The Window

We got some serious rain a couple weeks ago.  Most local streams were just short of, or over flood stage after the three plus inches we got in less than two days.  But after a week, they were looking much better!  Still a little higher than average, but pretty clear, all things considered.  The local weather reports all talked about much cooler weather coming for the current week, but Sunday it was gorgeous, and I took full advantage of it, spending around five hours on the Menomonee River.

At an overpass in Wauwatosa, I spotted fish, and no other anglers.  I got my gear (I got a lot of fun new stuff over the winter) and went in.  Most of the fish were suckers, but there were trout as well.  One trout was rather large and easy to spot.  He showed interest in the flies I presented but was hesitant to strike.  I changed patterns and colors every few casts to keep his interest, and eventually he struck!  He threw the hook right away and took off upstream.

I took off right behind him, searching for him for a hundred yards or so, before it started to get too deep.  

He was gone.  There was no sense wearing myself out, so I started to head back, not being particularly stealthy.  In a shallow area I found a very interesting fossil.  I find a lot of fossils in the Menomonee, but this is one of the nicer ones.  I have no idea what this is.  If you do, please share!

Menomonee River Fossil

After stopping to pick up and wash the grime off the fossil, I started back down, and there he was again!  I didn't see him until I was only a couple yards from him, and he quickly darted off into a deeper pool with some boulders and a swift flow.  I tied on the heaviest Clouser minnow I had and made a few casts behind the first boulder in the pool and let it swing through.  I don't think I had made a dozen casts before he struck again, this time the hook held firmly, and the fight was on!  He came right to the edge of the pool right away, so I thought the fight would be over relatively quickly, but then he charged right into the swiftest, deepest part of the pool as I tried to maneuver him around the boulders and rebar.

The Menomonee is charming.

The fish went airborne a couple times, it was a spectacular fight!  He almost came to hand twice before finally admitting defeat.  I pulled him into a shallow, snapped one quick photo on my phone, unhooked him and shoved him back into the pool.

Menomonee River steelhead

I explored a nice stretch of the river without seeing any more fish, so I went back to my car and drove downstream by Miller Park.
There were many cars at the overpass, and probably a dozen people swinging rods at the water.  I walked downstream to the Interstate before even seeing any fish.  The fish were suckers mostly, hundreds of them, and occasional northern pike.  I kind of thought, "What the hell," and started casting.  The suckers would not move, and the pike would flee from my fly.  I was just about to leave when I found a school of more active suckers.  From my experience, the more active suckers will take a fly.  Today was no exception.  I broke one off and landed two in short order before calling it a day.  The two pictures below are of the nicer one.

Suckers on fly gear are fun!

A sucker on a Clouser minnow

So far, today is the only day it hasn't snowed this week.  I'm glad I got out before that window closed.  Who knows when it will open again?

Salmon Are Showing Up In The Streams

Not in great numbers, but with consistency.  I saw my first few salmon in the Menomonee River Saturday.  I had a strike on a white Woolly Bugger, but the hook didn't connect.

Monday I went out again in the late afternoon.  I saw a few fish, and made perfect casts with egg patterns, just to watch the the fly bounce off the face and roll down the body of the fish.  Something other than food on your mind pal?  I walked through the concrete and found one massive fish that looked like it had been hooked, landed and left for dead, such a shame and a waste.  I don't know how else it would have got there.  In the picture below, the butt of my rod up to the end of the cork measures 10" just to get an idea of the size of the fish.

I went out fairly early Wednesday and had the river to myself for awhile.  I only saw  two fish, a smaller salmon that tucked itself into an undercut bank and wouldn't budge for anything, and then one big Boss Fight of a male making all kinds of noise.  When I first spotted the big guy, he was basically out of the water, "swimming" over the shallow gravel heading downstream.

I made the decision that I was going to get wet, and I went in after him in my jeans and work boots.  After a couple hundred yards of wading downstream, I gave up hope of finding him and started to head back up.  That's when I saw him, when I turned around.  He was in two feet of water just ahead of another run of inch deep riffles.  Even in that two feet of water, his dorsal fin and tail broke the surface.  He was swirling and rushing all over, I don't know how I could have missed him the first time.

I only made a few casts before he lunged and slashed at my streamer.  I've never actually seen a take like that before, only felt it.  Then I had that "What have I gotten myself into?" feeling.  You know? When you realize that you just hooked into one of the biggest fish of your life on a size 8 streamer, a five weight fly rod with a 4x tippett? that's what most people would consider stream trout gear.  Oh yeah, I didn't bring a net either...

 I almost landed him right away actually, I reached down to grab him by the tail and he took off hard and didn't stop.  I could see the backing on my reel, but he never actually went into the backing.  I'm sure I would have seen it proper if I didn't run downstream to keep up with him.  He pulled me a few hundred yards downstream.  There were several more failed attempts to land him that resulted in reel hissing runs. But each run got shorter, until it seemed like I didn't even need to chase him anymore because he didn't get much more than ten yards away.

Finally he was beat, I brought him along the bank, reached under his gills with my reel hand, I must have set my rod down and grabbed him by the tail with the other hand, but I don't remember.  I lifted him from the water, and he made one last ditch flailing effort to get away, but he was mine.  When he thrashed, I got covered in fish slime, and I held him tight to keep from dropping him.  I think I kissed him at that point, I've kissed bluegill and sunfish with my baby girl because she always does but never a big slimy salmon.  I guess when you spend that much time with a fish, you bond.  It felt like I had him on for an hour, but I have no clue how long it was. 

I only snapped one picture so I could get him back into the water.  I wanted to show the perfect hook set in that mouth full of teeth.

 There was a spectator who took some pictures.  She said she would email me some, but in my adrenaline haze, I could have totally messed up my email address for all I know.  Anyway, if I get them, I'll post some.

The fish took a minute, but eventually swam away.  I have no upper body strength left, and I can still smell fish slime, but after an epic Boss Fight like this one, you level up!

Warmwater Fishing On The Milwaukee

The Milwaukee River is finally low enough for some decent fishing. The past week has been brutally hot, and that probably affected fishing, but I caught fish all three times I went out in the past week.

Last Sunday afternoon I went with Tony, a friend who is more familiar with the Milwaukee north of town.  We fished up in Cedarburg for a while, then came back into town and fished more near the Capitol Drive bridge.  The pressure was high, and the fish had been scattered.  The fish pictured below is my nicest smallmouth bass of the day.

Thursday was my day off from work.  I planned on leaving early to get on the river before it got too hot, but I slept in pretty good.  When I talked about going that late, my wife wanted to come stand in the river with me as a method to beat the heat.  Little Cleo had her first experience in the river, she really enjoyed it.

I caught a couple of aggressive rock bass.  They are always fun to catch.  Little Cleo petted them and said the were nice and told them buhbye.  She called them bluegill, which is close enough for me!

Friday morning, Little Cleo had us up pretty early.  I think she was up around 6:00.  My wife was exhausted and needed more sleep, so I volunteered to keep Little Cleo busy for a few hours by hitting the Milwaukee with spinning gear.  Friday morning was the most productive day of the week.  I caught mostly small fish, but we had a good time. 

Now, Little Cleo pretends she is fishing in a boat all the time.  I gave her the lower section of my broken fly rod with an old spinning reel on it.  She says, "reel reel reel, oh walleye!"  Its so cute, I can't stand it!



Bass Fishing in Michigan

A couple weeks ago, we headed to a cottage in Michigan's Lower Peninsula to do some fishing in Magician Lake.  The weather has been weird, and the fishing wasn't as great as it has been before, but it's more about time with family.

The first trip out in the boat was the most productive.  It was just me and my Dad, and we both landed some nice largemouth.

We brought some local
Milwaukee Beer

These little tan caddisflies were everywhere

We went out early Friday, and we both caught fish right away.  I caught my largest fish, and sort of a surprising species on this particular outing.  It was a bullhead measuring just shy of 15" on a Rat'L Trap.  I think it was a brown bullhead.

Awesome double header



Bullhead will bite you!



The crazy thing is that this isn't even my biggest bullhead.
I caught an 18" black bullhead in 2007



Sunfish on a Bugger!

A Hex hatch was happening somewhere



A gorgeous Michigan day

Friday night we had a fire on the beach, cooked smores, and caught up over some beers.  We all still made it to bed pretty early.

Saturday morning, my dad, brother and I went out one more time before packing up.  Neither Shane or I caught any fish, but Dad caught a couple nice bass.

Little Cleo loved riding in grandpa's boat

Grandpa and my Little Cleo



All the fish we caught were released.  The weather was just perfect the whole time we were there.  I  can't wait to go back next year!

The Milwaukee Is High

I went down to the Milwaukee Saturday with my daughter.  It was like seeing a friend you haven't seen in a while.  She was higher, dirtier and faster than I had expected, and some of my favorite structure had washed away-- not a great way to greet an old friend.

The first cast was made to the head of a pool, it got hung up and the line broke.  This became the day's recurring theme.  I explored my other favorite spots I can access from shore with no results, unless you count tree branches-- I landed a few of those.

After exhausting my favorite pools and cover, I explored new cover.  The streamside vegetation hasn't really came in yet and access is (mostly) easy.  It was in one of these spots that I saw a fish rise to a blade of grass floating on the surface.  My next cast went a yard or so ahead of the rise, and the fish struck my jig and quickly came ashore, a tiny smallmouth bass.

My little girl called the fish "pretty pretty," and started to mimic the fish opening and closing its mouth by sticking her tongue out.  The most adorable thing I have ever seen.

I can't wait to get this little girl her first fishing rod, I think she'll be a fine angler.

Season Opener Report: It Was Rough

After my pre-season run-in with a decent sized smallmouth in my local stream, I was determined to catch more.  Saturday, I donned my vest, grabbed my spinning gear, and took my little girl fishing again.
I didn't realise we had gotten so much rain!
Upon seeing the swollen flow of coffee where the Menomonee River ususally flows, I almost just turned around and headed home.  But I decided I could use the walk anyway, it couldn't hurt to try.  Right near the first bend under the Wisconsin Avenue bridge, I started seeing the suckers.  Lots of suckers.  I made a few casts with a lead head "Woolly Bugger" jig I tied for spinning gear and I caught a couple suckers.  As I put the first sucker back, my little girl told the fish "Bye bye."  It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.  I wanted to find some game fish though.  We walked a long way, not seeing anything but rough fish.

Much higher water than last week

Very fast flow

My hand tied "Woolly Bugger" jig

Sunday, I went out again.  But this time, I went with rough fish on my mind.  You can only catch what's there, right?  I rigged up a purple Mister Twister, went down to the river with a half hour to kill, and I absolutely slayed the redhorse!  In 30 minutes, I caught eight suckers!  I literally spent more time unhooking fish than I spent fishing.  A couple of them were bruisers too!  A couple were foul hooked, but most took the Twister right in the mouth.

Monday I went out with about a half hour to kill again before work.  There were much less suckers, but the ones that were there were nice sized fish.  There were a lot more carp up that far though.  On my first cast, I caught a nice sucker that caused the carp to scatter.  Too bad, I really wanted to catch a carp on my medium action hand-me-down rod with four pound test.  I caught one other sucker before heading home.

I did some research, there are a lot of different species of suckers in the Genus (Moxostoma) that includes redhorse.  It's hard to tell some of them apart without actually opening them up.  I'm kind of curious how many species there actually are in the Menomonee.  It's obvious that I caught several different species.

Urban Fishing in Milwaukee; or, Save Gas, Fish Local

The first of May was such a gorgeous day.  I had to get out and do some fishing while the weather was still nice.  Currently, we are down to one car.  My wife had taken it to work, so I had to stay local and take my baby girl with me.

I don't fly fish when I fish with my little girl, so I gathered up a few lures that work in most situations--  a Mepps assortment in case I saw steelhead, and Mister Twisters for everything else-- and packed them into my fly vest.

I put my girl in the carrier, and we walked out our front door and down into the Menomonee Valley.  The river is supposed to undergo improvements to restore it to a more natural state, but for now, it's as urban as it gets.  It appears more as a sewage ditch than a naturally appearing ancient river that used to support Native American life with abundant wild rice.

The sucker run is apparently in full swing.  The fish were so thick that I didn't even notice them until they scattered from my overpassing shadow.  I made a few casts with a Twister and hooked up with a foot long sucker.  Great fun on my fairly light tackle.

I continued downstream, casually casting to the heads of schools of suckers, letting my jig swing through, just as you would with a Woolly Bugger.  A cast toward nothing in particular (there isn't a lot of cover in this particular stretch) resulted in a tremendous strike.  I thought it could have been a northern, or a bigger sucker, possibly a steelhead.  But as the fish tired and came in, I saw that it was, in fact, a nice sized smallmouth bass.  I actually yelled out loud "It's a smallmouth!"  This was a first for me in the Menomonee River.  I guess nobody told him that bass season opens this upcoming weekend, oops!

We continued to walk a ways.  We saw tons of suckers, half a dozen small pike, scores of carp, and a snapping turtle the size of a spare tire.  Not one steelhead though.  

My Little Cleo was getting tired of fishing, so we started for home.

My Little Cleo plays in the dirt, Miller Brewery in the background

One thing I love about urban fishing, the element of mystery and surprise.  I never expected to catch that smallmouth in the concrete.

For more information on the Menomonee Valley, check this link.