Sunday, March 28, 2010

fly fishing steelhead (root river, wi)

The weather was really starting to warm up the entire week leading up to the weekend. No rain all week and all the snow had been long gone for some time. River flows were very low on the Pike and Oak. The Milwaukee was running over 600cfs and didn’t sound like a very safe number to wade. Looked like the Root was the best based on the numbers.

Normal start time and was fishing island park as the sun rose around 6:40 am. Neal arrived just after me and we started working a nice bend and surrounding stretch river. Couple fingerling browns taken by Neal on a grey leach pattern. Ran into another nice angler who said fish were being taken above the weir but it was shoulder to shoulder fishing. We gave it about an hour and a half, with no fish spotted, before we decided to push north.

small enough to be bait!
Colonial park was packed. Lot was almost full and just barely found parking. We fished till just after lunch with only one hook-up. It was a steelie that threw my hook on his first jump. Talk about disappointing… my only hook-up for the day and it lasted all of 4 seconds.

tiny brown
Yes, there were defiantly people landing fish north of Lincoln park, I helped land 5 for strangers. My problem with the day was that it didn't seem peaceful fishing so jam packed on every run, riffle, and bend. It wasn’t just people concentrated in certain spots, they were everywhere. Just when you would carve out a nice little spot for yourself, here comes Billy Bob and his wife. They sidle up close to you and cast slip bobbers into the tail end of your drift. How many fish can you help them net before you start to feel just a tad upset? Well I’ll tell you... the answer is 2.

Saw no fish released. People must be hungry for steelhead stew. WHAT A SHAME!

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