weekend steelhead forecast

Flows are falling in a major way on every river in southeast Wisconsin. Many of the smaller rivers that have been producing in a big way over the last few weeks are just starting to experience low flows. Light rain is in the forecast for Friday with heavier rain coming through on Sunday. I’m not a meteorologist but am excited to see what impact the rain will have on our rivers.

BOB with a lake michigan tributary steelhead

Pike River- Still flowing and fishable but without rain the flows will slowly start to taper off. If you are looking to fish here, try to get out in the next couple days.

Root River- This weekend could be tremendous for fly fishing on the Root River. Flows have come down close to 1500 CFS in the last week and spawn and plug fisherman have recently been scoring some nice fish. The Root is my prediction for this weekend’s hot bite. I’m convinced that the river is full of fish but expect heavy pressure.

Oak Creek- Flows are almost nonexistent, and all fish will be in the deeper pools. Drifting will be out of the question but do try twitching streamers in the deeper sections.

Milwaukee River- The Milwaukee River is still high, but as time goes by the flows will continue to drop. Without any major rain, look for the Milwaukee River to be hot in the next week or so.

Damien scores this steelhead mid-week on a small tributary

vernon county wisconsin trout fishing

vernon county wisconsin trout stream

 Damien made it out to Vernon County last week to do some trout fishing. Had a good day catching plenty of numbers of fish. We have plans to head out there together a couple weeks from now. We might be trying some new water to see if we can hook into any bruisers. I can hardly wait!

vernon county wisconsin brook trout

vernon county wisconsin brown trout

my first steelhead this spring

Even though the Root River is still flowing high and wide, conditions this weekend were ideal for fishing the smaller rivers in the area. The last batch of rain did the river systems well by bringing in a fair amount of fresh chromers. Even though pressure was extremely heavy on these smaller rivers this weekend, all anglers still had a chance of hooking up with at least one good fish. Orange seems to be a good choice for color. Spawn was key for taking larger fish from the deeper pools while most of the action on the gravel was from the smaller males.

Earlier this year, I decided to try and become alittle more proficient with my drifting techniques (especially egg patterns). Last year, I really did a lot of my fishing with streamers and I’m just wanting to invest more time in drifting. Friday night I tied some small glo-bugs and I think they are a pretty realistic imitation on a size fourteen hook.

I fished a lot of the more subtle pocket water because the deeper pools had some serious heavy traffic in the morning. I hooked a smaller male early in the day that came unbuttoned on the surface. Around lunch time pressure died down and I got a chance to fish some of the better runs. A few casts to some deeper water was all it took to hook up on a much better fish. My little orange egg worked and after seeing many fish kept I realesed my first steelhead of the year…

my first steelhead of spring

de pere wisconsin fox river catfish

Some friends headed north to the Green Bay area in search of some walleyes. Even though the water was high and muddy they were able to still catch a handfull of keeper walleye, but they sent me this photo instead.

fox river catfish

Nice catfish BOB!

mid week and weekend tributary outlook

Things are starting to heat up in the rivers. River levels are starting to fall and clarity is improving system wide. Fish are in there just a bit hard to locate given the water conditions. Spawn and egg patterns have been producing fish here and there. There are reports of some fish up on gravel but from what I saw the pools and deep bends still seem like a better bet. My weekend forecast is optimistic.

damien with nice fish taken on spawn

oak and pike river report

Me and Neal tried our hands at some of the smaller rivers this weekend. The pike was running fast and cloudy at 150 CFS and the river was high. The oak was much calmer and clearer at about an even 100 CFS. Neal went 0 - 1 on fish and almost brought his fish to hand. Fish took an egg pattern and the color was orange. Its too bad I work weekdays because these rivers could be popping mid week here.

That afternoon I made it out alone and took a nature hike looking for some of the more remote stretches of the Pike River.

pike river, racine, wi

pike river, racine, wi

pike river, racine, wi

another cool website

Four Season Angling Club is a very cool site written by a group of anglers across the globe. Its fly fishing oriented but not limited. One of the main contributors "Gone Fishing" is very local to the Chicago-land area and some of the other writers come from as far away as Korea.


four seasons angling club

I'm finding myself captivated by past posts and anxiously looking ahead to future ones. So far its been a great read. Stop by and check them out. http://fourseasonsangling.blogspot.com/ 

four seasons angling club

spring e-magazine from fishing headquarters

Another great e-magazine from fishing headquarters, be sure to check out my article on spring steelhead success starting on page 46!

Open publication - Free publishing - More stripers