Exploring Outside of Milwaukee

Saturday, my friend Tony invited me to fish in some streams north of town near Manitowoc.  First we fished the West Twin River for smallmouth.  I caught one right away, but neither of us caught any after that.  It was the biggest smallmouth I've caught so far this season.

After pounding all the smallmouth structure, I saw some rising fish dimpling the surface.  I tied on an elk hair caddis and went after them.

I love catching anything on a dry fly. I caught half a dozen or so of these minnows, then we headed for the east branch to try for some trout.

I caught some chubs and minnows on dries, but nothing else.  Tony landed a couple browns.  I managed to snap some pics of one of them

On to the Manitowoc River.  We first stopped at an overpass neither of us had ever fished at.  We both caught a couple fish, but nothing overly exciting.  It seemed just to be an off day.

We hit one more spot a little further upstream.  I went upstream, Tony headed down.  I lost one smaller than average smallmouth, I don't think Tony caught any.  As I headed back down to meet up with Tony I took a nasty spill that left me reeling like Peter Griffin.  I stepped in a crevice between two sheets of concrete and tripped over another. The piece I stumbled over put its jagged edge into my thigh, and my attempt to brace for the fall resulted in another jagged edged piece of concrete finding the inside of my forearm.  My thigh is still quite sore, the arm is fine.  I must have been in some serious pain at the time, because I no longer wanted to fish, and I have fished in some pretty miserable conditions.

Back in Milwaukee, I have started fishing up above the concrete on the Menomonee River and found a healthy creek chub population.  Nice sized fish that bite artificials consistantly and are great fun when I don't feel like driving.  I've fished for these with fly gear and spinning gear.  The best lures seem to be tiny trout spoons.  A 1/8 ounce Little Cleo works great.  Spinners have been productive as well.  I'll try to catch anything.

Rainy Day Redemption

It felt good to get out with my Little Cleo and hook some rainy day bass last Wednesday morning after the previous outing, The Skunkfest of '13.

Little Cleo made friends with some clams, she told them they were nice and petted them, then she told them bye-bye.

We only caught two fish and missed one other, but they were decent fish.  Considering the cloudy water and the swift current, I think we did ok.

Sunday evening we went out with spinning gear again.  We haven't really had a notable rainfall recently, but the water was still cloudy and a little high.  Sunday we caught half a dozen or so fish, and missed a few.  One was a really nice bass that left me with a totally ravaged curly tail grub when he threw the hook.  These are the nicest fish from sunday.

A Great Day On The Milwaukee

We got around a half inch of rain last night.  That paired with the change in the weather had dramatic effects of the Milwaukee River smallmouth bass population.  I took my little girl out again this morning so my wife could get some more sleep, and I had one of the greatest days I've had on the Milwaukee.

Here is my highlight reel from the day




Little Cleo loves to pet them

 


These next three fish were caught on three
consecutive casts!





Probably my nicest fish.




This Mr twister took a royal beating!







What a great way to start the day!

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!



Just Like Old Times

Back in Michigan, I'd go fishing with Josh just about every weekend-- and possibly one or two days during the week after work.  The economy did bad things and we chased dreams in different directions.  Me and my wife went west to Wisconsin.  He, south to Tennessee.  For only the second time in about six years our paths were one in the same for a few days.

We had big plans of spending an entire day on the water, starting at a trout stream, hitting some smallmouth water, and possibly hitting the harbor.  In the end, we were able to scrape up just about 3 hours to fish on Independance Day-- we headed to the Milwaukee River for some smallmouth action.

Josh hasn't fished since he moved out of Michigan, but he got right back into the swing of things by landing a smallmouth on his first cast!  He also caught a crappie, the first one I'd seen out of there. I think he landed one other bass and lost some others, all on curly tail grubs.

 

Six years between casts



Small crappie


I was more concerened with putting my guest on the fish, but I did manage to land one nice smallmouth and miss several others.  This fish put quite a bend in my 5wt, it's probably the biggest fish I've caught on my new rod.



The water is still high, fast, and dirty from the unusual amounts of rain we got throughout the month of June.  The current almost swept me off my feet more than once.  The fishing should get much better as the water comes down.

On another note, Saturday, I picked up a new toy at a yard sale .  I have to do some research to see exactly what I got, but i'm pretty excited about 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!