Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 7 mph in the morning. What a difference in weather! It cooled down quite a bit and we received about an inch of rain throughout the area yesterday. The rain wasn't enough to muddy up anything significantly outside of a creek or two. Most creeks will be clear to stained with water temperatures dropping back down to the high 50s and low 60s. The fish are in a much more willing mood right now and are eating well both surface and subsurface. On the surface fish are still eating caddis and craneflies, and we have started to see some lighter colored mayflies (sulphurs, cahills etc) as well as yellow sallies appear over the past couple of days. Subsurface fishing is still best on thicker profile flies like brush hogs, prince nymphs, and pink squirrels. We are slowly transitioning to slimmer bodied flies like pheasant tails, perdigons, and some euro style tungsten bead head bugs. Do not neglect terrestrials. Fishing a dry dropper with a beetle or hippie stomper has been quite good, especially mid day. Finally, mousing has been quite fun the past few nights! Slowly swimming a mouse pattern through a pool at night is a ton of fun.
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May 2018
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Light and variable wind becoming southeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Forecast dropped thunderstorms and changed to showers today! Hopefully we get a nice soaking rain all day today to soak into the ground and cool things down. Fishing has remained good despite the past few days of unseasonably hot weather. With more normal temperatures look for the return of lighter colored mayflies, craneflies, and even a few caddis. Don't forget your smaller terrestrials on the surface as they are catching quite a few fish! Subsurface fishing is starting to slowly move away from the thicker bodied patterns (prince nymphs, brush hogs) and move to slimmer patterns (pink belly PT, perdigon). It has not fully transitioned yet, but having a couple different profiles is not a bad idea. At night, mouse fishing has really picked up and we have had a few reports of some nicer fish eating on the surface in the dark!
Apparently the hot weather melted the fishing reports too. Sorry about the past couple of days. We have things up and running again! Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. East wind 5 to 9 mph. It has been more than unseasonably hot out there! It looks like today is forecasted to be our last hot day for a while (we hope!). With the warmer temperatures we are limited to fishing first thing in the morning then late in the evening. It isn't worth overheating to be out there mid day. Fishing has been strong early with fish rising to a mix of mayflies and terrestrials as well as feeding subsurface on heavy bead heads. Please make sure to take a water temperature as things have warmed up significantly. If you find anything near 65, head to a different creek as you can stress fish. Some much needed normal weather is on its way soon!
Areas of dense fog before 10am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. South wind 3 to 7 mph. Warm front rolling in starting today. Look for this weather to rejuvenate the caddis fishing and continue the good cranefly and terrestrial action. Creeks are clear to mildly stained with water temperatures in the mid to high 50s. Fish are eating on the surface sporadically on craneflies, caddis, and terrestrials. This is a perfect time of season to fish a dry/dropper combo as searching patterns and attractor patterns on the surface are working. Better to have a fish eat your indicator fly than an true indicator! Subsurface fishing is a mix of success as fish are taking pretty much every kind of subsurface pattern. Just make sure it is a heavy bug. Remember to move your flies! Action is important this time of year!
Areas of fog before 11am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 69. Light and variable wind. Things are really nice in the Driftless right now. The rains yesterday put some stain on the water, but nothing was blown out completely that wasn't already. This leaves us with the majority of our creeks clear to stained and running with water temperatures in the mid to high 50s. Fishing has started to pick up on terrestrials lately. Fishing a beetle or hippie stomper on top has gotten quite a few fish to look up. With the cloudy weather we are seeing mayflies early in the morning, and we are still seeing a few caddis during the day too. Craneflies are also hatching throughout the day! Subsurface fishing has continued to be good on heavy bead heads with a bit of thickness to them. Think more prince nymph than midge larvae. With the stained water, do not be afraid to fish a leech or San Juan worm.
Periods of showers, mainly before 4pm. High near 59. East wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Fishing is still strong in the driftless! The recent rains this morning did not do anything significant to the creeks. We are still finding clear to stained water area wide. Caddis and craneflies are getting fish to look up, and we have been having more and more success on training wheels and hippie stompers. Subsurface has been excellent fishing on thicker bodied bugs. More prince nymph and hare's ear thickness than midge larvae. Mousing has started to pick up at night too!
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming northwest 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Far better weather than the heat wave of mid week! Creeks are low and clear with warmer than usual water temperatures. The cloud cover and drizzle through this weekend should help cool things down quite a bit. Caddis and craneflies are hatching, but with the cooler and cloudy weather, the caddis hatch will subside a little bit and we should see a couple mayflies hatching on and off instead. The cranefly hatch will sill be there. Look for splashy and random rises and you have found the craneflies. Fishing subsurface will be great on scuds through the weekend as long as the clouds hold. The general rule of thumb applies that the sunnier the weather, the smaller and thinner bodied the fly and the cloudier the weather, the thicker and larger the fly. Night time fishing is starting to pick up on larger streamers and mice.
Sunny, with a high near 81. Light and variable wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon. Cranefly and caddis hatches are pretty solid right now! Creeks are clear to slightly stained. The heavy rains earlier this week missed us and we have had rising fish for the past couple of days. On the surface fish are eating craneflies fished with a twitch and skitter, and caddis that float very low in the surface film. Subsurface fishing has been best on brush hogs, rainbow perdigons, and other heavy patterns that tend to be thicker. Temperatures are in the mid to high 50s area wide.
Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 76. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Creeks are in excellent shape! Fish are looking up for caddis and craneflies most of the day and we have started fishing terrestrials with success too! Creeks are flowing well and clear with temperatures in the mid to high 50s. The rains for a couple days ago missed us completely and our creeks are fishing very well. Look for splashy rises as fish are feeding on caddis and craneflies from mid morning through the day. On some creeks we are still seeing some mayfly activity especially in the evenings and in shady areas. Subsurface fishing has been best on frenchies, brush hogs, and and pink squirrels. Think thicker bodied patterns as these represent caddis larvae and cranefly larvae. Don't forget about the brook lamprey too. A large olive leech fished right below riffles can be deadly this time of year! Night fishing is starting to happen too! Fishing a large leech or streamer at night has gotten some fish to go.
mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Light and variable wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon. Things are in great shape right now! The last couple of nights of rains were light to non existent leaving our creeks high and clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the mid 50s. We are seeing caddis and craneflies hatching throughout the day, and we are even still seeing olives popping off in the evenings as the sun starts to go down. (For early risers there is a small spinner fall in the mornings on some creeks too). Subsurface fishing has been very solid on frenchies and scuds as well as continuing to be great on anything heavy rolled along the bottom. Do not neglect terrestrials as we have been catching quite a few fish on ants, beetles, and hippie stompers.
A 20 percent chance of showers after 2pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 58. East wind 8 to 10 mph. Wow did we dodge a bullet. It did not rain nearly as much as predicted last night leaving creeks in much better shape than we expected today. It only rained about a quarter of an inch last night. Creeks are clear to heavily stained and flowing high. There is fishbale water to be found and a chance of dry fly fishing on the clearer headwater creeks today. Most of the water will have a stain and fish well with subsurface flies such as San Juan Worms and Leeches as well as scuds.
Periods of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 4pm. High near 43. Breezy, with an east wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. We can't catch a break! Another 3/4 ro an inch fell last night in the Wisconsin Driftless. West of the Mississippi got up to 4 inches in some spots. Our creeks are muddy again. We are forecasted to get more rain today and a bit more tonight. The ground is mostly saturated and there is little rain soaking in anymore. What that means is that we will have some ugly water today. There will be lots of high and muddy creeks with a few fishable (leeches and San Juan worms!). There is a chance of finding the needle in a haystack stained creek, but probably not until tomorrow afternoon. If we receive more rain through the day and night Saturday will also be very dicey. Check the tributaries and headwater creeks as they are your best bet at finding fishable water.
Partly sunny, with a high near 63. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. It didn't rain last night! Creeks are dropping and clearing well today. We're clear to heavily stained area wide with the smaller creeks and tributaries clearer for the most part. Caddis are the main hatch, although we are still seeing olives on the cloudy days. Watch for craneflies on the sunnier days too. Keep an eye out for brook lamprey. These non-parasitic lamprey are a huge meal for large trout! Make sure you have a few larger olive leeches or streamers in your fly box!! Water temperatures are in the 50s to low 60s area wide.
Cloudy, with a high near 69. South wind 9 to 13 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Cooler and drizzly throughout the day today. We received about 2/3 and inch of rain last night which will bring up some creek levels and put some color back into the water too. In the murky water fish leeches and san juan worms as well as scuds. Caddis are hatching on the clear creeks mid day and fish are taking dries as well as larvae and pupae. The creek lamprey are showing up again so do not be afraid to throw a large olive leech pattern.
Partly sunny, with a high near 79. South wind 13 to 15 mph. Warm and sunny again today, the next few days we will see cloud cover and some showers. It doesn't look like the disastrous heavy rains we saw last week though! The cloud cover will help quite a bit, and the drop in temperature will be much more comfortable for fish and anglers. We're fishing caddis and craneflies on the surface as well as starting to fish small terrestrials (ants and beetles). Subsurface fishing has been best on heavily weighted thicker bodied bugs like frenchies and brush hogs. Leeches and larger scuds are also effective, especially on the creeks that are still showing a bit of stain. Overall creeks are clear to stained with temperatures in the mid to high 50s.
Sunny, with a high near 77. Southeast wind 5 to 11 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Finally a night without rain! Creeks are dropping and clearing slowly. Main branches are still stained to murky and smaller tributaries are clear to stained. Water temperatures are 50-60 area wide. On the murky creeks, we are still finding success on leeches, San Juan worms, large scuds, and pink squirrels. On the clear creeks we are catching fish on caddis larvae and pupae as well as fishing to rising fish with caddis (both black and tan) as well as craneflies. Things are looking good for the week ahead!
Hot and sunny today. Creeks have dropped significantly and are beginning to clear out nicely. While most of the larger streams are still running muddy, there is clear to stained fishable water out there right now. Leeches and San Juan worms are quite effective in the cloudy water, while caddis are hatching on the clear creeks. Sunday and into early next week are looking to set up to be excellent fishing!
Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 74. Northwest wind 7 to 15 mph. Flooded. We received another 2 plus inches of rain and things are out of the bank. The problem is that bankside vegetation has not rooted out and banks are not stable and falling in creating an even muddier situation. This should clear up through the day and give us fishable water by tomorrow, but today is ugly. There will be a couple tiny creeks that you may stumble upon today, but overall it is not fishable today.
A 30 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Patchy dense fog before 9am. Otherwise, increasing clouds, with a high near 72. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon. Creeks went up a bit last night as we received 1/2 to 1 inch of rain overnight. Things are clearing quickly again and we already have reports of anglers catching fish. It won't be pretty again, but stock up on your leeches, san juan worms and scuds. Keep the caddis handy as some creeks are only slightly stained and we should see some hatch activity with the bright sun this morning getting things going quickly. Creeks are muddy to slightly stained with temperatures in the low to mid 50s.
Cloudy, with a high near 71. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph. We received anywhere from 2-3 inches of rain last night. Things are muddy as of this morning, but clearing quickly. The ground soaked up quite a bit of it and we found some fishable water (ugly, but fishable with a couple rising fish). Things will drop and clear quickly through the day, but it is definitely a leech and San Juan worm day. We will keep you posted on the conditions! Larger creeks are out of their banks and muddy, focus on smaller tributary creeks and headwaters, especially those with a meadow that gives the high water somewhere to settle out.
Periods of showers and possibly a thunderstorm before noon, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. High near 76. Breezy, with a south wind 7 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Some much needed spring rain heading our way! Fishing has been quite good recently with fish eating caddis and olives on the surface. Splashy rises mean caddis eaters, gentle rises mean olive eaters. Creeks are low and clear this morning with temperatures in the 50s. Subsurface fishing has been great on pheasant tail type flies as well as scuds and bushy, thick bodied nymphs. Leeches and streamers have also been good, but only when the sun is not shining on the creeks.
