Decided to try one of my favorite Western Wisconsin trout Rivers last Sunday. It was a last minute trip after confirming a cloudy and overcast day right before a front was going to move through. This followed a trip I made a week earlier under bright clear skies (with a high pressure system) that presented extremely tough fishing conditions for us. On this particular river, the trout seem to bite best under cloudy conditions or when the river is slightly stained and off colored.
We were both spin fishing and fly fishing. For fly fishing, large streamers dead drifted and lightly stripped was the best presentation. For spin fishing, both inline spinners and stick baits produced for us; these were fished both upstream and downstream producing equal results. Another presentation I like to do is hold an inline spinner right behind a boulder or in front of a log jam…This can lead to some jarring hits. Seems like trout just can’t pass up an easy meal. Another thing we did was make sure gently walked along the bank trying to stay as far from the bank as we could. Trout spook easily and casting as far from your intended target yielded more hook ups.
On this particular day, numbers caught were pretty good for us. Most of our trout were in the 12″ to 15″ range with a few pushing 17″. Looking forward to getting back to trout fishing before the mayfly hatches come out too strong; along with the rivers weeding up too much.
