fly fishing trout (rock county, wi)

In my pursuit of trout on the fly I’m finding myself diving head first into the unexplored (at least to me) area of western Wisconsin . Every location and every stream has a certain charm and personality unique to only itself. This Rock county creek is no different.

cool looking rock county creek

The scenery here was wonderful and the water was skinny, fast, and cold. There must have been some deeper water here but I never did find it. I wasn’t able to devote quite as much time to hiking and exploring as I would have liked. Rubber waders and a hot day will kick as tired guys ass. The banks were starting to become overgrown and the flowers were starting to bloom. This place in general seemed to be a little more unaltered. Not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. I wouldn’t have minded a little more bank improvements and some extra fish holding structures. On the other hand, the untouched look has some merit too.

streamside

In the first 15 minutes of casting I was able to wrangle a slob brown which really set my expectations high. It was a healthy fish that really put all my skills to the test. The worst part of the battle was the actual landing of the fish. I was forced to jump from a 3 foot weedy bank into the pool I was fishing just to reach the fish. I tried to net him 3 times and just couldn’t reach him as he was thrashing wildly on the surface. I’m sure I spooked every fish for a quarter mile but I was just playing the hand I was dealt. Either way, I got a picture and released the fish!!

a good brown

With all that excitement when I first arrived, the rest of the day turned out to be a real disappointment. I spent the rest of the time sweating while walking from shallow pool to shallow pool. The sun was beating down on me with absolutely zero protection from the sun. I was able to snipe 2 more small browns from some of the creek bends but I felt much of the water here was way to thin to hold fish. Again, maybe I just didn’t make it far enough in to the wilderness but I do see why they have to stock this creek. As a side note, I caught more ticks then I did trout today…

a small brown trout to end the day