Born On the 31st of May

Date: May 31, 2008
Location: Posturepedic
Air temp: 60s
Water temp: ?
Hatches: shit loads of something
Fish landed: 1 brown

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

Xan
TP


Timbo thought it was time to check out some new water. Either the Driftless region or a famed river in the northern part of Wisconsin. Given that the Curd has turned into a zoo since the regular season opener, I agreed. Due to recent rains, the Driftless was blown out, but up north had not gotten much precipitation, so north we went.

This is a long river, with the lower half being great smallie water, and the upper portions holding trout. From reading the interweb, the trout here are supposedly the biggest on average in the state. Finding them turned out to be another matter. We drove to many different spots and fished a few of them. After a few hours of effort, the only fish either of us had landed was a 2" brookie that I hooked.

After much futility, we decided to check out a spot where TP had seen cars parked at in the past. This was located right outside the town of mattresses, and right along the highway. I walked a ways downstream, while Timbo fished near the car. There were bugs all over the water, and the only fish that were rising were chubs and tiny trout.

I was skeptical, but kept at it, and soon my indicator twitched. After setting the hook, the battle began. A chunky fish began to dart around, giving my arm a nice workout. The fish didn't jump, and when I would see it flash in the water, its fins looked reddish. I had a bad feeling I had hooked into a red horse, and I had no net to deal with such a disgusting creature. Still, I had called out to Tim to give me a hand, and when the fish tired out, I was pleased to see I had caught one of the fattest 16"ers of my short career. TP was nice enough to snap a pic.




Next, it would be Timbo's turn. He returned to the run he was fishing, and then all hell broke loose. The hits started coming, one by one by one. He hooked and lost three potentially huge trout, but mined the run for probably every fish that was there, catching roughly 6 or 7, if not more. Inch for inch, all of these fish were heavier than anything we've seen on the Curd.






We fished a bit more, to no avail, and then called it a day and made the long drive home.