Bass Fishing Vulcan Lake

I've been waiting for this quarry to open up for years! The neighbor and his boys beat me to it. Nice job guys, I'm jealous! I will be checking out the Three Oaks Recreation Area a little later this summer for sure...

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dane county rainbow trout

dane county rainbow trout

I drifted nymphs for a good portion of the day using a pink squirrel as an attractor and a brassie as a dropper off the back. The best fight of the day came from a stocky rainbow taken from a current seam of a large pool. Instantly after being hooked the silver rocket rose high in the water and started a series of violent headshakes just under the surface. Digging hard, my rainbow dove down for the depths of the pool taking back all of the line I had just gained. My three weight throbbed as the fish bulldogged me using the current to its advantage. For the first time ever, I put a stream trout on the reel and palmed it for some extra drag. With the extra pressure, I just nearly avoided being broken off in some downed timber. I really put some tension on the fish and was able to break her plane. She rose to the surface, tired, and I took the opportunity to take the line back as quick as possible. The fish was guided on to the bank where she promptly spit the barbless hook and made a half hearted attempt to flop back into the water. I dove for the fish like a linebacker after a fumbled pig-skin and brought the fish to hand!

I took a half dozen more browns on some elk hair caddis and had a blast catching suckers one after another from a single pool. Great fun on my three weight, and all fish were turned back!

suckers, a lot of fun on the fly

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reader submitted photos

Bryce submitted these photos over on our Facebook Fan Page. The trout was caught just a few miles from his home in western Wisconsin by his father and the big bass shot is from up in northern Wisconsin. Great fishing Bryce, thanks for sharing.

western wisconsin stream trout

family bass fishing

a trophy northern wisconsin bass

Please feel free to send photos, stories, and questions to- illinoiswisconsinfishing@gmail.com 

or post them to our Facebook Fan Page...

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don't feel much like driving?

shawn with a lake county illinois carp

Carp are a sure fire way to beat the summer fishing blues close to home. No matter where you live in Illinois an Wisconsin, there is sure to be good carp water close by. With some fish in my area pushing close to 20 pounds, they are sure to be some of the larger fish you will find locally outside of Lake Michigan. They can be as hard or easy to catch as you want them to be, and I'm already scouting some spots that will be good for some mid summer carp on the fly. These "rough" fish are everything that I would want in a sport fish. The tug is my drug and these guys sure pull hard. So, what are you waiting for? Grab the corn and lets roll...

On the subject of carp here's a great blog that I have been researching for my summer's fly fishing for carp trial run.

Click Here To Link To - Carp On The Fly

Carp On The Fly

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bass fishing browns lake wisconsin

Tri County Anglers Tournament Results- May 8th, 2011 on Browns Lake Wisconsin

The winners of the Browns Lake Tournament-The Cantu father and son team take first place. Congratulations Edgar and Tyler!

The Cantu Team take first on Browns Lake

The second place winners, Ron Taylor and Dan Resko with 10.35 pounds



Ron Taylor ans Dan Resko claim second on Browns Lake

3rd place goes to Larry Whitt and Everett Benn with 10.13 pounds and the big bass

Larry Whitt and Everett Ben with their 3rd place haul

Great fishing can be found close to home and remember you can find the Tri County Anglers by clicking this link.

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my son's first brown trout

It was an early two-thirty in the morning when my wife woke me up, thank god she was still awake from the night before because my alarms had already been going off for thirty minutes. It was an exciting day to be taking my son fishing. At the young age of five, Lucas is an accomplished angler. He has taken a fifteen pound carp on 4 pound test, a near five pound bass from a pond, and countless panfish through ice and not. All of that is great but he still had never caught a western Wisconsin, spring creek, brown trout before. Despite my headache from only 3 hours of sleep, I grabbed my still sleeping little boy and strapped him into his car seat. Thankfully the car was packed the night before and there wasn’t a need for too much thought about what I may be forgetting. I just cracked open a red bull and pulled out of my neighborhood...

Even though the weather channel predicted rain for the entire day, the radar map showed only spotty storms moving through the area I was wanting to fish. Even though there were some serious storms rolling through, I felt like I was going far enough west to miss the majority of them. Just after sunrise we arrived at our destination creek along with the onset of some heavy rain. I opened the weather channel radar app on my cell phone (a necessary tool for the mobile angler) and saw that we were in the heart of the last major storm cell in a fifty mile radius. I got out of the car just to check the water clarity in the pool right under the bridge. Turned out, the creek was crystal clear looking almost totally unaffected. Instead of suiting up just then in the rain, we drove 8 miles back to town for gas and a quick bathroom break. I figured the extra twenty minutes would allow for most of the rain to pass over us. Turns out, it was a good decision and we made it back to the bridge just after the rain came to an end.


on the creek with Lucas

Lucas was thrilled to have waders on for the very first time and excited about the concept of actually being able to walk into the water. We fished our way up the creek practicing his fly casting along the way. Having never touched a fly rod before this week, I was proud to see him make his first cast (with some extra help). This went great until we accidentally snagged that damn tree over the top of the first pool on a “team“ cast. No choice on this one, if I wanted the rig back I was wading to the middle of the pool to be able to reach the branch. Into the water I went, spooking every fish in there with atomic bomb sized mushroom clouds from all the sand and sediment I kicked up. After all that commotion it was time to let that pool settle and maybe hit it on the way back down.

Under the second bridge (more like a driveway), we did manage to hook a nice brown trout. It was that trout’s lucky day because he managed to come unglued while Lucas was trying to figure out exactly what to do next. “You pull the line in with your hand?” he asked. After the loss of our first trout on the fly, I took over fishing with the intent of handing him back a fly rod with a fish already on it. A few minuets later he was cold and bored so I suggested “Let’s just move on cause its hard to get your cast under this bridge” .

Lucas's first brown trout!

We came to the next minor pool and instead of reaching for the fly rod, I grabbed the four foot telescopic spinning rod paired with a bass pro tiny-light reel. Already attached was a panther-martin #6 spinner yellow with the silver blade that was a solid recommendation made by Damien. On the first cast through that pool we actually rolled a fish that came in hard but missed on the hook up. It took only two more casts and we had my boy’s first brown trout in hand!

another vernon county brown trout

For the rest of the day, we mostly spin fished. I think we caught just over twenty fish and only 3 by way of the fly rod. Just before lunch we decided to call it a day. By that point my son had slipped numerous times trying to learn how to walk through the stream, avoid sharp rocks, and climb over/under the endless amounts of streamside debris. A few of those falls left his jacket and sweatshirt totally drenched and one hand pretty banged up from stopping his fall on a rock (ouch). On the way out, I carried him over my one shoulder with all the gear in my other hand. It’s funny I thought, we may have escaped the rain but Luke still found a way to get completely soaked, dirty, and bruised. Kids are great and this day was filled with many memories I’m sure we will never forget. I’m happy to say, we rolled the dice with the weather and came out on top (this time).

sweet fish son!

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round lake illinois bass fishing

This summer I have made it a goal to cover as much local tournament fishing as possible. Even though this post is a little dated its still a strong reflection of the quality of fish found in some of our nearby waterways. TriCounty Anglers is a team bass fishing club casting in Lake County, IL and Kenosha and Walworth Counties in Wisconsin. The club just recently held their first tournament of the year on clear waters of Round Lake.

Kyle and Kevin Take 1st place on Round Lake!

The winners of the FIRST 2011 Tournament April 23, 2011 on Round Lake are new Members Kyle and Kevin weighing in 3 nice Bass weighing 9.77 pounds. They also came in with the biggest bass 4.70# Congratulations!

Andy Fossum and Jason Lasko take 2nd on Round Lake with 3 bass, 8.02#        

3rd Place winners, Dan Resko and Ron Taylor should be smiling! 2 nice large mouths weighing 5.93#

Those are some quality large mouth coming out of Round Lake boys! Congrats to the winners. For a good bass fishing club in Northern Illinois, be sure to give them a look.

Tri County Anglers Web Page-

Tri County Anglers on Facebook-

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Wisconsin’s Official Trout Opener

richland county trout stream

A double dose of mothers day has left me sidelined for the first time in awhile. Saturday was spent with my family and Sunday was for my wife’s side. Sure, the food and company is always great but the Wisconsin trout opener was running through the back of my mind the whole weekend. Thank God for the plethora of fishing friends I have, always willing to interrupt the monotony of the day to day happenings with a few shots of fish porn.



richland county trout

Damien spent opening day cruising the down river sections on a couple well know Richland County streams. Damien has been know to give the fly rod up for the ultra light spinning rod and head to the slower and deeper down river sections of a river. He’s on the look out for a trophy sized brown and I’m convinced if he keeps at it, he will be a success.



With plenty of pre-season trips already under his belt, Damien’s official opening day strategy paid off big. Not only did he catch quite a few trout down low on the river, but he also came up with his best brown of the season. Damien, thanks for helping me to nurse my non-fishing blues!

wisconsin brown trout

Damien's big richland county brown trout

For a few more opening day trout stories be sure to give these guys a look-

Montana of the Midwest

Dahlquist Fishing Blog

Eauclaire Bobby

The Stream Of Time

Seeking Trout

The Catching Chronicals

The Frugal Fisherman

Keep me on the radar screen, I should be heading out west for some trout next weekend...

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fishing headquarters e-magazine issue 4

Open publication - Free publishing - More andrew ragas

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fly fishing film tour 2011

Wilmette Theater

The Fly Fishing Film Tour made its way through the Chicago-land area for the first time ever on Tuesday night. The Wilmette Theater was at a near capacity crowd and I was fortunate enough to be part of this inaugural event. For those who are unfamiliar with the tour, it is basically a compilation of many short fishing films combined into a two full hours. This year’s tour represents many fine film makers and follows the stories of many great anglers. Given the variety of films, there is something here for anglers from all walks of life. Musky, trout, shark, billfish, redfish, permit, bass, and more all have their moment in the spotlight.

The best of the best for me was “The Waters Of Greenstone “ a short film following two US anglers on the trip of a life time to New Zealand. It is a comical story of the trials and tribulations they ran into while chasing trout in a different country. Here’s the trailer-

The Waters of Greenstone-Official Trailer from Taylor Kirkpatrick on Vimeo.

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iowa county trout

Neal's welcome back trout

Back at it again with Neal. Its been some time since we have made it out together and I care not too look back to see just how long it has been. SCARY!!! Neal though, has been busy raising a new baby boy, Jacob Wyatt, so who can blame him for not pursuing things more trout like? Either way, I was just happy to be hitting the water again with my best bud.

a stone and a few scuds we turned up from a rock

We ventured west into Iowa county visiting five trout streams for the very first time. Some of the smaller streams we fished for just a very short period of time. Consistent wind gusts close to thirty mph made it hard keeping casts inside the stream. Over hanging grass and twigs were constant snags with the wind and such tight quarters. Storms moving in just to the west brought with aggressive wind but thankfully, the rain never did manage to catch up to us.

wooly bugger trout

We did find one real nice spot that I wouldn’t mind returning to. It was a nice deep bridge pool with some nice fast runs come out from the bottom and a couple riffles on the top. It sits just below the confluence of two streams and it’s where we got all of our bites. Black buggers got the most bites and I also hooked and lost one on an olive scud to the undercut bank. It was nice to have Neal back in the rotation and hope he’s down for another trout trip in a couple weeks.

 

iowa county trout







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my first trip to the driftless area

This is only my second year chasing inland trout in Wisconsin and I have to admit that I’ve become completely engrossed in this new fishing world. The satisfaction of the perfect drift, subtle takes, and self tied flies has become the pinnacle of fishing to me, so far... Last year I focused my trout efforts almost exclusively in Dane County which really was just enough to wet my whistle. I fished mostly in the heart of the summer and fought off heat exhaustion, overgrown weeds, and ticks with a thirst for blood. Even though I was a rookie with a few challenges to overcome, I still was able to put together a few meaningful trips last summer. I had a couple really good days where I caught lots of fish and some days I was lucky just to catch a few. Even worse, there were those humbling days where all I got was the skunk and a two plus hour ride home to reflect on my shortcomings.

It became apparent that the landscape and the stream quality only improved the further west I traveled. If it was a gamble to catch a trout within two hours of the house then why not expand the search for good trout water to four hours from the house? That put some of the state’s more famous trout streams in striking distance. Steelhead season has just recently ended but I made the switch to inland trout almost three weeks after Damien. He was sick of fighting the crowds on the local tribs long before me and has gotten a great deal of recon accomplished in just a few short weeks. It was great to go with him on my first trip west this season and he just seemed to point the car in the right direction. This was my first trip into the true “driftless” area and my best day ever catching over 30 trout. Check it out…

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spring steelhead coming to a close

bobs early morning  colonial park steelhead

Bob and Shawn made it out on Saturday before the rain had too much time to make a major impact on the flows. They fished Colonial park in the early morning where Bob was able to hook up in the first 10 minutes. Fishing slowed until mid-day when they made the move to Island Park. Fish were stacked up in the slack water just north of Island and Shawn was able to capitalize on the concentration of fish. By the end of their fishing day flows had gone up tremendously and by sundown the river had blown out. I'm happy they got an early jump on the day.



shawns island park steelhead

I'm just wondering if the fish will still be in the river when the flows finally subside. My guess is that the season is finally coming to a close and I'm already starting to stock my box for stream trout. I've been working hard each night trying to get a few new flies in after the kids have gone to bed. I will be going driftless on Saturday with Damien and wanna make sure I'm prepared. 



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the root river birthday

I spent the morning of my 30th birthday searching for chromers on the Root River. It isn’t often I’m off on a week day but I felt the occasion warranted the day off. I have never seen the river so quiet and was excited to exchange the normal, fast paced, weekend, combat fishing for some solitude. The Root was flowing at 118 CFS which was about 60 points down from last weekend. The water was also much clearer and warmer. It was a peaceful morning spent drifting tandem eggs through Colonial Park and really gave me a chance to reflect on the past 30 years. After 2 hours of peaceful reflection, I decided it was time to actually catch a fish. Colonial Park’s conditions had changed dramatically over the last week. Even the suckers had seemed to move out. It was a good time to check out some more river.

North at Quarry Park I fished the big pool right under the parking lot. I drifted just a single egg with plenty of shot to reach the bottom. That egg drifted that pool for close to 30 minutes without even a nibble. Enough drifting, I was ready to do some streamer fishing. It was time to tie on something big and ugly and work it frantically. Instead of pushing north towards the dam I dropped down to Island Park.


island park on root river

The gravel at Island Park looked great and was a perfect spot to try out my new streamer. It is a bead head white leach with a hot pink tail and lots of crystal flash. I tied it extra bulky to create maximum movement while being stripped on the retrieve. Upon entering the water, things just seemed more fishy. The first step towards my casting position spooked a pod of suckers up to the deeper pool ahead. I took position on the backside of the gravel smack dab in the middle of the river. From this vantage point I was able to cast upstream and fish the pools on either side of the gravel.



island park steelhead on root river

Strip, strip, strip, pause… Strip, strip, strip, pause… Strip, strip, strip, pause… Then came a violent strike just as I was about to start pulling more line. It’s the kind of strike that jars your arm while your just trying to hang on. I tightened my grip and set back on the rod. Fish on! Line came flying off my reel as the fish pushed towards the head of the pool at a lightning pace. A nice aerial display landed her in the pool on the opposite side of my gravel island. I gingerly fed her line as I played her up and down the pool. When it was time I put just enough pressure on the fish to break her plane and roll her over. A couple more seconds of hard pressure and she was beached on the gravel. A few quick photos and I turned my birthday present back into the water from which she came.

Oh how I love streamer fishing and have missed it this spring. There’s nothing in the world like that strike.

close up (steelhead)

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