Hello!

 It's been over a year since I have written a post. I'm sorry to my few regular followers for my long absence, it has been such a busy year.
I live in West Bend now, which is about 30 miles north of Milwaukee, and haven't found quite as much time to fish as I'd have liked, but the Milwaukee River flows through town and offers plenty of opportunity.

 I have a new little girl, she's just over a year old, I will call her Olive.  She's been fishing with me since she was less than a month old.  Her and Cleo get along so well most of the time and Cleo has been such a good big sister.  I love these girls so much!

I also met a girl that I have been dating since April.  I helped her catch her first fish this summer, and I hope to catch many more with her.  She currently lives in Michigan, which makes things hard, but Michigan isn't that far. We had many great times over the summer. I call her Panda.

I have been wanting to post more for quite some time now, and hopefully I'll be able to find more time to update in the near future.  I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures from the end of 2015 to the present.  Thanks for following!

 

A Pretty Good Week

A good week indeed, considering the slump I'm coming out of.  After a few other failed attempts at landing a carp on fly gear, I finally brought one to shore in the concrete section on the Menomonee River over Memorial Day Weekend.  The fish wasn't as big as the one I hooked in the marina a while back, but this river carp took off downstream and led me on quite a chase!  It was like trying to slow down Juggernaut from X-Men with a 2X tippet!  I never really did slow the fish down,  it circled back upstream and looped around.  As the fish came back down, I scooped it with the net.  I snapped one quick picture and released the fish.

I think my 9 weight is a little bit too heavy for a size 8 streamer.  The Juggernaut started to straighten my hook!  

A little later on, I was making casts at a pike, and what I thought was a pile of goose poo jumped in and attacked my fly.  It scared the hell out of me!

Bullfrog on a Woolly Bugger, that's a first!  the frog was very upset with me, but he seemed fine once he got back in the water.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, I made a last minute decision to make one last trip into Waukesha County for the season before it's unfishable.

The grass is already getting tall, but the water isn't overgrown yet.  The ground is still very swampy downstream, and I had hits, but no takes.  I decided to try it out upstream on more solid, manicured ground.  I was able to find some nice fish in the relatively short period I was there.  I fished about an hour, landed three trout and missed about a half dozen or so.  Two of them were really close to ten inches, one was about five.  All were beautiful

I took one of the nature trails through the wilderness back to my car.  Everything turned green so quick this spring.  Soon it will be unbearably hot and humid.

When the dog days come, I'll be waist deep in the Milwaukee chasing smallmouth bass.

Two Week Long Slump

Wednesday was my day off of work, and I was determined to spend as much time as I could trying to end my slump.  I planned on fishing in the Menomonee for rough fish, possible late steelhead and whatever warm water species might be in there.  I got a new reel for my 9wt and I'm yet to break it in.

I picked up my little girl and started for the river just after 9:00.  It wasn't long before it was raining, but we continued.  As we got closer to the river, it became apparent that the crews were working at the improvements again.  And they were working right where we usually find access.  The rain really started to fall, and we were forced to seek shelter under the Wisconsin Avenue bridge over the valley.  The Menomonee would not be fished today.

The storm really raged.  Thunder and lightning, hail, and a raging torrent where the Menomonee flowed calmly minutes before.

With my morning plans ruined, I dropped off Cleo for her nap and made for the Cafe Hollander for lunch.  I had a wild boar sandwich with ginger sriracha barbecue sauce, sweet potato fries, and a Chimay White.  Truly a world class beer and a great meal all around.

Round two, we headed out to Oconomowoc for some trout fishing.  All I could do was hope that all the  streams in Southeast Wisconsin weren't totally blown out by the storm.  I know this stream rebounds quick, but how quick?  We were going to find out.

The stream flowed clearly, but the surrounding land was swamped.  Walking along the stream was a miserable experience.  I was ankle deep in muck much of the time as spot after spot failed to yield any fish.  

Finally, the stretch above gave up one trout.  Cleo said "I love that brook trout."

The slump is over.