wisconsin's late running king salmon

check out the eggs pouring out of her

Not all of the kings enter the rivers at the same time. They come in waves that are spurred on by the rain and increased stream flows. On a good wet year numerous waves of kings will be pushed up into the rivers all at different times. What that means for anglers is that you have a lot longer time frame to find fresh fish that are eager to bite.

fair hooked with the green estaz egg

King fishing is very easy in some regards but in others it could be some of the toughest fishing around. Keep in mind these fish are not in the rivers to feed, they are on a spawning mission. Yes, you can normally see the fish in the shallows or if your fishing a deeper pool frequently these giants will tend to surface which should give you confidence that your in the right place. What makes them difficult is it could take 100's of casts with a few different fly changes to get them to strike. I have found the best way to avoid snagging and getting fair hooked fish is to fight the temptation of watching your fly and focus your sights solely on your indicator. This method isn't fool proof but so far this fall I've only accidently fouled one fish that I couldn't shake the hook off and had to land.

neal's big male sheboygan river salmon

On our recent trip to the Sheboygan river we had our hopes set on catching a ton of coho but instead we found some eager late running king salmon. Neal's largest king of the trip wasn't ready to be landed even after a near ten minute fight. That fish was just heavy enough to not be able to move even though the fish was done fighting. Its own weight sitting in the current was almost enough to max out the eight pound test fishing line we use. With a little luck, he put enough pressure on the fish to turn its head. With the last burst of energy the fish had, it bolted out of the deep pool downstream and right into a shallow patch of gravel. What a great fight!

fighting a nice king on the sheboygan river

All our kings were caught on egg patterns and the estaz eggs reigned supreme. The estaz were tied in green, pink, and orange. My best king came from shallow gravel drifting a size 17 small trout egg. I'm shocked to say that the hook came back intact. I thought for sure it would have been straightened out of at least a little bit bent but light line and small hooks will force you to play a big fish pretty soft. Now that's what king trib fishing is all about.

sheboygan river salmon on a tiny #17 trout egg

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milwaukee river king salmon fishing

We’ve had only one good soaking of rain so far during this fall tributary fishing season and all the water has quickly run out from the smaller rivers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled we even got some rain this year after looking back at last years dry fall. But, I’m eagerly anticipating the next dose of heavy rain, maybe it can push some of these cohos that are currently staged in the harbors up into the river systems. Not every day of king fishing goes like this but we hit the timing just right. Some fish are spawned out and half zombie already but there are plenty of fresher fish that can still be convinced into eating.

Its not to often I fish with a large group of guys but this past Saturday I hit the water with four other guys. Blake(2) and his father Pete, Neal, and Paul all met me early for some king salmon action on the fly. It was an early morning and it looked that plenty of people all had similar intentions cause cars were lined along the local “hotspots”. We walked a good distance downstream to get away from the congregation of people. As we climbed down the steep bank the sun was barely over the horizon but it was evident that a good number of fish were present by the amount of swirls and splashes close to shore.

After the sun really stared to give off some good light, it became evident truly how many fish were in the river. Blake(2) was the first one to fair hook a fish on a hot glue egg pattern trailing a natural colored streamer and everyone was quick to follow suit. Being such a large group, it seemed like every 5 minutes someone was hooked up.

Of the five fish I hooked clean, here are the two I actually landed-

a spawned out milwaukee river salmon

my second milwaukee river salmon gave me the best fight of the year!

Paul got his very first king salmon on the fly! And then his second…

congrats paul on your first of many

You always hear about the steelies and browns coming up the river after the kings just to snack on the protein rich eggs. These smaller trout should be found hanging right in back of the salmon gorging themselves on their eggs. They should only stop to avoid a pissed off king that came racing back to chase them off their reds. A few short moments later that trout should be right back in the feeding position. We saw this play out right in front of our eyes over and over. This fish was the result from drifting a power egg across the back half of the spawning gravel.

a small milwaukee river steelhead with some awesome colors

I really loved just sitting on the bank under a shady tree hanging with a few guys talking fly fishing. Today wasn't all about the good fishing, but it sure helped. I don't think anyone left without a sore shoulder or feeling pretty beat up from chasing fish down the river but everyone made some new friends.

I’m looking forward to seeing what photos Blake(2) has on his camera and I will throw the link up as soon as he puts his post up.You can also find everyone of these guys over on the forums so be sure to stop over and drop em' a line.

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kenosha harbor salmon

kenosha harbor

So it took a little bit but I’m happy to say I now have a Lake Michigan harbor salmon under my belt. Casting cranks with Wizzo the salmon wizard and Neal, we went 3-4 in just a few short hours. Kenosha harbor was jam packed with fish and there was a lot caught this weekend. We smacked them in the middle of the day throwing cranks and fire tiger was a great color choice. Reefrunners and deep diving thundersticks all took fish.

kenosha harbor salmon

There’s a whole lot more to learn about harbor salmon but that might have to be put on hold for now. This rain the last few days just seems to keep coming and there’s some solid evidence that fish are moving up into the rivers. With a little luck, I could be holding my fly rod knee deep in a river this weekend. Time to get started on some flies. Such a procrastinator….

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salmon fishing the sheboygan river (sheboygan, wi)

I spent the entire weekend fishing the Sheboygan River for lake-run salmon. This was a rare event being able to be out for the entire weekend on account of the wife and kids visiting cousins in Kentucky. I made sure I capitalized on every second.


the sheboygan river

sheboygan falls dam

It’s been a crazy year for tributary fishing. The lack of rain has lead to reduced flows up and down the western Lake Michigan coast line. Many anglers I know have been left scratching their heads not exactly sure how to make heads or tails of the current river conditions. Sure we have scraped together a couple fish here and there but some of the smaller rivers have had a complete lack of fish. The larger rivers that have a more dependable base flow received a larger run of fish. Reports looked good on the Milwaukee and the Sheboygan so I chose the latter being a river I’ve never fished.

saturday afternoon salmon (3)

The flows through the entire weekend were averaging in the mid 80’s which is well below the norm for this time of year and made the fish easy to spot. Most of the fish I found were relating to the top side of the fast water. They were sitting on the top side of the riffles and runs resting and waiting to push their way through the next set of fast skinny water runs. These fish were easy pickings but actually getting them to turn on a fly was something that was near impossible. Some of these better areas were holding close to ten fish at a time and foul hooking them was something that almost couldn’t be helped. After fighting one tail hooked salmon you will quickly realize that’s something you’ll never wanna do again. After foul hooking a fish I became a master of popping the hook right off their backs and tails but every once in a while it just stuck and the battle was on. Watching the salmon and placing the fly in their mouth does take some patience but is possible. One thing to remember is that the fish aren’t here to eat and the number one way to get them to hit is to piss them off.

salmon sitting at the top of the runs

A fellow angler I had the pleasure of sharing a pool with had really done a good job taking some clean hooked fish. Most of the flies he used were giant compared to mine, but nothing elaborate. Lots of natural browns and golds with some flash and a bead head.

sunday morning salmon (1)

I brought a lot of fish to hand and had a blast pushing my equipment to the max. I hope the forecasts are correct and we receive the rain this weekend as predicted. It will certainly be interesting to see how the fish react in some of these smaller rivers when they finally fill up so late in the season. I’m praying for steelies!

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a look back- 09-28-2009 fly fishing salmon (tributaries, wi)

This post is a continuation from my previous post. This is the second day of a fishing trip I went on with Neal last year. If you didn’t read my last post then click here.

09-28-2010

We awoke that morning to find a puddle of water on the bottom of our tent. The rain last night wasn’t a downpour but more like a consistent drizzle that gave everything a good soaking. Since camp was right on the banks of the river we were able to see the flows hadn’t been affected by the rain last night. The decision was made to pack down the entire camp and be on the river in the next hour. The sun was just starting to give us some light and that made breaking down the tent and reloading our gear into the truck super quick. Breakfast consisted of pop-tarts washed down by red bull and after brushing our teeth we were ready to fish.

A short drive and we were ready to stalk some salmon. The lot was practically empty only having one other car in sight. I love fishing weekdays! We made a short walk to the first “sweet spot” in the river, a place we never were able to fish the day before due to the other anglers that had this spot locked down. Just walking down the bank, I spotted a group of 3 large fish pushing up and down the front of a gravel bar. Neal conceded the spot to me and I gratefully accepted preparing to send my purple egg-sucking-leach into the war zone.

wisconsin tributaries

On the third cast into the pool I hooked up. Neal stuck around long enough to help me land the first fish of the day. We took a quick photo and both Neal and my fish headed down river. I stayed to work the remaining fish I had in front of me.

a solid salmon to start the day!!

Twenty minutes later I followed my friends footsteps down river stopping to work a couple isolated pods of fish. I hooked up on four more fish and landed two. One of them was fouled and the other was fair. These fish I had to tail grab by myself.

as close to fair as it gets

I walked up on Neal playing a foul hooked fish that we caught and released. Neal had chased the fish a good distance upriver. He told me “bro, you won’t believe the amount of fish in the next pool down”. We made our way to the pool and sure enough he was right. At least thirty fish were packed in that fifty yard stretch. This is where we spent the rest of our day.

neal with a nice king

me and my new friend jack

my new friend buck

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a look back- 09-27-2009 fly fishing salmon (tributaries, wi)

With my favorite fishing season (fall salmon in the tributaries) right around the corner, I’ve decided to take a look back to 2009 at one of the best king salmon trips me a Neal shared. It happened to be the first salmon trip we took that fall. This post was partly brought on because of the extra thought I’ve been putting towards the upcoming spawning migration and partly because I blanked this weekend fishing in-land trout in the driftless area of Wisconsin. At least my car held up this weekend with no issues. Lets rewind the clock 14 months…

09-27-2009

We were making this a two day trip where we would be camping overnight. It was a Sunday morning and Me and Neal were heading to fish for king salmon. A local guide had tipped us off that fish had already began to move into the rivers in Northern Wisconsin. We were up and on the road by 5:00am to put most of the miles on his truck before the sun showed up. We made the river by 8:00am and did some scouting around before deciding on where to fish. A quick stop at the fish weir and we could see a few fish pooled up by the fish elevator but the numbers just weren’t there to say the run was in full swing. Maybe we were a little early? Well, we are here now. Lets go fishing.

salmon sitting under the dam

The first morning of fishing was exhausting to say the least. We covered lots of different water working tons of different flies. We pounded the water for almost 6 hours with out even seeing a fish. By that time we were tires and hungry and voted that it was time to break for lunch. We drove back into town and found a nice pub and had a burger while pretending to be Packer fans. That close to Greenbay we should be careful things don’t get out of hand. After lunch we went shopping for some food to have at camp and then we drove to the campground to set up our tent. After our camp site was in order we headed back to the river.

The afternoon on the river started the same as the morning did. We arrived and started to scout the water placing some random casts to some decent looking pools. Still no fish in sight! Just as I thought it couldn’t get worse it started to rain, thank goodness we packed the rain gear. As the initial down pour started to slow something magical happened. It was like a stampede of wild bulls, instantly dozens of fresh silver kings come bulldozing up the river. Salmon aren’t graceful like steelies, the urge to spawn will motivate them to navigate water only a few inches deep practically beaching themselves. Fish were blowing the water up all around us. We both thought the fresh water the rain brought into the river system caused the fish to move up from the deep holding pools down river.

Within minutes Neal yelled “fish on”! The battle was on, that first fish was up and down the river putting Neal’s tippet to the test. He fought the fish well even having to flip the line off a boulder after getting wrapped around it. A few minutes later I tail grabbed our first salmon of 2009.

now thats a king salmon

Now it was my turn to try landing a river monster. The sun was setting as the beast sucked the fly into its mouth. I reared back quickly on the rod and the fish took off. Line was flying off the real as I applied soft pressure with my hand. This fish felt like it really had some shoulders and quite possibly could be a personal best for me. It took some time to tire her out but I finally got her turned from running up current. With the fish coming back down stream I guided her over to Neal. Another solid hand grab and we put the camera to our last fish of the day.

my turn for a trophy king salmon

By the time we got off the river it was dark. We headed back to camp and grabbed some firewood on the way. Time to have a nice campfire, some brats, and a couple stiff drinks before calling it a night.

To read about the second day the click here.

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