Kingfishers are Aptly Named

Recently I was fishing a branch of the willow river in St. Croix County, Wisconsin. I was joined in my pursuit of a breakfast of fish by a kingfisher. He perched in the tree above my little hole and patiently waited. I had nearly forgotten about my like minded avian friend when suddenly... A cannonball dropped from the tree and entered the shallow riffles above the hole.

It emerged from the water with a fish in its beak. It flew downriver laughing at me as it soared by. I have seen kingfishers do their thing before, but never in such close quarters.

I stumbled upon this article (click on the image above to access it) with some beautiful photography of kingfishers in Europe fishing for meals in cold clear water. I'm a bit jealous as a matter of fact, this high speed photography is really something. Enjoy it.

Harbor Fingerlings

While out at the harbor mouth today just north of Downtown Chicago targeting perch I ran into something unexpected.

Using a crappie rig with #6 Aberdeen hooks rigged with a small white tube jig on the bottom and raw shrimp on the top hook I started getting little nibbles. This instantly put me in a good mood as I thought I stumbled upon a school of perch first thing in the morning. The sun was just coming up and I was missing hook sets left and white. I wasn't sure what was down there nibbling so I was eager to pull one up.

It wasn't long before I hooked into one and pulled it up to the wall. Up came an alewife on my top hook, or so we thought. Instantly noticing the green/red hue of the fish, and the trademark little vertical footballs running down the side of all the little salmonids we realized what I had caught. A fingerling Chinook Salmon. He was swiftly returned to the lake, 2 more were landed in the next 5 minutes, must have been a big cloud of the stockers that haven't left the safety of the harbor yet.

Couldn't find the perch this morning, but 3 little salmon made up for it in beauty hands down. It was an early morning on the cold lake Michigan. North-East Winds are no good for perching...

Rush, Willow, Race, and Kinni

Trout, Trout, Trout...

I love them, I do. There isn't much to say besides I got out as much as I could whether it meant only getting 3 hours of sleep so I could get it in, or taking a new trout fisherman on an hour drive to get him his first trout.

The willow is full of suckers, I've never seen anything like it actually, there was one run leading out of a hole that must have had a couple hundred suckers, all spread out, looked like a mine field on that slow sandy run, and the hold had dozens upon dozens of them drifting a foot under the surface in crystal clear blue. I'm disappointed that I left my camera at home as I wanted a light load for a bit of a hike.

The fish were much harder to come by this time around but I ended up with 20 something browns, 3 beauty brookies, and 8 stocked rainbows.

Biggest brown was 15". I'm incrementally working my way up, inch by inch.

Took a friend and his girlfriend to the Rush, we got him his first 10" brown pretty quickly, I ended up with around 10 fish. They were tough to stalk that sunny, warm day. To top it off we ended up being upstream of the Rod and Gun club, with it between us and our car when a whole parking lot full of shooters started shooting clays over the river... I've never seen a hole fill with trout like I did that afternoon. Every trout downstream got spooked up by the hail of shotgun fire. Fish were filing in to this deep hole like someone rang the dinner bell, only in this case they all wanted nothing to do with the dinner I had to offer.

Here's my friend Theo, proud of the first fish of the year for him. As you can see, it was a beautiful day to be out, the horesflys agreed with that as well, as they were out in force.

Kayaking for Northerns

I've been wanting to try my hand at Kayak fishing for a while now, this Memorial Day weekend provided a great chance to do just that. I was at a lovely lake in Northern Minnesota which will remain un-named, one rainy, overcast afternoon I had the chance to throw the Kayak on the rack and take it to a nearby, smaller, and even more un-named lake.

After making two trips from the car to the water, one with the Kayak on my shoulders, another for my rods, (both fly and spinning) and my paddle, tackle, etc... I was ready to go and eager to find some potential northerns.

To make a long story short... I fished for two and a half hours and landed 20 Northern Pike, and 1 incidental largemouth. I'm not really one for targeting bedding bass. I'd just as soon them do their thing and make more bass for me to fish for in summers to come.

I'd have REALLY liked to swing some flys into gear and wrestle with 9 pounds of submarine diving northern pike on my 8 weight. It was really windy and I was having trouble being so low to the water. I did get to test out my northern pattern that I tied by the fireplace this winter, longing for a day on this small lake hunting those toothy, slimey snakelike Northern Pike.

I was a fantastic day, and I returned the next morning, to land 5 more bass and 26 more northerns in another couple of hours on the water.

The highlight of the whole trip was a northern that actually jumped out of the water and grabed onto the back treble of my X-Rap just after it leaving the watter, it made it something like 20" out of the water to get this thing. The X-Rap is my new favorite lure for agressive game fish like that. Hands down. I also worked a small rostertail spinner bait which I think will come in mighty handy for some other uses this summer and fall. Larger spinner baits worked as well as inline spinners, yellow semed to be the hot color, and gold blades produced much more than silver ones.

All in all a really fun experience, I'm definitly heading back in the summer with my fly rod, I'm determined to get one on my big red and yellow streamer or my little crawfish patern.

The End of the Spring Run

Well the Chambers Creek and Arlees ought to be about done now.  There were very few left in the creek on wednesday.  With the creek under 20 cubic feet / second there were still a few stragglers left holding in the faster currents.

After that spike up 15 times more water rushed down Oak Creek yesterday and likely flushed everything else out.  The water temperature of the creek has risen enough that it likely won't entice any more Steelhead to enter.  So now the wait is on for the fall.  Although the Skamania strain has unpredictable small runs in the spring, early November will mark a new push ofSteelhead couples looking to build Redds and spawn in the gravel.  I will have the chance to refine my form on the river starting late September in the Pike and Root Rivers.

Next week I'll have the chance to bring the fly rods (and the spinning gear) to my stomping grounds in St. Croix County.  I'll be fishing Will River, the Kinnikinnick, the Rush, and maybe the Eau Galle or Apple if I get adventurous. 

Additionally I'll be fishing some Northern Minnesotan Lakes around Memorial day targeting Bass, Walleye, and Northern Pike.  I've tied some interesting Larger Pike streamers and some Crawfish immitations for bass.  It will be good to have some time to practice stripping steamers in a larger body of water.

Photos and reports will be up upon my return in early June.  Untill then, I'll see you on the water.

45 Minute Steelhead Outing

On the way up to Milwaukee today I had under an hour to shoot at a stream.  I chose Oak Creek.  I ran through the woods with my gear to a spot I thought might be holding fish.  I hooked up on the first drift with a smaller female.  She spit the hook at me after half a minute or so.  I hiked east toward the lake for a while and was only able to spook a handfull of fish.  I hiked back upstream above where I started and located a quiet male holding in some deeper current.  After a few drifts I hooked up with him on a peach yarn fly. 

 25" and very beat up but not to shabby for such a short time on the water.

Suckers were in big groups cruising the shallows, hooked up with this fella on one of my drifts targeting steelhead.  Not the fish of choice but it is still fun to get a little fight for a second.

Spring Steelhead from Oak Creek

I made the treck north this week to Oak Creek as it was running low and fairly clear (around 25 cfs). I made a pit stop to drift some yarn flies at the Root on my way up.  Visibility was 10-12" and it was still running hard,  wading in just hip boots was tough in some spots so I hiked back to the car and got on the road.  For some reason I never made the connection that Oak Creek and Racine are only 15 minutes from one another, you just don't make the 10 minute trip out to the highway and they are right next to one another.

My first landed fish of the morning was a 22" male, had a quite a few battle scars.  After him I hooked up a few times, one larger male took me fifty feet or so up river before screaming drag downriver.  If I had a net I would have landed it but as I leaned down to grab him he flopped off.

The second landed fish was a beautiful two foot long female, she was spawning whenever I held her vertical.  I tried to keep her in the water and on the horizontal while getting her on the stringer.  I am out of spawn and even though she was letting her roe go there was still enough to tie up two dozen nice spawn sacs when I got home.  One for each inch of her.  Would have been enough for 80-100 if she hadn't spawned on the river.

I then packed up the fish and gear and got them in the cooler and trunk respectivly.  I met a friend to hike to and walk "the secret beach".  After that outing I returned to the river to kill a little time before the drive home so I could miss Chicago rush hour.  I hooked up a handfull of times but fishing the swift water that I was, I had breakoffs and popped flies.  I'm getting a hang of fly fishing slowly, but I still have plenty to learn.

These may be my last great lakes salmaon/trout until the fall.  If so, it was a great last spring trip, I'll be looking foreward to those beautiful spawning browns and monsterous Chinooks.

Fishing the Rush and Willow Rivers

After fishing the Kinnikinnick on Saturday and Sunday I headed out in search of some larger trout. I first made the trip to the Rush River near Elsworth. I arrived and decided to leave the fly rod in the car. I tied up a white and black Panther Martin with gold blade, size 2. I found a litte curve above a larger rapid and tossed out the spinner. It landed just under a downed tree, and as I retrieved it a 11" brown smashed the lure and I landed it right away. The pool below that little run proved free of any takers. I then hiked upstream and under a bridge. I was able to see some large trout holding behind a cement pillar, but none were interested in what I had to offer.

Since this river was wider and I was having difficulty launching a little spinner so far I decided I'd bump it up to a size 4 Panther Martin with a silver blade. I landed a couple more browns in the 12-13" range. As I rounded what would be my last bend of the day I saw a huge boulder in the middle of the river at the head of a large pool. Casting here proved to be pretty tough due to a large overhanging tree but after some consideration and a couple of carefully fired casts I managed a pair of beautiful browns. One rocking the tape at 14" and the other being just short of 13 and a half. I broke down the rod and headed back to the car.

I hopped in the car and headed down the road to turn around and saw a beautiful series of riffles and a nice undercut bank and decided I'd park and try for one more fish. I got one more nice brown and called her a day.

The next day (Tuesday) I had an hour in the late afternoon so I tried the Willow River race which is just a short drive from my house. I haven't fished this in a long time and remember catching mostly brooks and rainbows. It was a short trip but I managed 3 browns in the 11-14" range and last fish of the trip... A beautiful 9" brook trout. It was nice to see one while I had the chance to fish all this beautiful water.

So all in all 29 browns and 1 brook trout were landed in my early season, barbless, catch and release trout fishing adventures. It was a really beautiful 4 days of fishing.

Back to Chicago, maybe I can find some Steelhead and Cohos soon.

Kinnikinnick River, Easter Weekend

Had some wonderful weather this weekend, I fished the river Saturday from 11:00-1:00 and Easter from 10:00-1:00.  Both days when I got there the temp was around 37-39 degrees.  Once it hit around 45 degrees the trout started rising. 

Most fish were landed on #2 panther martin spinners, yellow and orange.  A couple were landed on rooster tails, but gold blades worked best.  

#8-#12 caddis immitations worked very well when fish started rising.

Between the two days I landed 20 fish, and lost at least twice that many more to short strikes and spit out barbless hooks.

Fish were all between 6" and 12", most were 8-10 inches.  Its been two lovely days on the water, I'm heading back out tomorrow morning to a different spot, going to see if I can find some brook trout because I've not caught a char since august.

Eight to Twelve

The last couple of weeks have been very hit and miss at the lake front.  It seems every other day the winds change direction and start howling up to 20-30 knots.  North East switches to South, back around to North West... so on...

This has made things tough out at the seawall.

Even when the waves quiet down for a day or two its nothing short of chocolate milk.  This makes chasing trout and salmon nothing short of a challenge.  We did manage to land 5 last Wednesday (April 1st) but it required a lot of trial and error, footwork, and even a drive to a wisconsin harbor, two tribs, and finally we found the fish at montrose harbor.  There was still a decent chop and I'd give visibility no more than 2 feet, but it was enough to land some spring cohos.

Here is a photograph I grabbed with the cellphone, as its the only camera I had on me today.  This was right about where irving park hits the road.  30 foot spray up and some waves actually rolling onto the wall.

Until things change, get out the wet suits and surf boards and I'll see you in the surf...  Tight lines.