Fly Fishing and More Outdoor Adventures in Western Wisconsin
Aric and I fished the Rush this morning from about 7:45 to 10:30. We both had luck with pheasant tails and zebra midges, catching around a dozen fish each. Aric had the big fish of the day with one around 13″. Fish seemed to be holding mostly in shallow riffles at the heads of runs. The fishing seemed to slow down a bit as it got later in the morning. There was a decent hatch of what I believe were march browns, and fish were rising sporadically to them.
I fished the Lower Kinni this evening from about 7:30 to 9:15. I started off the night nymphing with a pheasant tail and zebra midge, but at about 8:30 the sulphurs came off with a fury. There wasn’t much rising, but I tied on a sulphur parachute and was able to catch a couple and miss a few more. The recent rains really helped the Kinni out!
I introduced my cousin Angy and her boyfriend Reed to fly fishing on the Rush for a couple hours tonight. We began the outing nymphing, but after seeing a few rises I tied on Bread and Butter Caddis on one of the rods. Angy quickly caught a couple small browns.
Reed eventually got on the board with this nice brookie
Angy ended up catching five browns and one brookie on the caddis dry, while Reed was able to bring just that one to hand on a caddis larva. I was able to pick off seven myself, including one around 13″.
We saw a few caddis flying around and many sulphurs came off as it got later in the evening.
Aric fished by himself and caught 20 fish total, including several over 12″. He was nymphing with a pheasant tail and zebra midge. Here is one fish he caught when we ran into him.
With the weather cooling down a bit over the next couple days, we should have some great fishing this week!
Aric and I fished the Lower Kinni tonight from about 8:00 to 9:30. As soon as we got to the stream, we noticed many sulphurs coming off, and the fish were going nuts for them — easily the most surface action I’ve seen this year. Aric tied on a size 20 BWO pattern (we were unprepared and didn’t have any sulphurs in our boxes) and I stayed with my Euro pheasant tail and zebra midge rig.
Aric ended up catching six on the surface, with all under 9″. I caught around a dozen with a 12 and 13-incher — my biggest Kinni fish of the year. Unfortunately those two bigs were after dark so I wasn’t able to get good photos of them.
The Kinni definitely benefited from the rain this week. A little more this weekend should make for even better fishing!
If you haven’t seen it yet, take a couple minutes to watch our latest video, Driftless Spring!
Check out our latest video, as we highlight a couple outings from a smaller Driftless stream this spring!
We fished the Rush last night from about 5:00 to 9:00. Low and clear water along with a hot a sunny day made for slow fishing for the first couple hours. I was only able to pull two fish out of the first couple runs while Aric was still fishless. As the sun began to set the fishing started picking up. We ended up with around 15 fish between us, with almost all of them caught after 7:30. There was some rising later in the evening as well, and I was able to bring two to hand on a size 20 BWO Sparkle Dun after they refused my caddis. The rest of the fish were caught on pheasant tails and zebra midges. Most of the fish caught on nymphs were in riffles less than 18″ deep.
Looks like we’re going to get a good soaking this week, which should help the fishing conditions as we head into June.
I hit the Kinni tonight looking for revenge on the big one that got away on Monday, starting the outing off with a Frick’s Fix. Normally tied on a hook size 6 or bigger, I tied this one in a size 10 since I’ve never gotten Kinni fish to commit to the bigger streamers in the past. On the first cast I caught a small brookie, a rarity on the Lower Kinni (he slipped out of the net before I could get a picture). I worked my way up the pool and hooked into another fish, this time a nice brown around 11-12 inches.
After getting to the head of the pool, I opted to switch back to nymphs. I stopped and talked to a nice gentleman on my way down to the stream that gave me a couple flies that he’s had good luck on lately. A couple were in this shell pink color and one was light olive. I think they’re some kind of scud imitation. Anyone know what these are called?
I caught probably ten more fish between this fly and the zebra midge below it. This 11.5-incher was the biggest.
There were quite a few midges, caddis, and BWOs out but not enough rising for me to switch to a dry. I talked to another fisherman that had luck using a Purple Haze.
I went down to the Kinni today for a short outing from about 4:15 to 6:15. Upon getting to the water, I was greeted by swarms of caddis, but little rising, so I went with an Ice Dub Pheasant Tail and Zebra Midge rig. On probably my fifth drift of the day, my indicator plunged underwater and I saw the flash of a big brown. After about five seconds, he shot downstream and broke off. It would have for sure been my biggest Kinni fish to date, and was the second fish in three outings to break me off. I’ll be back to hunt him down for sure!
The fishing was pretty slow for the next 45 minutes or so, but then the action really picked up. I was able to catch around 12-15 fish over the last hour, with a couple around 12 inches. I caught about 15-18 total over the whole two hour outing — a pretty good day. About 2/3 of the fish took the midge.
Even with the caddis out in full force, I still didn’t see much rising. I must have been streamside just a little to early or late to have the great dry fly action we’ve all been waiting for.
If you haven’t yet, give our Facebook page a ‘like’ so you’ll always know when we have a new fishing report!
Also, we are now accepting custom fly orders. Please feel free to contact us with any inquiries and watch for photos on the page as we build inventory.
I hit the Kinni for a short outing this evening from about 7:45 to 9:15. Using an Ice Dub Pheasant Tail and Zebra Midge, I was able to bring 8-10 fish to hand, and lose many more. Nothing very big tonight, with the best being a 10-incher, while I lost another that was around 11-12″. Most of the fish were caught on the midge.
The midges were out in full force and the fish were definitely rising to them, but I didn’t feel like re-rigging to a tiny fly and opted to stay with the nymph rig. I only saw a couple caddis flying around throughout the evening, but did talk to another fisherman that had some success fishing an X-Caddis. With the warmer weather coming over the next few days, the caddis should really start popping off, giving us some great dry fly action!
I fished the Kinni tonight with friend Don Leurquin from about 4:00 to 8:30. I caught around 10-12 total on the night, while Don caught around 4-6. All of the fish were between 6-10 inches, although one broke me off that was probably over 15″. We nymphed for most of the night, and I switched between a Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail, a Euro Pheasant Tail, and an Ice Dub Pheasant Tail with a black Zebra Midge dropper. Don used a Hare’s Ear with a midge imitation below it. There were midges everywhere and we had sporadic rises throughout the evening, with it slowly picking up as the night went on. At the end of the night, Don tied on an elk hair caddis with a midge emerger below it. He wanted to try out my Limit Creek 9′ 5 wt so I used his rod to see if I could tease anything to the surface. After missing the first couple (or they missed the fly), I was able to bring three to hand.
Although there weren’t many cars parked below the house, there were fishermen everywhere, seemingly on every run. It was tough not being able to hit every spot we wanted, but it was a great night on the water nonetheless. Always nice to enjoy an evening on the stream with friends!
