fall fly fishing in review

In a blink of an eye, Wisconsin's fall fly fishing season for Great Lakes salmon and trout came and went. In recent years we had experienced a great variance in the severity of Midwestern winters, some mild and some not so mild. Just a few years back we rang in New Years by throwing streamers to big brown trout in flowing water. Conversely, this fall, it was just Thanksgiving when rivers started to frost over.

fall river scenery

 The kings ran thick this year and there was no shortage of them in most of the rivers we frequent. I have no interest to photograph rusty looking kings so the first real fish pictures from the fall came when the coho started moving into the rivers. The coho run this year was also particularly robust. I have always been a disbeliever of reports on local forums of people having success throwing dry flies at coho salmon. This is something I have to seriously reconsider after watching a fish rise on my indicator and giving it a most aggressive smack. Not having any dry flies in my fall salmon box I didn't get to test it on a second drift but did tie on a pink egg which that fish moved 5 feet to hit. Here is a couple of nice coho from the fall.

the fish that proves coho will rise on surface flies

neal with a nice wisconsin coho

The steelhead were a bit more elusive then the brownies early on. Even in the midst of the crowded pools of salmon, a watchful angler could see gluttonous brownies zipping in and out to sip on salmon eggs. This brown trout was sight fished off the back of salmon spawning gravel. The key here was to throw the fly up the salmon's ass and letting it drift back to the trout waiting behind. If you threw the fly to the head of the pool, you would never make it through the group of salmon to the trout without snagging one of those donkeys.

brown trout from in the midst of all the salmon

 I finished my fall in my favorite fashion, stripping streamers through bridge pools for big trout. This could be one of the best bites of the entire year, I was sad that it ended so quickly. I find this method works awesome from when the salmon die off until the river frosts over.

bridge pools = big winter trout

a nice winter brown hit a meaty fly on an aggressive strip

I wish this bite would have lasted even a few more weeks but sadly winter came early. Here is a shot from my last trip before things really started to lock up on the river. All in all, it was a short but productive fall for us. 

flowing slush and ice shelves, the end is near

Looking forward to a great spring run and once again holding a fly rod in my hand. Until then, it's all about the ice fishing.

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pike river steelhead and cohos

the pike river took a late run of salmon this year

The Pike river has laid pretty dormant the first half of this fall. It never really got much of an early run of fish this year and its one of the rivers that flows have remained generally low so far. Well the last few weeks that previous scenario has changed. These last few soaking have really added a great volume to all the rivers in Southeast Wisconsin. While the larger rivers now are busting from their seems and extremely muddy, the smaller rivers are finally getting a chance to shine.

a fresh pike river coho

Fresh fish have finally made their way upriver on the Pike. While the coho salmon in other rivers have already turned I was grateful to find that the Pike had fish just a few days in from the lake. These coho haven’t yet developed their full spawning colors nor do they have any rotten body parts what so ever. Even better still, they are willing to come five feet to hit a fly. This type of aggression wont last long, so time is really of the essence when it comes to salmon fishing.  The longer salmon sit in the rivers, the more closed mouth they will be. The two cohos we caught both chased down black streamers and really crunched them good. My fish came up at least five feet to hit my fly and I will say that isn’t common. Both cohos came from the back side of the pools just above the fast water.

Congrats to Paul with another tributary first! He landed this chrome steelhead on a pink estaz egg drifted with absolutely no weight. There are some steelhead in the river right now (this proves it) but not in any large numbers or any concentrations. This fish hit in the tail out of a faster run. Great job again Paul, you handled the fish like you had caught plenty of steelhead in the past. Once the Root River or the Milwaukee River flows come back down I will continue my pursuit of a fall chromer before the end of the year.

paul with his first wisconsin steelhead!!

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wisconsins fall coho salmon

This fall Ive had a real tough time landing a lot of cohos. Sure I've caught tons of kings, but it still upsetting in some regards. I should be happy I caught 2 nice ones, right? Well, after the stellar coho fishing we experienced last year, I'm sure anything would pale in comparison.

blake(2) with by far the coolest fish of the year

The cohos enter the rivers shortly after the kings. While the numbers of the kings begin to dwindle the coho are just reaching their peak. Its an exciting feeling when you realize you have a fresh coho hooked rather then a half rotten king you come to expect. You can always tell by their violent head thrashings they are known for just after being hooked. Coho are capable of long and powerful runs but will normally tire after a few good ones. They are built a little more streamlined then kings and their body mass is pure muscle. They typically run smaller then kings but what they lack in size is made up for by their out of this world colors and acrobatics. They will go toe to toe with the larger kings for the best gravel to spawn on and their arrival into the rivers are always anticipated.

So what if I'm 2 for 7 on cohos this year, any man is a lucky man just to have landed one of these great fish! Here is the link to the post on my first coho this fall.

my second coho salmon this year

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wisconsin's coho salmon are running

King salmon are still present in Wisconsin's Lake Michigan tribs but their numbers have seriously declined from the pinnacle of their run earlier this fall. Most of the early running kings have already spawned and since then, died. Their stinky corpses pile up in the slack water and it gives a good indication of just how far into their run we are. Late running kings are still present and some can still be quite fresh but look for them in smaller numbers.

With a good portion of the kings gone the cohos now have plenty of access to the spawning gravel. The mild rain we experienced last week was just enough to stimulate a run of fresh coho salmon into the Oak Creek in Milwaukee Wisconsin.The coho are active enough to chase a fly on a fast strip or move to hit a fly on a dead drift. Look for these salmon to be active for the next few weeks taking into consideration the flows.

This coho was taken on a heavily weighted streamer retrieved at a lightning speed. She hit from the darkness of a deep pool and her power was tremendous.She took two very impressive runs leaving me with some serious slack line when the fish came racing back towards me. But, it was my day, and I got the best of her. She was beached in just a few short (but adrenaline pumping) minutes. Neal made his way over just in time to squeeze in a photo.

an oak creek fresh female coho on the strip

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saturday fly fishing coho (milwaukee county, wi)

Saturday I went out again with Damien. We hit the tribs for some late fall cohos. This has been a dry fall and some adjustments had to be made when it came to fishing. Here is a few tips I put together for my experiences this year adapting to no rain and low flows.

• Sometimes even when you think the conditions aren’t good, you just need to get out there and fish (often times you will be rewarded).
• When water conditions change then change your tactics.
• When water conditions are extremely low give some attention to the lower areas of the river and around the mouth, its normally deeper here.
• When water clarity is clear then naturals aren’t a bad choice for color selection, but never rule colorful out.
• When there is no flow then you must give your fly its action.
• Low flow is the best time to check a river out, remember good looking spots for times when flows are higher.
• Any influx of water no matter how small will greatly improve the fishing, timing is everything.
  
• Fish are especially wary under these conditions, approach with caution.

As for comments, could anyone add some tips to fly-fishing low flows?

 

blake starts the morning with a coho

modified bead head purple and pink alaska-boo

coho salmon time for damien

coho salmon wearing spawing colors

smaller coho with great coloring

nice salmon!

wisconsin tributaries scenery

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late fall coho on the oak creek (south milwaukee, wi)

I had made plans to fish on Saturday with Neal and our new fishing buddy Damien. We made plans to head up to Oak Creek for a morning chasing coho. The flow were almost nothing but Damien was sure there were still some fish holding in the deeper pools.

Friday was my daughters birthday and we went out for dinner with some family and friends after work. After the kids went to bed I had time enough to tie some streamers for Saturdays fishing trip. I got maybe a half dozen finished before the clock reached 11:00pm, I decided to call it quits and head for bed.

Saturday morning was freezing cold and the temperature gauge in the car read a frosty 27 degrees as I pointed the car north on the expressway towards the dairy land. We met at 7:00am and the sun was just barely coming up over Lake Michigan. We fished our way up the one of the more famous bends sighting a few fish along the way. The fish, just as Damien had said, were all hunkered down in the deepest pools. That’s where we focused our effort because every shallow run and riffle only held inches of water.

Fishing with almost no flow is different the relying on the current to impart the action on your fly. We were making short cast to the opposite sides of the bank and relying on stripping and jigging to bring the fly back to us. Neal and I quickly found out that Damien had no problems enticing fish like that because he was the only one to hook or land anything. He hooked a nice female from the deepest section of the pool, and sniped a small male from a section of water in-between a log jam.

our new fishing friend with a female coho

Early in the morning we had multiple fish that were turning on our flies and some that were actually following them out of the deeper pools. The fish lost interest in our flies mid-morning and that was it for the action today. Stayed till almost 1:00pm and headed for home. I’m sure that we are destined to see some fresh steelhead moving up any time now we just need a spike in the flows to facilitate that. Until the next major rain I expect fishing to remain slow.

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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

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