went fishing in a lake Michigan trib last week and there was a few salmon running but not to many, the water was still low and clear, one good rain and there should be a good run up.
we pretty much caught every fish we saw though so it was still an awesome day, they were all hens, we didnt see any males up yet. total we caught about 14 salmon (me and two friends) and a bonus of 5 pike.
so fishing was great but will be even better after a rain.

this was a fresh fish, took me up and down the river, jumped 4 or 5 times and made about 8 good runs, took      
about 15min to land.

another one of the nice fish, all were between 34-40 inches 10-15lbs

leaving for out west tomorrow at 7am, going to Colorado for a wedding then heading out to Montana for a week to do some fishing! il have pictures and reports when i get back!

fishing report 3/21/2012

fished a lake Michigan trib today with 2 friends who had never fly fished before and we had a blast!
we got there at around 9am and the riffles were full of suckers, so when life gives you lemons make lemonade so to speak.
we fished the riffles and caught about 30 suckers, most of them between 18 and 25inches, And they loved it!
and for there first time out they were pretty good!
when we were working a pod of suckers in a riffle a steelhead drifted back toward our position and i threw a cast and he ate it!
after a while i landed it and it was about a 25-28inch fish, he ate a brown stonefly nymph.
all of the suckers ate golden stones and hex nymphs (tying instructions up soon)
all in all it was a great time and they are eager to go again!!
As far as the steelhead fishing, i dont think it will last much longer, the water is already considerably warm (we were wet wading the whole time!!)
we saw a few steelhead and queit a few big ones, but my friends have bait fished there before and they said they spawned already about a week ago.
that obviously doesnt go for all the tribs, im sure some are in great shape!
good luck fishing, have fun! 

a quick report

just got back from a short trip this morning, arrived at around 8:30am and left at around 10:30.
i started out fishing in a pond swinging streamers at the entrance of a feeder creek, had a couple takes but no hookups.
then started going up the feeder creek fishing an indicator nymph rig.
snook up to a hole where i have seen multiple trout over 16inches, crawled up on my knees and laid a good cast with a good drift right under the undercut bank and my indicator shot under, i set the hook and i was into a solid fish... but only for about 10 seconds till it broke me off, i must have tied a bad knot. and i lost both my flys, i was fishing a soft hackle of my design and a pink squirrel as the point fly.
i'll be going out again tomorrow i think, hopefully with alittle more luck, but it wasn't a bad day for the first day on the stream.     

a week from yesterday!!

trout season opens a week from yesterday! cant wait to get out there!
if you haven't been tying yet, now might be the time to start!
dust off the old waders and head out, i hope i will!

midwestrnflyfishr's photostream

midwestrnflyfishr's photostream on Flickr.

These are the rest of the photo's i took this afternoon, hope you enjoy them.

This is a picture I took on a stream today while I was poking around getting alittle more familiar with it so I can have some success when the season starts next month.
I found quite a few small and medium sized caddis above this little waterfall, now I'll come back in a couple weeks when the season opens and fish the pool below the small tumble of water with a caddis pupa.

The season opens on March 3rd!! That's less then a week away, better get ready!!!

trout fishing in janaury feels like march

i got out today cause it was really nice and the dane county trout ponds and lakes season opened January 1,
and i had a pond in mind that i thought wouldn't be iced over yet do to the spring creek tributary that feeds it.
i was pleasantly surprised when i got there to see there was absolutely no ice on the pond!
i started off swinging a leach pattern where the trib stream flows into the pond and had one very short subtle take. then i decided to use my brain a little and take the water temperature, it was 48 degrees! i was expecting it to be way colder like 38 or 40! so i switched to an indicator nymph rig, i used a small egg fly as the head fly and i size 18 pheasant tail for the dropper, didnt pick up anything on that.
and about twenty minutes after i switched to the nymph rig midges started hatching, about size 24, so i stopped fishing and started exploring the stream so i know where to look when the stream season opens in march, and i saw about twelve fish in three good looking holes, and a couple more good looking holes where i didnt see any fish, so i cant wait to fish that! it looks pretty good. then i decided to head out, and on the walk back to the car i saw some size 14-16 tan caddis resting along the bank! probably hatched that morning! those shouldnt be hatching for at least another 2 months right?! crazy, anyway, if id known that i probably would have been fishing soft hackles, but i still had a good time in the nice weather, it felt like late march!

selecting a fly

All in all it was a fun little trip.


   

my 6 best trout flys last season

#1 peacock dragonfly nymph

hook: #4-8 nymph bent up
tail: olive or brown maribou
body: peacock herl
rib: gold tinsel
wingcase: pheasant tail
eyes: beadchain eyes
legs: pheasant tail

#2 token creek hopper (my original)

hook: #6-10 terrestrial/hopper
tail/abdomen: deer hair or peacock herl
thorax: fine dry fly dubbing 
legs: rubber legs
underwing: molted turkey feather
overwing/head: deer hair tied bullet style
float: foam

#3 hackle body streamer (variation)

hook: #4-8 3xlong streamer
tail: gray white or brown maribou
under body: silver or gold tinsel
body hackles: any combination of furnace, brown, gray, white and grizzly hen hackles
collar: dyed brown grizzly hen hackle
head: gold cone

#4 flash sided hares ear

hook: #8-14 nymph
tail: hen hackle fibers
body: hares ear dubbing
flash: gold, silver, or pearl crystal flash
rib: gold or copper wire
hackle: hen hackle dyed brown grizzly
wingcase/head: pheasant tail

#5 flash sided caddis

hook: #10-14 curved pupa/scud hook
body: hares ear
flash: gold, silver, or pearl tinsel
rib: gold or copper wire
hackle: soft hen hackle
thorax: florescent green dubbing 
bead: gold

#6 tip tied hendrickson emerger  

hook: #10-14 dry fly
body: hares ear dubbing
wing: tip tied elk hair
head: hares ear dubbing

So these were my 6 best patterns last season for inland trout in steams and ponds, have fun with them and be creative, there's alot of variations you can make for different situations.

oct. 15 fishing report

went fishing at devils lake baraboo WI yesterday camped there over night on Friday and fished Saturday,
did not have any luck, was hoping to catch the fish in the shallows but the water was still to warm to trigger the fall feeding frenzy, probably in about two weeks they'll move into the shallows, hoping to do some steelhead fishing in the lake Michigan tribs next month, we'll see.    

a lucky day

got out today since it was nice and its supposed to rain for most of next week.
went exploring a new section on a nearby stream and it looks pretty good nice open meadows wooded sections lots of undercut banks and some nice riffles, looked under a couple rocks and found some case worm caddis in about size 14/16, hopefully ill be there when they hatch. anyway fished streamers and nymphs and got nothing on that stretch, then went out to eat and went to a pond connected to a lower section of that creek, fished with nymphs and soft hackles, then some fish started rising and after a while i started seeing some hendricksons! pretty rare in wisconsin except on certain water. anyway after watching a couple minuets i determined they were taking emergers and nymphs swimming to the surface, so i tied on a size 12 parachute hares ear dry as an indicator fly and off the bend i tied on a size 12 tip tied emerger, threw some casts and then got a nice 10-12 inch brown on the emerger. let him go and threw some more casts and changed tactics i started to let them sink and i would pull them up to the surface like a nymph swimming to the surface and got one strike that way but pulled the trigger to late.     
so it was a good day, got some action and had fun outdoors.

got out today from about 10am-2pm and got skunked. was hoping for some caddis action but nothing was hatching so i fished the pond i talked about in an earlier post with caddis pupa and scuds, had one hit on a flash-sided soft hackle caddis and lost it, then walked around the pond casting and slowly retrieving a dragon fly nymph, got nothing there.
then i went exploring on a nearby stream and found a nice little trib to look around at and spooked a legitimate 20inch brown! also saw about a 12incher in there so next time i'l have to fish it.    

was planing on going fishing today, but the weather sometimes dictates that, and with 35mph winds and poring rain fishing is impossible, so i sat down at the tying bench instead.

my hex fishing arsenal; from left to right, hex wiggle nymph, extended body hex, spent hex, and extended body parachute hex.

got out for a couple hours yesterday, the weather was warm and a little bit overcast.
i fished an unnamed pond connected to token creek for the first time ever, i went there last week and the water clarity wasn't good do to run off after some rain so i moved on, but this week it was a lot better so i decided to stay there. i actually started fishing a little feeder creek that is not in the DNR trout water listings but had trout in it on my last visit, but didn't have any luck so i moved on to the pond, and fished the inlet where the creek joined the pond and caught one nice little brown of eight or nine inches on the first cast, a few casts later hooked one that felt a little better but lost it, the first fish was on a #14 hairs ear nymph, the second i don't know cause i was using a two fly rig, hopefully on my next visit I'll do a little better but, all in all wasn't to bad.

                                              the pond

                                           the unnamed trib

i went fishing today at Token Creek in Wisconsin.  i saw one fish which i spooked and i had a couple of hits but didn't catch anything.
 
i only fished for a little over an hour and my mobility was not at its best because of a sprained ankle from last week but it was enjoyable. also the Wisconsin DNR has been working on improving the streams water quality and fish habitat. they've added boulders and deepened the stream bed so its looking pretty good.
i also stopped by at Gander Mountain (conveniently located a stone's throw away from Token Creek County Park) and was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the store's stock was sixty percent off!  i went to the flyfishing section to check it out and bought three scientific anglers fly boxes (original price $80), a float tube (original price $130), and a redington redfly.2 fly rod which was already on sale for $100! (original price $150) every item was also sixty percent off, so the total price was only $126! i saved $234!    

i haven't been on in a while but i have been busy, here is what I've accomplished..

 this is just one of the three boxes I've filled

sorry i haven't done anything lately here is a good pattern for the Wisconsin hex hatch
my variation of an extended body hex pattern
hook: gamakatsu split shot dropshot size 4-6
extended body: elk body with 4 olive deer hair fibers
wing: yellow mallard flank feathers
hackle: brown

this fly is a little tricky the first couple times because of the extended body, but its prity easy after a while, or if your an advanced tier

enjoy! p.s. i'll probably post a video soon

just finished my first spool of tying thread tonight, its going to be a long winter.