4 to 6 inches?, of SNOW? I asked my wife as she read the bleak forecast for this Friday night into Saturday morning. Upon further checking, I realized I only had one option if I wanted to fish this weekend, Southwest Wisconsin. Several phone calls were placed to friends seeing if they wanted to join me in a late Friday evening and Saturday morning jaunt to the driftless. Nate jumped at the chance to avoid the Winter Wonderland our part of the state was supposed to become.
Arriving with about two hours left of daylight, we got our gear on as fast as we could and headed to a stretch I haven't fished in many years. The first hour was slow to say the least, then the Baetis exploded.
Little dark sailboats floating by every which way, and our best imitations were added to the tippet immediately. It was a great night in the pouring rain, and Nate managed to catch his largest Brown ever. This fish was the definition of girth and brawn, to this day I don't remember seeing a brown trout with this large of tail, great fight buddy!
Saturday morning brought a starting temp of 32 degrees and flurries to match. We had a leisurely breakfast, in hopes of the day warming in both actual temperature and in our own minds. Like troopers we suited up, and after tying on new leaders, our hands were already numb with a stinging 20 mph wind.
Sometimes we get rewarded for such idiocracy, and today was one of the days. I 'm rarely a "numbers" guy, but anytime I can pull over 20 fish out of one run to me that's a "special" day. It kind of shocked us that fish were feeding SO aggressively with the weather we had encountered. They were attacking olive scuds and juju baetis nymphs like Tony Soprano on a maduro Cohiba Robusto. I guess sometimes it just pays to "get out there".
The most special part of today was I used my fathers old Winston, (or as he calls it, his old Wilson). I only break out this rod a couple of times a year, or special occasions, it was a great gift he gave me. I guess sometimes a dad's helping hand is right there even when he's not, A smirk and smile came to my face after fish number twenty, because all I could hear him saying in my head was "I TOLD you those Wilson's are great rods"!
hey brother you should put that song on the viroqua play list
ReplyDeleteThose "Wilsons" are great rods! Good to hear you guys had some success. No dry fly action up here, just wet flies and el oso grande. Better touch up the Spanish.
ReplyDeleteSip
a big bear? let me guess where! man that place is chucked full of em! we fished wet flies on the way back downstream and forgot how fun that was, just don't tell Hauer, I'd hate to hear i told you so's for the next decade! HAHAHA
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