked my first MN trout. I had pierced the side of a little brown. Well, I thought, at least I can say I saw a fish in this crap.
What seems to be the major problem with the V, is that while it has the size of a good trout stream, large portions of the bed are sand. Only once in a while will one come across a gravel bed or rocks. And while it is wide enough, it rarely gets deep.
I made my way downstream to the end of the state property, then made my way back along the opposite bank. Through this I had spooked a decent looking fish, and seen a few smaller guys swimming around. Then I passed a bank with a few larger fish. A little further up, I saw roughly three even bigger trout fleeing my shadow.
Taking mental notes of where I saw the fish, I moved further up and fished a bit to wait for them to reset.
After catching roughly zero fucking fish and getting frustrated by snags and tangles, I headed back downstream to try the two spots with fish of girth. While there are few rocks to get snagged on, there are plenty of trees, logs and twigs in the river, most of which I hooked. There is also plenty of vegetation along the banks to get caught up in.
I went to the first spot and started casting. Nothing. Getting even more pissed as the snags mounted, I waded up to the second spot which was about 90 feet away. This area was along the far bank, where the floor dipped down noticeably.
On what I think was my first cast, shit went down. None of this indicator slightly bobbing nonsense. It was apparent roughly half a second after my flies hit the water that I had dug into something huge.
Two violent splashes immediately erupted as I set, and the biggest fish I have ever seen shot out of the bank. I have no idea how long the fight lasted, but was probably a good 3-5 minutes. I had brought my 3wt, and I was basically pulling a rock around the stream.
I struggled up and down the stream, trying to get it to shallower water. I thought my arm was going to fall off, which I haven't felt since Montana last year. I started to wonder if I would ever net him, if I would just be telling a fish story about the one that got away.
Fortunately, he had hit my lead fly, and the fluro 5x held well (my dropper was on 6x mono). After a long battle, the trout gave up, and I was able to get my net around him.
I had found my first Walter.
Date: May 5, 2007
Location: Canyon
Air temp: low 50s to mid 60s
Water temp: ??? (I really need to buy some new batteries)
Hatches: BWO?
Fish landed: 4 or 5 browns
Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:
Fruit BooterXan
For the regular season opener, we took FB's canoe down the canyon in a heartfelt effort to piss off as many fisherpeople as we could. There were a ton of mouth-breathers, as is the norm for opener, but our float path did not discriminate. We would paddle through casting lanes or pools, smile, and ask, "Any luck today?"
The weather was mostly cloudy, with wind and the occasional sprinkle. The fishing was decent, more so in the morning. Just above the "beach," FB found the home of a hog, though he was unable to land it after a few strikes. But, we will return, and we will claim the fish for Dear Leader.
