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.