Big Sur River, Clear Water and Trout

 I parked the car, shut the door, and hobbled to the river's edge where a flood of clear-water memories washed right over me.  I have forgotten what it is like to fish clear, clean, cool, spring fed rivers.  As I towed my understanding girlfriend upstream (upstream mind you, not downstream, I am a trout fisherman after all), I ambled over gravel and boulders to spy into pools that I thought might just hold trout.  They did, it was beautiful. Being in California visiting my girlfriend for Thanksgiving, I had no pole and no time to fish, but just being there filled me with a sense of belonging.  I love the Milwaukee River, Oak Creek, the Root River and Pike Creek but friend... If we had rivers that ran deep and clear and cold like these, I might just find myself out of a job and firmly planted to the river bottom (not really, but my spare minutes would all be accounted for, that's for sure).

Enjoy the images, I had no tripod so I found photographing the water tough to say the least, as the sun was low and the valley was only filled with very cool, bounced light from the hills above.

 

 Trout live here.  At least a couple do, I could see them as I crouched over the top of the boulder on the left there.

The Steelhead Season opens in 2 days on this river.

Thanksgiving, Rivers Rise, Steelhead and Brown Trout to Follow

We finally got what we had been waiting for, a real rainstorm.  In the desert that has been south-eastern wisconsin a good downpour is more than welcome.

In chicago here I drove home from my shoot today through swamped streets and flooded intersections, all the while thinking about trout after trout turning nose from the harbor to the mouths of the river, many will make the surge tonight and tomorrow.  Look for thanksgiving weekend to be great.

Remember small tributaries like Oak Creek and Pike Creek will shoot up extremely fast, but subside almost equally as fast.  Big water like the Milwaukee river will spike and then slowly arc down over several days.  If you need to get out in the next 2 or 3 days, I'd choose oak creek followed by the root river.  The Milwaukee river should be shaping up in time for Black Friday.

Yes, that is what it looks like when the river spikes from 1 (ONE!!!) cubic foot per second to 200 in a few minutes!

As temps drop, put away the streamers and tie up nymphs and egg patterns fly fishermen, once these fish get holding you'll have to coax them gently during daylight hours.

A few Coho should still be around, but targeting big Brown Trout and feisty Steelhead will probably be your best bet!  As for me, I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow to visit my lovely girlfriend.  I will be out of touch with the Great Lakes for a few days but I will be taking in some Point Lobos, Big Sur, ocean views!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Fishing Headquarters Magazine : Volume 1 : Issue 1,View Here!

Open publication - Free publishing - More wisconsin

Take a look a the whole magazine here, but be sure to visit fishing headquarters to see it in it's full glory!

Fishing Headquarters Magazine : Volume 1 : Issue 1

I've featured many magazines and e-magazines here in the past such as This is Fly, Catch, and Fish Can't Read.  Finally I have one to feature that not only comes from close to home, not only is it published by friend and fishing companion Andrew Ragas, but it contains a couple dozen pages of photos by yours truly and some text from right here at Great Lakes Angler.

You all have homework over thanksgiving, you need to read this thing cover to cover.  If you read this blog every page of information in this thing comes from waters out your front door.  Muskies, Lake Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout, Pike, Crappies, Fall Fishing, Local Spots... it's all in here guys.

I'm especially proud of pages 48-63, most of the images were taken by me and given to Andrew to help get his magazine rolling and I must say, he did a great job of presenting them to the world through his magazine.

Andrew thanks, what an exciting project and I can't wait to be a part of more issues in the future.

Now go everyone!  Time to read!

Click this link to go view the magazine online!

Musky On the Fly, Zero to Hero

I remember the jolt of electricity the first musky I hooked put through my body.  I can only dream of one smashing a fly.  I've been following the blog these guys write for a while now, you've got to take a look at the trailer for their Musky Country movie.


Musky Country: Zero 2 Hero Trailer from RT on Vimeo.

Milwaukee Brown Trout and Coho Salmon

More information to come later, but for now, there are browns in the harbor, there are coho in the rivers, and my friends over at the Chicago Trout Bum, seem to have a pretty good bead on where the Steelhead are, even if I can't find them yet!  The guys over at Illinois-Wisconsin Fishing have locked in on the Coho bite so if that's what you're after have a read over there.

Harbor Brown Trout from Saturday the 13th.  This big fella fought like a champ.

A friend, Keith, caught a gorgeous fresh lake run Brown who still had skeins.  Brown trout eggs work the best and early morning and after dark are the best time to target these roaming harbor monsters.

I found some feisty coho in a couple of my favorite spots to fish and found that very small spawn sacs, only containing a couple eggs drifted through pools just down from bedding fish payed out.  I was able to manage 2 coho, this nice female and a fiery male that jumped like crazy.

Great Lakes Documentary : Waterlife : Trailer

Enjoy this trailer for a documentary that will come out soon.  It sounds like it does the grandeur of the great lakes justice, as well as inform thoroughly of the impending consequences of our actions in the region.



Waterlife, Enjoy.

Southeastern Wisconsin Coho Salmon Report

The recent rain has not only brought a torrent of water, but a torrent of Coho Salmon into the tributaries as well.  I predicted this would happen Sunday or Monday after those rains, and suspicions have been confirmed by this report by friend of the Great Lakes Angler at Illinois Wisconsin Fishing.  The link to the blog is on the right bar there, go take a look!

Have a look at his report for proof!

Milwaukee Area Salmon Fishing Report : 10/23/2010

The Salmon season is grinding to a close in South-Eastern Wisconsin and though there are still a few Kings left to be caught, many of them are circling the drain and will not be around for long.

Today I got out with a friend Matt who, until today, has never caught a Salmon.  The day started with a blanket of much needed rain.  Matt and I both got off to a bad start with 2 missed fish each, 1 break off and 3 missed hook sets due to distraction.   As the dawn bite faded it took with it our hopes of a fast and furious day of catching.  The morning went on and things slowed to a near stop as all fishermen had ceased catching Salmon at the location we were fishing, I hiked around the harbor on a scouting mission and found a huge school of playful Kings that I hoped would produce a fish.  We relocated and got set up.  It wasn't 5 minutes before Matt hooked his first Salmon ever.  It took his float down, made a run out in front of us, then made a line for the lake, it wasn't until a load of drag screaming and about 200 feet of line later until the fish stopped running.  It took Matt 15-20 minutes to coax the beautiful female King Salmon to shore where I promptly netted it and got it ready for a photo shoot with Matt.  Just as we were releasing it I remembered our proximity to the harbor scale so we made the 15 second jog and weighed her.  Just a hair over 17 pounds!  A trophy of a first King.

Matt was then off to an appointment, he had in the city.  I nabbed some lunch, scouted Oak Creek, which was looking dismal, and returned to the harbor.  I found the discharge flowing quite nicely from the rain that was coming down and immediately hooked a nice King, from there on out things were slow again, with a hook up here and there.

First Steelhead of the year, this thing jumped so many times, I think it may have actually spent more time in the air than during the water during the fight!


One of the real highlights of the day was meeting a fellow named Woody and his son Trevor.  They had come to visit Milwaukee from Madison for the day and were hoping to do some fishing elsewhere but had been thwarted by some circumstances that didn't allow them to get out.  Trevor, a 3rd grader who really wanted to fish, had his rod in the car. His dad got it, I rigged him up from my own gear, got a good chunk of Skein on his hook, and had him in the water in no time!  It wasn't too long before my own float went down.  I set the hook and nabbed Trevor's rod and traded it for my own!  The little guy fought this 12-13 pound king for 20 minutes before he was finally able to get it to the wall for me to net it.  He was exhausted from the fight and absolutely beaming with joy, the fish was almost as big as he was!  Incredible.  All in all a good end for me to the fall King Salmon run.  28 Kings this fall makes it my best fall ever!  I really learned harbor fishing better this fall as the Milwaukee River, Oak Creek, and the Root River were all but unfishable during the peak of the season.

Trevor and his father, great team work men!

Grand Rapids Michigan Salmon Fishing Report : 10/7/10

While working in Grand Rapids this week I made sure to make it down to the fish ladder and falls on the grand river, get some photographs, and talk with some of the fishermen.  It would seem that numbers of King Salmon, Coho, and Steelhead have made it to the base of the dam.  They are not, however, there in large numbers.  One or two fish jump up a section of the fish ladder every 5 or 10 minutes and some are very small stockers.  Spawn sacs fished on river rigs on the bottom took all the fish I saw caught, and most came from the first 50 feet below the falls. 

Fishing pressure is moderate during the early morning hours, light during the day, and then heavy at dusk and just after dark.  Some very silver Coho and Steelhead are at the falls, but darker King Salmon outnumber those by a great deal.  I talked to a couple of fishermen who say they have walked entire lengths of streams up-river and have not even seen fish moving up river.

A detail of the fish ladder.

Artprize is happening in Grand Rapids and there are many pieces of publicly displayed art along the river walk and all over town, so if you're in the city to fish before Sunday, be sure to take a walk and see some of the art.  There is even a Sturgeon peice at the fish ladder.

Fish were hopping up while I was there, but I wasn't able to capture one with the camera phone.

Here are a couple of views of the river from a higher vantage point.  The river is very low and fairly clear, it seems as though a bit of rain wouldn't hurt fishing in Lower Michigan, the same as in Lower Wisconsin.