Wisconsin Driftless 2020

banner day today

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Tiger trout, nice!

Wow! Cool to see a Tiger! Are they common (relative) in the Driftless? Haven’t caught one yet.

tiger quite rare due to brook trout numbers going down dramatically.

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67 yesterday

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yesterday

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today and 31 others

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Len,

Always enjoy your posts. Beautiful fish.

Pete

bright sun but found some

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30 to hand…overcast water good…

nothing big

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gnats deer flies and chest high weeds.

29 browns.

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Nice pictures Len.

23 browns to hand…

butterflies/thistles/bees outing

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Weather around here too warm to chase trout so a 12 spot skimmer female dragonfly was my photo subject today.

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rolled a large trout this spring and it never came back. I decided to try for it today. Walked directly to the hole and 2 casts later…walked back to car.

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fished for 3 hours no bites…walked back to car…have never been skunked trout fishing….fished below where car was parked in skinny water and caught a few.

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Nice fish LenH.

have never been skunked trout fishing

I’m the opposite. If I catch one I consider it a lucky day!

LenH wrote:

rolled a large trout this spring and it never came back. I decided to try for it today. Walked directly to the hole and 2 casts later…walked back to car.

Len:

Beauty Fish, with an unusual spot pattern… Guestimate on the length???

Mark

Are those trout in that area all stocked?

Obviously the tiger trout are stocked, but what about the rainbow and browns, wild or stocked?

Buffalo Fishhead

the tigers are not stocked. Stream born.

not much stocking of browns and brooks these days…some bows.

mbenson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>LenH wrote:</div>
rolled a large trout this spring and it never came back. I decided to try for it today. Walked directly to the hole and 2 casts later…walked back to car.

Len:

Beauty Fish, with an unusual spot pattern… Guestimate on the length???

Mark

21 range

Buffalo Fishhead wrote:

Are those trout in that area all stocked?

Obviously the tiger trout are stocked, but what about the rainbow and browns, wild or stocked?

Buffalo Fishhead

I wrote an article about Wisconsin’s tiger trout awhile ago..do a google search with my name and tiger trout Wisconsin. “Field and stream”

LenH wrote:

I wrote an article about Wisconsin’s tiger trout awhile ago..do a google search with my name and tiger trout Wisconsin. “Field and stream”

Len:
I did the google search and read the articles you wrote. Interesting stuff. The state that I live in has a fish hatchery about 20 miles up the road that “makes” tiger trout each fall. These tiger trout are stocked in area lakes, very few or none are stocked in streams.

I have only seen one naturally produced tiger trout in the wild and that was decades ago. (My career allowed me to observe tens of thousands of wild and stocked trout over the years.)

Do the Driftless Area streams have limited spawning habitat and that is what causes the brook and brown trout to be “closely associated” during the fall spawning period?

Buffalo Fishhead

our spawning areas are in flux with the flooding and water temps warming up. the browns are encroaching on brookie typical spawning areas.

LenH wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mbenson wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>LenH wrote:</div>
rolled a large trout this spring and it never came back. I decided to try for it today. Walked directly to the hole and 2 casts later…walked back to car.

Len:

Beauty Fish, with an unusual spot pattern… Guestimate on the length???

Mark

21 range

Thanks Len!!!

went out today…first fish a small pike then a brookie…some browns and then a smallie. 30 trout to hand.

Ended the outing with my longest of the year.

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sweet brookie…no gill lice

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I typically fish all of my stretches one time during the calendar year. It is a visit the landowner trip. I reaffirm permission and drop off a trout or two if a landowner requests them.

Today I visited a landowner after I was done fishing that I have fished on his land for 25 years. I remember this land owner especially because he has a very friendly black lab that I have been visiting through the years since it was a puppy.

Today when I knocked on the door and gave the landowner a couple trout I asked him where his dog Snickers was. The landowner look down with a sad face and told me that Snickers had passed away this spring. This is the second dog that I was introduced to on this land that has passed away. I was sad for the owner but I bet his pain really ran deep ……14 years having a dog with you non-stop as a farmer has to be heart-wrenching when it passes … Snickers was a very good dog that loved petting and that loved it’s master.

Snickers was buried near the barn where the rest of the pets through the decades have been lovingly laid to rest.

I caught 18 trout today between 6 a.m. at 9 a.m. .

I hope when I visit the same landowner next year he has a new pet to introduce to me.

Losing a dog is like losing a family member.

Snickers, Rusty, Crispy, and Ginger are where all good dogs go.

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fishing in the rain a couple days ago

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Went fishing today and hooked into a large trout. Initially I thought it was a brooder rainbow. I cursed to myself and thought : “Who let this DNR hatchery reject into one of my streams in Crawford County.”

That thought evaporated when I got it closer and realized it was the biggest brook trout I have ever caught in my life and it had shoulders.

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