fly fishing salmon (southeast, wi)

The salmon run in southeast Wisconsin, is it coming to an end or has it only just begun? Being only my 3rd year fishing the tribs I haven’t quite put all the pieces of the puzzle together yet to make that call. I will tell you that timing is one of the critical variables in catching lake run salmon. Without timing throw location, presentation, and luck out the window. When I say timing I’m speaking not only about the time of year or the date, but also weather patterns and flows. With no fresh fish pushing in its gonna be a tough bite on whatever trib you do fish.

Saturday night was spent at a beautiful wedding downtown on Michigan Ave where my wife’s cousin was married and threw one hell of a reception. Free booze, delicious appetizers, and a first class meal wasn’t enough to take my focus off my cell phone for longer then 10 minutes. What was I doing you might ask yourself? I was watching the storm roll through southern Wisconsin area real-time with my live Doppler radar app. That was only interrupted to take a quick glance at the river flows or pick back up on my conversation with Neal via text. Conditions in the area were perfect and this rain could be pushing hundreds or maybe even thousands of fish into the rivers. Needless to say, Saturday was a long night for both me and Neal but we had confirmed plans for early Sunday morning..

1:30am I arrived back at my house on Sunday morning. I packed then to avoid doing that in the morning where I might be just a little more forgetful.

2:20am Sunday I put my head down on the couch to catch a couple hours of shut-eye and it wasn’t long before my alarm was going off at 4:45am.

My enthusiasm shined through loud and clear when I arrived in Racine, Wisconsin before Neal had even made it out of bed. He finally picked up after the third call and guided me in the rest of the way to his new home on the river. What a lucky bastard, he can walk from his house to prime water in under 5 minutes! Honestly though he’s working hard and deserves a great place to start a family so CONGRATS BUDDY! After I arrived we really went back and forth on picking a fishing destination. After what honestly was 30 minutes of debating we finally had our minds made up. I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking.


oh my god, one of the coolest fish i have ever landed

my last fish today- a healthy female coho

look close in that mouth