Wisconsin's trout season is closed. Thank you all for a fantastic season! Fishing has not stopped as Iowa's driftless is open all year. The olives are hatching over there right now, and fish are happy. If you head out and fish, please leave any spawning fish alone.
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Blog
October 2017
WISCONSIN'S SEASON IS CLOSED! We're taking a week off and will periodically update the fishing report for those of you heading to Iowa or Minnesota's driftless in the fall and winter. Thanks for a great season!
UPDATE 10:45. So far the major rains have stayed south of us. We've received some light rain that is already letting up. Dodged the first bullet of the day! Showers and thunderstorms likely, then periods of showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. High near 59. East wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Change to the forecast. The creeks are in great shape, but the wind will pick up today. The rain should not do major damage to the fishing, but we will keep you posted just in case. Please make sure to give other anglers space this weekend. It will be a busy weekend this weekend. Please do not hop above other anglers, make sure to check in before you fish!
A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 62. Light and variable wind becoming southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Last weekend of season. Things close down on Monday the 16th. Conditions are excellent. Clear to stained water that is running cold. Clouds in the sky, olives hatching mid day into the evening and fish are happy. If you see rising fish, try and olive or hippie stomper. Subsurface fishing has been good on scuds and pink squirrels as well as pheasant tails. Deeper holes have been giving up some nice fish on leeches and streamers.
Patchy drizzle before 9am. Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 59. South wind 6 to 10 mph. 4 more days of season, and conditions are excellent. Scuds, leeches, and larger patterns subsurface. Olives hatching in the afternoon. Creeks stained and flowing well and cool. Get out and fish, it is excellent!
Areas of drizzle before 8am. Cloudy, with a high near 59. Northeast wind 7 to 9 mph. The season is finishing with a bang! Only 5 more days of fishing before season closes. We are able to fish through October the 15th. Creeks are cold, and clear to slightly stained area wide. We're forecasted for clouds and drizzle through Sunday! You really cold not ask for better fishing weather. There is no reason to get up at the crack of dawn. Things are cool enough that the fishing does not pick up until things have warmed just a bit. Fish are eating scuds and pink squirrels very well sub surface. They are also chasing leeches and streamers. On the surface, fish will rise to olives and midges, especially in the afternoon. Fishing a simple parachute adams or olive will work, as will a campara-dun or sparkle dun.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. North wind 9 to 13 mph. Clear to stained area wide, with good flows and excellent temperatures. Sunny today which will keep fish deep. We are due for some cloud cover over the next couple of days, that will bring the olives back out in the afternoon. Fish a dry/dropper with a smaller foam terrestrial and a thin bodied bead head below on the clear water, and fish scuds and pink squirrels or leeches on the water that still have a stain to them. Season goes through October 15th. Conditions are great and the weather is comfortable to end the season on!
High near 66. South wind 9 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Over the past 24 hours it looks like we got 1.5 to 3 inches of rain. Scouting around this morning I did find clear water though! It might take a bit more windshield time, and scouting some different creeks, but there is fishable to clear water out there! Remember that after a rain fishing really picks up and if you have a foot or two of visibility you can catch fish. Today might not be a perfect dry fly day on the larger creeks, so fish subsurface with a leech or wooly bugger, scud, pink squirrel, or San Juan worm. The creeks that are clear should see some surface feeding as olives have shown up over the past couple of cloudy days. It hasn't been a gigantic hatch yet, but conditions are right for fall olives for sure! Creeks are slightly stained to murky and flowing a bit high. Things are dropping and clearing quickly.
Showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 4pm. High near 62. Light east wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Another round of light showers yesterday did not stain the water up significantly. We're still at stained to clear area wide. Fishing has been really good lately with the cooler temps and cloud cover. We are supposed to get some rain this weekend, but so far they are predicting showers and not thunderstorms. If this holds, we will be looking at slightly stained to medium stained water area wide, and while it may suppress the olive hatch activity a bit, the subsurface fishing should be excellent! We will keep you updated on the rain totals, but we are not panicking about it. Terrestrials have been the ticket, but only after things warm up and dry out a bit. Early in the morning fishing has been best subsurface on heavy tungsten nymphs and scuds. In the evening we have started to see some olives hatching, but have still had more success on small ants and beetles on the surface. The heavy nymphs have been solid all through the evening too!
Scattered showers before 11am, then a slight chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 63. Light and variable wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. The creeks were surprisingly clear yesterday after Tuesday nights rain. They remain clear to stained and flowing very well with cool temperatures. Our guides did excellent on streamers and leeches in the morning, then switching to hoppers in the afternoon/evening. Expect much of the same today. Subsurface in the morning, then look for olives to hatch late afternoon. Fishing a small hopper or ant on the surface will get fish to eat after lunch time too. 10 more days of season! Conditions are just perfect right now. Get out and fish!
Sunny, with a high near 66. Light north wind becoming west 8 to 13 mph in the morning. An inch to two inches of rain fell quickly and heavily last night. Look for stained water this morning that will drop and clear very quickly. Break out the San Juan worms and leeches after the rain! This is another weather adjustment and looking ahead the forecast is for cool weather and drizzly days. This means olive hatches in the afternoons! With the cooler and wetter weather, terrestrials will not be as effective until later in the day when things have a chance to dry out. Most of the action early will be subsurface. Season is open through October the 15th! Get out there and enjoy the weather, and the excellent fishing fall gives us!
EDIT: I mis typed this morning. Season is open through the 15th, not the 25th. Typing the report a bit too quickly! We have 13 days of fishing left in the Wisconsin Driftless. Mat Isolated showers between 9am and 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 76. Breezy, with a light south wind increasing to 12 to 17 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 10%. Season is open through October 15th and conditions couldn't be much better. A bit of cloud cover through the day means fish will be happier. Look for a possible olive hatch in the late afternoon if the clouds stay in. Otherwise surface activity will be terrestrials and fish rising to mayflies and midges in the evening. Subsurface activity has been solid on scuds, and tungsten bead head bugs fished in the shin to thigh deep water. Fish will retreat into the deeper water if the sun comes out mid day, but will return to the runs later in the day. Things are great right now in the Driftless!
