Niall McCarthy, our newest employee, shares what opening weekend of this years Wisconsin Trout Opener looked like. This is Niall's first post:
Last weekend my friends and I went
up to the Driftless for the trout opener as we have for many years now.
This past weekend looked like it would
be one of the more promising weekends, especially compared to our experience last season (see below)
My brother, Watson my dog, and I
drove up Saturday morning and got to the first stream around 10 am. Within the
first few casts I hooked into a nice little brown on the reliable pink squirrel.
I let my brother fish and he had immediate success as well, on an olive bugger.
Watson celebrated our success by jumping in the river and learning how to swim
for the first time.
Unfortunately, that was pretty much
the extent of our success for the day. We came across a pod of rising fish in a
super clear and shallow tail out but were too lazy or greedy to switch to
dries. Most streams were still very low, clear and had a fair amount of shelf
ice on them.
We found a few sections that were
ice free but most of the water was pretty fast for this time of the year. My
friend measured a few streams and they were all around 35 degrees or so.
On Sunday, we found one hole on a
lower spring creek that gave up a fair amount of fish from stripping nymphs
through the pool.
A new brewery opened in Soldiers
Grove called Driftless Brewing Company. Michael, one of the brewers gave us a
tour. I sampled the golden ale, brown and pale, all of which were
excellent. Check it out next time you are in the area.
The other good news is there’s a
major heat wave going on in the upper midwest for the next week which should
melt most or all of the snow. Here is what remains as of 3/10.
I would imagine the streams get punched for the rest of the week but could drop into good shape by the weekend. Get out there and fish - it is going to be a great season!
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