The New Normal

First off, I'd just like to apologize to my half dozen or so regular readers for the lack of material.  A series of events out of my control brought my fishing season to an abrupt end early in October.  This big brown trout was the last fish I caught.  That day was also the last day that I woke up in my home with my wife and daughter.  Having just spent all of our money on a car, with not much more than a handful of change to my name, she told me she wanted me out.  I feel like I exhausted myself trying to make it work, and I'm sure she would say she did too. 
It's been almost three months now.  I'm still basically homeless, but I have friends that have been more gracious than I could ever imagine.  I'd like to thank all the old and new friends who have offered a place to stay, home cooked meals, warm coffee, cold beer, Christmas dinner, and just someone to talk to and a shoulder to cry on.
It's been rough, especially Thanksgiving.  I've probably relied on alcohol a little too much here and there, but I think that's almost expected.  I'm doing ok, a little better every day.
I plan on keeping up the blog.  It will be much easier when I get a place to call my own and a computer.  I'm not sure how long it will be before I post again, but I promise I'll be back.

There Are Still Salmon In The Harbor

I took a trip down to the lake wednesday with my little girl.  She had the greatest time terrorizing the geese.

 

 

 

After she tired of chasing geese, we started for the car.  As we were walking back, an angler that we had spoken to briefly about the day's lack of action was setting the hook.  He reeled in a two foot chinook that fought valiantly.  Five minutes later, he was reeling in the coho pictured below.  The bite turned on as the clouds rolled in.

 

 

My little girl didn't want to leave after this because she loves looking at fish.  We stuck around for a while, watched half a dozen or so missed hook sets, and saw one other chinook come ashore by a second angler.  Finally, we left for the car, but as we were driving by on our way out, I saw one of these guys scramble for the net again.  Pretty good day, I'd say.

Restoration Progress On Milwaukee's Menomonee River

I went down and checked to see what kind of progress was being made.  Only a small portion of the stream has been restored so far, but I really like what I see.  The picture below was taken early last May.

 

 

The next pictures are post-improvement pictures. One from almost the exact same location (note the matching blue graffiti) and one from upstream looking down. 



 

 

This is going to open up so much habitat for our anadromous fish!

 



The Lapland Jam

If you have never heard of Jazz And Fly Fishing, you need to check them out.

 

 

Fergus Falls, Minnesota

Last Saturday we made the 500 mile drive to Fergus Falls to visit my Wife's family.  My in-laws live on the Otter Tail River, which has a healthy smallmouth bass population.

Unfortunately, this is mostly a story of loss, and a lesson in gear selection.  I have one fly rod in use, a five weight.  I had a hard time casting Woolly Buggers and Clousers far enough for them to be effective, but when I could get my fly into the sweet spot, the fish in this river, even with a 4x tippet would usually break my line when I set the hook.  I broke off 3 fish right away, and two other large fish threw the hook.  Eventually I tied on a scud and landed a smaller smallmouth bass just for the sake of not getting skunked, but the fish was so small, I was too ashamed to take a picture.

Monday morning I was taken out on Hoot Lake in a boat for some early morning fishing.  We were the only boat on the water, and we caught zero fish in the short time we were out.

I really want to invest in a 7 weight rod.

The Milwaukee Harbor Is Full Of Fish

I drove down to the lake today to kill some time on my day off.  As I walked along the water in Veteran's park, I saw numerous brown trout very close to shore.  I walked back to my car, drove a little ways, assembled my fly rod, and grabbed some "reserve" flies that happened to be in my car.  I walked to Mckinley Marina and started roll casting off the rocks.  It probably wasn't 20 minutes before I was hooked up with a fish.

It took me around five minutes to land the fish.  Not the biggest brown trout I've ever caught, but not a bad catch for a 30 minute outing.

Minnesota Bound

We're leaving for Minnesota tomorrow morning.  It's not a fishing trip, but fishing will happen.  With all this rain we are forecast to get, the local streams and rivers should be full of salmon when we get back!