iwana

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Just Above Freezing

Posted by thosnut on March 7, 2013
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 16 comments

Netted Trout 20

I drove my daughter to school in my waders. It wasn’t the first time, but she kept saying, “That’s weird”. She’s almost 10, but I wasn’t going to let that wreck my day. Today, the sun was out and it was just at freezing when I left for the river. I was pretty sure that today would be the first good day for fly fishing.

River photo 20River sun 20

I was going to fish the deep pools and soak up all the sun I could. The river was very clear and stealth was a priority.

in River 20Clear Water 20

I caught eight brown trout, but the largest was only 12 inches.

Bronwie 20Br Trout 20

In one section of the river I found a completely submerged dead fox. It was trapped between some boulders just off the faster current. Often in late winter/ early spring, I find the remains of animals that perished somehow through the winter. The body of this fox was almost in perfect condition.

As I was finishing up my morning of fishing, I saw a cross country skier who had a fly rod strapped to his back. He was heading deep into the woods, but he was the only other person out there today. It felt more like a normal day of trout fishing.

Wading Through the Ice

Posted by thosnut on March 5, 2013
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 6 comments
A small stream with very few pools to fish.

A small stream with very few pools to fish.

With the threat of a new snow storm coming, I decided that I had to get to the river while I could. I knew that I would have about two free hours and I was going to make the most of it. I raced through all my domestic duties. I got the kids up and ready, took them to school, swam laps for some exercise, gave the house a quick once over, and then started to get ready.

My waders and boots were in the garage from my last excursion, and now I found that the boots were frozen solid. I was forced to de-thaw them in the kitchen sink, but otherwise I got ready in just a few minutes.

After parking my car and climbing over the four feet of snow at the side of the road, I made my way down to the river. I was in such a hurry that I hadn’t noticed that it was mostly iced over until I was at it’s side. I stood with a dropped jaw and stared. Was it fishable? Should I even try? After observing for a bit, I notice that most of the pools were open, but the other 85-90% of the river was iced over. I decided to give it a try.

The air temperature was slightly warmer, but the water was definitely colder. I began casting in the first pool, and I was forced to move on when my line got stuck on the ice. I made my way along the shore as much as I could to the next pool, but at times I was forced to enter the river and break up the ice. It was slow moving through the ice. I fished about three pools before I gave up. I decided to head up stream where I was sure that the water would be open.

I arrived at the site of my video “Breaking Down the Door of Cabin Fever“. I saw that the water was open, so I gave it a try. Using my 12’ Iwana would be tricky here, but not impossible. I also knew that I would have maybe one or two casts per pool before the pool was shutdown. I tied on a size 16 sakasa kebari fly and crept towards the first pool.

A small brown trout.

A small brown trout.

I casted into the first pool and brought my rod up for line control- nothing. The second cast was better placed and almost immediately there was a bend in my rod. It was my first fish of the season- a little brown trout. I fished each pool for a while before creeping and crawling to the next one. There were five pools total that were fishable, but I only caught one trout.

I headed home. I quickly shed all my gear and moved the laundry from the washer to the drier. I gulped down some leftover pad thai and relaxed. I felt satisfied that I caught my first trout for the year, but the next step would be to get some better weather. Of course that is out of my control.

Fishing in the Dark

Posted by thosnut on June 30, 2012
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

With summer here and me having my young posse (my kids), it’s been harder to get out trout fishing. The weird weather has added to my limited encounters with rivers and streams. We started with drought like conditions and then too much rain and also very early heat. I have managed a few nights and these are some tidbits from my evening getaways.

When I have made it out, it is usually after dinner. After everything is cleaned up and sorted away, I suit up in my waders and drive the short distance to the stream. This usually gives me about a couple of hours before darkness starts to move in. I’m always hoping for the evening hatch, but I haven’t been able to hit any this year. Last year I had much more success fishing the evening hatches. This included a spectacular time fishing a brown drake hatch well past dark, but this year my timing or maybe nature’s timing is off.

Night fishing presents its own challenges, but it can also offer a different look at your favorite creek or river. On a recent outing like many others for me, just as the last light faded, the river came alive. Large trout attacked my tiny fly in the low light of the moon.  Fireflies danced along both sides of the dark little creek. Even bats were making an attempt to catch my fly. One bat flew into the end of my 12’ Iwana rod, but they were too busy with eating bugs to care about me. Then not long after complete darkness everything stopped except the occasional blink of a firefly.

On another occasion, I was casting to a nice bend with a deep pool. I heard some branches breaking not far off, but I kept fishing. I heard more noises and noticed the tall grass tips moving in a rough path toward my direction. I was about one foot from the shore and right next to a path. From around the tall grass and walking right on to that open path next to me was a skunk. He was about five feet from me and hadn’t seen me. Not wanting to spook the fish in my deep pool, I made a slight sound to give my presence away. The skunk perked up from his happy walk. His tail went up and he did two 360 degree turns in the same spot- not quite knowing how to react to me. I made another slight sound, and he turned and ran back into the deep brush with several crashes and other loud sounds.

Fishing with my long Tenkara rod makes me more nervous in dark. If I had more open water and room to cast, I wouldn’t be as worried about striking the delicate rod tip on a tree or snagging the line around a branch. Also, the simplest of knots can be much harder in very low light conditions. As dark growers near, I try to position myself in good open water and I try to minimize changing flies. I always check my tippet too, and I make sure it’s a good length and has no damage or knots.

I use a head lamp with normal light and a red light. This helps, but on a small stream like I fish, I try not to use it because it’s easy to spook the fish. On one trip, it helped me keep tabs on a very large raccoon that was keeping pace with me while hiking back to my car. His eyes were illuminated by my lamp and gave the position away of the maker of growls and grunts. That coon stayed with me for a good 100 yards where field meets forest.

I have never fished through the whole night like I’ve read about others doing for the hex, but I have fished deep into the dark.

In the dark, there are always fish that will take your fly if you can set the hook at the right moment. Often the largest fish feed more openly at night, and this is the draw of fishing at night. This year I have done more standing in the dark and waiting, then catching large trout. Still, there is another side to the stream that you see in the day. The draw might be the fireflies, or the rabid raccoon, or those giant mayflies, or hopefully that monster trout hammering your fly. Whatever night fishing is, its still beautiful.

Short On Words…Pictures Can Say It All

Posted by thosnut on June 24, 2012
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

Here are some pictures from three different short fishing excursions. The weather lately has been too hot or the water too high and brown from rain. All three trips were still fun and fish were to be found each time, but the words still escape me, so I will let the pictures do all the talking. Enjoy…

Dark rainy morning

Hungry for a caddis fly

Muddy water

Muddy water brown

Rainy Morning

Nice little brown

Cow crossing

Nothing feels better than having a fish safe in your net

Goodbye little fish

 

Mount Vernon Creek

Posted by thosnut on June 11, 2012
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 5 comments

Another watershed that I visited this past week near Madison, Wisconsin was Mt. Vernon Creek. This is another spring creek that flows through a small town, some farmland, and natural areas for a total of about eight miles. All of its water is classified as trout water.

In many places the grass around the creek was as tall as I am, so it made it hard to fish from shore. The water was also deceptively deep. At one point I needed to cross the river, so I chose a shallower spot to cross. I realized my mistake when upon entering, the water was almost to my shoulders. This creek also had deep aquatic plant beds of watercress and other vegetation. These plant beds hid the depth of the water and springs and also gave great cover for the fish.

An area filled with springs along the creek

It was tough fishing. The fish spooked easy, but I did catch some. While there, I experienced a tan caddis hatch that lasted about 45 minutes. Once the fish started taking these caddis on the surface, a smile broke on my face and I quickly tied on a size 16 elk hair caddis pattern. With the emerging insects, the tougher fishing turned easy for a time and I was able to catch six brown trout.

The largest trout that I hooked came when a red winged black bird repeatedly flew circles over my head while squawking. The grass where I stood was about five feet high, so if its nest was nearby,  I would never see it. The bird never dove on me, but he stayed just out of my reach as he circled for about a minute. I tried to ignore him, but he was flying in my rods casting path, so I just waited him out. Finally, something in the bird changed and he flew off. I shook my head and cast my fly toward an undercut near a large submerged log. A long dark shape came from the darkness and took my fly, and then it quickly darted under the long undercut area. The fish gave me no chance, and it quickly got off and snagged my fly somewhere in the depths.

Typical view of Mt. Vernon Creek

In my morning of fishing, I came across several ducks with young, and they often spooked every fishing hole in front of me trying to get away. One mother duck left her young in its nest and went crazy trying to get me to follow her up stream. She was stressed and I was stressed after spooking about 50 yards of very good water.

I managed to catch 11 brown trout in my morning at Mt. Vernon Creek, and there was still much more river to explore and fish. I hiked back to my car and headed home, and I hoped to return again soon.

A little brown trout

 

 

 

 

Also, here is a little bit of movie footage from Mt. Vernon Creek.

Black Earth Creek

Posted by thosnut on June 9, 2012
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 4 comments

Black Earth Creek

This past week I took my first road trip of the season to the Black Earth Creek watershed. This watershed is located just west of Madison, Wisconsin in the start of the driftless area. The driftless area is the only area of Wisconsin that was untouched by the glaciers in the last ice age. Black Earth Creek flows through a landscape of farmland and rolling hills and several villages.

The water in this area is clear and cold and has large beds of aquatic vegetation that give trout plenty of places to hide. The fish hold in the deeper channels which travel between the vegetation beds. When spooked, the fish swim into the plants and are nowhere to be seen. Because of this, the creek requires extreme stealth to have success. There were no rapids in this creek, and the water moved slow and steady, and it was cold. There were many places that were deep enough to be well over my waders.

This was the biggest river that I have fished this season and it had been 10 years since I had fished it before. I missed many hook ups with fish and fought some very large fish before they were off in just seconds. Often I moved along on my knees in the water to get as close as I could to cast with my 12’ Iwana Tenkara rod. The stealth paid off, but it was still tough fishing.

In total, I was able to net four trout. The largest was about 13”, and all were brown trout. There was a short period in the morning where the sky was covered up by clouds and blue winged olives began to emerge. This hatch could have been easily over looked because of its sparseness, but this was where I caught my first two fish on a size 18 parachute blue winged olive pattern. I also caught a creek chub with this method.

A brown trout caught on a bwo

The rises stopped not long after they began and for the rest of the day I could not get a rise for any type of fly- an ant, an elk hair caddis, etc. I had decent success with a size 14 killer bug, and that’s what I caught my remaining two fish on. Overall, I definitely saw more fish than I caught, and I’m sure that more fish saw me before I saw them.

Black Earth Creek flows through theVillage of Cross Plains, and located right next to the creek is the On the Creek Fly Shop. I found this to be a great place to seek information and pick up any needed supplies. Thanks Todd for all the help.

Another little brown

In my short time on the creek, I was impressed by the many different species of birds that I saw. There were blue birds and gold finches and many ducks. I saw rose breasted grosbeaks, orioles, and red winged back birds, and I was also impressed to see cedar waxwings and hooded warblers. It was truly a diverse area.

Black Earth Creek is wonder to behold and there is plenty of river that could easily take a lifetime to get to know, but I think it’s one of those places that never shows all of its secrets. I must not let 10 years pass before I visit it again.

A view of Black Earth Creek from just feet from the On The Creek Fly Shop

On the Creek Fly Shop can be fount at:   http://onthecreekflyshop.com/index.html

Next up day two: Mt. Vernon Creek…

Risky Casts

Posted by thosnut on June 1, 2012
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

A risky spot where you know a trout has to be

Sometimes when you take a risk, you can just feel the outcome. It isn’t always the best outcome, but when it works, there is nothing like it. It has been like this on my small stream this past week.

You know the spots. They have tangle and snag written all over them. It could be a log in the water or a stump extending over a tight corner or even an area full of branches or aquatic plants. Often these risky spots are the best places during the day to hook up with a larger fish.

The grasses are at least three feet high now, and  I have used this excellent cover to get close to the prime spots and make my casts. With the delicate casting of my Iwana Tenkara rod, I often get several casts to these prime spot before the fish spooks. When I previously used my Western fly rod, the splash of the fly line often shut everything down after one cast, but that is not the case with my Iwana.

On a small stream, a perfect cast can be a real challenge, so having more than one cast to get it to these tight spots is ideal. New anglers often avoid these snag spots, but any really good fisherman knows what lurks there and will take the time for the risk.

I have made many of these casts this past week, and when I didn‘t snag up, it’s been a larger fish every time. Getting the fish out of the protected area is the next challenge, but hooking up is a victory in itself.

One larger trout that I hooked yesterday was in an exceptional tight spot between submerged boulders and a large root system of a tree. The water’s curved path between the two was less than a foot wide and two and a half feet deep. I just knew that it had to have a fish, so I cast several times to this tiny spot.

After a few casts and near snag ups, I hit it the way I wanted to. I could feel it as soon as the fly landed on the surface. Almost immediately after, a trout came up and hit my adult caddis. The game was on.

From the take, I could see it was a decent fish and knew that I had my work cut out for me. He went down on the other side of one of the boulders and I tried to work him over it. I applied pressure, but not too much pressure as I felt his tugging. He came over the rock and headed toward the roots of his shelter. My counter movement had him change directions again, so he turned down to head into the rocks. Lifting my rod I avoided another escape attempt, and I moved him into the more open water where I was able to take full control.

These risky casts are easily passed up, but are well worth the risk. If you snag up, you can always go in after your fly. The fish may spook, but you can always try again another day.

Strange Day

Posted by thosnut on May 24, 2012
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 7 comments

I headed out this morning to a local free stone stream which has trout, but they are very migratory depending on water levels and temperature. I wasn’t going after a lot of trout, but I was targeting big ones. The water levels are lower right now, so I thought I would hit some of the big holes. The drive to this the river was about five and half miles, so it didn’t take long to arrive.

I put on all my gear and began my hike in a long the railroad tracks to the first hole. I was hoping for stoneflies today, but if they weren’t on the rocks yet, I would try something different. I was deep in thought preparing what I was going to set up as I hiked when a female turkey went crazy and started running in a circle around me. I just kept hiking because I figured the hen was trying to protect a nest. A nest next to the railroad tracks wasn’t the best idea for the bird.

In the first hole, I missed several takes. The stonefly shucks were still not to be seen, so I used the killer bug. On one strike, I went to set the hook and the second last section of my Yamame rod snapped. I wasn’t worried about the rod. I figured it was under warranty or the replacement parts are cheap, so I hiked back to the car past the turkey and got my 12’ Iwana.

I hiked back down the railroad tracks, but not quite as far. A little turkey head was just over the plants and watching me pass. I reached hole number two and setup my Iwana. I hooked plenty of shiners and creek chubs on the back swing with a killer bug fished in the deep hole.

After a few minutes, I hooked what I was after. It made the 16” fish that I caught the day before seem small. The pool was big and that gave him plenty of room to swim, and it gave me the room that I needed with my 12’ Iwana. My plan was to work him until he was good and tired and then bring to the shallows and net him. He swam and turned and would not come up. I just held on with both hands and did my best. He was well hooked and I knew he was mine.

He was tired and near the surface. I started working him back towards me in the shallows. He was HUGE and I was so excited. It was hard to move the net and control the fish at the same time. I was fumbling and trying hard, but I could not net him. Even in the six inch water, he was still strong enough to fight me at every attempt. I almost netted him twice and he got behind me. There in the shallow water were three rocks and he wound me and broke me off. That excitement left my hands shaking for several minutes. There were no more fish taking a fly in that hole, so I moved on.

On the way to hole number three, a doe walked into the creek right in front of me with her fawn. It took a second for them to notice me and then all hell broke out as they crashed through the water and broke trees trying to get away from me. Hole number three held only creek chubs and shiners. One creek chub’s head was all covered with horn like bumps. The males do this when its time to breed. They also build large piles of rocks for their little size.

Hole number four held its own strangeness. I hooked a trout, but it got off by quickly jumping in the air. Not long after, I hooked a similar fish that got off by quickly jumping straight in the air. I would not land a trout today. After a few shiners, I had a big hit and the fish ran. It darted back and forth in the back end of the pool, and it did not feel like a trout. After I got it under control, I was able to net it and see that it was a northern pike. I had seen a huge one down river about 10 years ago, but that was where the river was dammed near town. I unhooked my killer bug from his lip and took his picture. Then I let him slip into the water. A minute later I hooked another northern in the same spot, but this one was able to get off. I think like the trout it was the same fish twice.

That concluded my strange day. It had high points and low points, total quiet and total noise, and even destruction.

I called Tenkara USA and they are sending me a new segment for free.

Farm Land

Posted by thosnut on May 23, 2012
Posted in: Trout. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

The wind was still and the sun was shining, so it was a good day to put on my waders and try to catch some fish.

I went to a stretch of water that is very open and flows through a farm. This section offers some nice sized fish, but it sees a great deal of anglers. Because it’s open, the fish tend to scare easy.

Steps over the electric fence

There are many cows at this farm, but good land use keeps plenty of buffer space for fisherman and cows. A bridge goes over the creek and the cows cross and yell at you if you are below the bridge. An electric fence keeps the cows well away from the stream. Fisherman can easily get over the electric fence by using two small step platforms that take you up and over the charged wires.

Sand hill crane

As I fished a sand hill crane was upset with me and made plenty of noise. Not long after his chanting began, two more sand hills dove out of the sky and joined his chant. They wandered off and left me to fish with no more fuss.

I found little activity on the water in the way of insects. Occasionally a small crane fly would appear on the water, but I had little success fishing a similar pattern. After effectively fishing the killer bug for several trout, the fish began to be more aggressive just below the surface. I used a sakasa kebari fly and hit all the spots where fish should be.  It became very productive for my remaining time.

The largest of the day was a 16” brown and it was a good match for my 12’ Iwana. The fish shook and shook trying to free itself from my barbless sakasa kebari fly, but everything held and I was able to net him.

As my morning wound down, I decided that I needed to head home. I had caught 15 trout and missed several more. The walk back to the car was beautiful and I was happy and felt luck to have such a great place near to where I live.