Snow and freezing drizzle likely before 10am, then snow. High near 32. West wind 8 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. Catch and release season opens up January 4th! As ugly as it looks today, it is not a big deal at all. We have little to no snow on the ground, and it will warm up again mid week. The opening weekend looks quite nice with temperatures in the mid 30s on Saturday then high 20s on Sunday. Creeks are in great shape with clear flows and a at normal winter levels. To prepare for the weekend, focus on midges for the mid day hatch, and dark, thin bodied bugs subsurface. Think black copper johns, spanish bullets and zebra midges. Do not neglect leeches! A black leech twitched through a run or hole can be deadly in the winter!
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2019
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. West wind 8 to 10 mph. Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. Our season opens up January the 4th. Holy cow has the weather been warm! There has been a lot of fishing going on over the river in Iowa, and it is setting up for a good Wisconsin catch and release opener on the 4th. The warm weather means there is no snow on the ground, and none forecasted for the few days. As of now, January 4th is predicted to be in the mid 30s! That means happy fish, and a longer fishing day as snowmelt will not shut things down as quickly. Fish in Iowa have been eating leeches and streamers fished slowly in the pools and runs. They have also been happily eating pink squirrels and scuds in the shin deep riffles.
Sunny, with a high near 34. Light and variable wind. Wisconsin's season is closed until January 4th. Iowa is open and a few creeks in Minnesota are open too. Check your regulations! 34,37,39,42. Highs for the next few days! This is winter fishing weather. If you can get away and head over to Iowa, it is a great time to escape all the holiday stuff and get some fishing in during December before things get cold again! Nymph deep runs and pockets or slowly twitch leeches along the bottom. With the warmer temperatures trout will also chase some larger streamers. Mid day, watch for midge hatches. While not prolific you might happen on a pod of rising fish! Creeks are in great shape and there is not a ton of snow stream side to create muddy water. These are the type days we wait for during the winter! Call the shop if you are heading to fish this weekend and want to pick up bugs. We will not have regular hours but will be there in a couple minutes when you call!
Mostly sunny, with a high near 16. Wind chill values as low as -10. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. Wisconsin's season is closed. Re opens January 4th. Iowa is open and limited water in Minnesota is open during the winter. Check your regulations! Today stinks. Tomorrow through the weekend looks great. Temperatures pushing 40 degrees Saturday and Sunday means fish will be active through the middle part of the day! Nymph deep and slow, swing some streamers, or look for midge hatches mid day!
Wisconsin's season is closed. This report is for Iowa and Minnesota. Only a few Minnesota creeks are open, check your regulations before heading out. It's chilly out! We're in full on winter mode. The general rule of thumb is fish 25 degrees and sunny, or 35 degrees and cloudy for a chance at fish. The fishing day is short, typically from 10-2 when the water temperature is the warmest. Expect very limited surface action (sparse midge hatches) and lots of deep nymphing or slow twitching of leeches. The weekend looks rough with high temperatures barely reaching 10 without windchill. It might be a good weekend to clean gear, tie flies, or just relax! Wisconsin's season opens January 4th. Shop is open Saturdays from 10-2 the next couple of weekends.
Drizzle and snow, possibly mixed with freezing drizzle before 2pm, then freezing drizzle, possibly mixed with snow. Areas of fog before 4pm. Temperature falling to around 19 by 5pm. Breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. That the long way to say it is yucky outside. Temperatures take a dip early this week with highs near 10 on Tuesday and Wednesday and a cold, but more tolerable mid 20s Thursday. Low 30s Friday and into the weekend. It's winter condition time. Fish when it is 25 and sunny or 35 and cloudy and focus on mid day when water temperatures are the warmest! Slowly twitch leeches or nymph deep.
Wisconsin's season is closed until Jan 4th. We are fishing over in Iowa and on the select creeks in Minnesota that are open. Check your regulations! Creeks are clear to slightly stained with cold temperatures. Things don't get moving until later in the morning after chilly nights. It looks like Saturday and Sunday will be our last warm-ish days for a while. Get out there and fish! Fish are eating leeches very well, and are also happily munching on pink squirrels and scuds. There are a few risers late in the morning into mid day, but unless you luck out, the rising fish are sporadic and not predictable. Having a couple midge emergers in your fly box is still not a bad idea though!
Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing over in Iowa. There are also a limited number of creeks in Minnesota that are open during the winter. Check your regulations before heading out! Sunny, with a high near 28. North wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. After a messy Thanksgiving weekend, the weather looks pretty decent mid week and later this week. A couple of cold days early, but sunny-ish with Tuesday through Thursday predicted to have temperatures in the low to mid 30s. Saturday/Sunday are looking good too! Fishing has become true winter fishing. It starts slow in the mornings, then picks up as water temperatures start to creep up. You want to make sure you are fishing rising water temperatures as that is the best fishing! Heavy nymphs fished along the bottom under and indicator or tight lined are key this time of season. On the warmest days there can be sparse hatches of midges and some brief surface activity, but plan on fishing low and slow most of the day.
A chance of drizzle, snow, and freezing drizzle before 3pm, then a slight chance of rain between 3pm and 4pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 34. Light southeast wind becoming east 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. Wisconsin's trout season is CLOSED. We are fishing over in Iowa. Kind of ugly weather the past few days and heading into the next few. It's probably wise to stay home instead of making a long drive to fish right now. If you are already in the area, or going to brave the weather, we are back in winter mode. Nymph deep in the pools and runs. If there are spawning fish present, please leave them alone.
A slight chance of rain between 1pm and 3pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 44. West wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Today and tomorrow are the last really nice weather days we will have in a while! Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing over in Iowa. Nymphing is still key right now. Drift nymphs deep in the mornings, then move into the shin to thigh deep water mid day. There is a chance to see some dry flies later in the afternoon, but the hatches have been brief if they show up. Please watch for spawning fish. Stay off the shallow gravel as much as possible so you don't crush the newly laid eggs too.
Sunny, with a high near 34. West wind 5 to 8 mph. Finally a little sunny weather..... Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. Some Minnesota creeks are open too, make sure to check your regulations before heading out. Creeks are in good shape. Flowing well and not too cold right now. Fishing nymphs and leeches until the afternoon will get you fish. Concentrate on deeper water (runs and pools) as the sun warms things up, the fish will push a bit into the riffles. There have been a few dry flies showing up (midges and some late olives) but don't expect spectacular surface activity. It's a bonus this time of year, not a given.
Rain likely, mainly before 11am. Cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 34 by 5pm. Breezy, with a northwest wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60% Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. There are also limited areas in Minnesota open for fishing right now. Check youre regulations before you head out. A bit of light rain this morning, but it is not enough to make anything color up on the creeks. Fishing has been good lately with the warmer temperatures making it more comfortable for humans to be outside. Fishing is still almost all nymphing with a smattering of late afternoon hatches bringing the trout to the surface briefly. Please note that fish are spawning right now (brown and brook trout. Rainbows spawn in the spring). Leave spawning fish alone and try to stay off the shallow creek bottom when legally possible!
A chance of drizzle and snow before 10am, then a slight chance of drizzle between 10am and 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 40. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Excellent weather for fishing BUT. Driving around in Wisconsin yesterday to look at creeks, the fish are in full on spawning mode. The fish would prefer that you did not disturb spawning I'm pretty sure. If you fish (remember Wisconsin is closed, Iowa is open and only portions of Minnesota are open) please take care and stay out of the water as much as possible (and legal) and do not fish spawning fish! Concentrate on the deep pools below the riffles. This hold true through the entire winter and early season. Please wade lightly and do not walk over spawning beds. That's the future population sitting in the gravel.
Wisconsin's trout season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa and there are limited waters open in Minnesota. Check you're regulations before you head out fishing! Mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. Light and variable wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon. Warm-ish cloudy and light winds. GO FISH GO FISH GO FISH! Fish nymphs deep and roll them in the runs and into the pools. Fish can move up into the riffles in the later afternoon and there is a slim chance you will see some fish rising to midges in the later afternoon. Use some caution! This is the start of spawning time. If there are active spawning beds, DO NOT FISH THEM. Leave the gravel alone and fish the pools well below.
Partly sunny, with a high near 38. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the morning. Pretty nice weather this weekend! Far better than we have had in the past week or so! Remember Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa and Minnesota has some water open. Check your regulations! The whole weekend looks mild compared to what we have had lately. Fishing will be good on nymphs fished deep in the runs and pools. With the warmer weather there is a chance that some fish will be rising to midges in the afternoon. Today kicks off our 5x points on Scott fly rod holiday bonus. Buy a Scott fly rod and get 5X shop credit on your Driftless Angler Loyalty account! Have any questions, shoot us an e-mail or call.
Wisconsin's season is closed. Iowa is open and state park waters in Minnesota are open. Check your regulations before you head out! Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 29. West wind 6 to 8 mph. Today is pretty mediocre condition wise. The next 4 days temperatures are forecasted to be in the high 30s. This is greenlight to get outside and fish weather! Most of the fishing is subsurface on scuds, midge larvae, competition style nymphs and even slowly drifted leeches. There is a chance that late afternoon will get some fish rising to midges but don't count on it.
Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa (when it warms up a bit!!) Sunny, with a high near 17. Wind chill values as low as -10. Northwest wind around 7 mph becoming south in the afternoon. Quite cold the next couple of days. It looks like Friday through the weekend might be bearable. But mid week will not be a good time to be out on the creeks.
Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. Sunny, with a high near 24. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph. It's cold out there, but with the sun shining it is actually quite pleasant to be outside! There is no longer a reason to get out there early. Things have cooled down enough that water temperatures are cold. Give the creeks a bit of time to warm up and fishing will be better. Nymphing is key and will be for the rest of the fall/winter. Roll your flies deep in the mornings, then in the afternoon start fishing the runs and even riffles. Hatches are dwindling. There are a few midges and olives around, but the major dry activity is done until we get some warmer temperatures.
Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. A 50 percent chance of snow, mainly between 3pm and 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 32. North wind 6 to 10 mph. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. The first real snow of the season last night has things blanketed with a couple inches of snow this morning. Be careful driving around as the morning has been a slippery one. The snow is heavy and wet and will trickle into the creeks slowly. It shouldn't cause things to muddy up or drop water temperatures too drastically. Nymphing and fishing streamers is the way to go still. Fish slow in the deeper pools and drop offs and hope that the afternoon brings some olives hatching as they will get fish looking up.
Wisconsin's season is closed until the first Saturday in January. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. Scattered rain showers after 10am, mixing with snow after 5pm. Cloudy, with a temperature rising to near 41 by noon, then falling to around 36 during the remainder of the day. West wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. While the weather is pretty miserable looking on paper, it isn't awful out there! Fishing has been solid subsurface on midge larvae and scuds. The creeks are clear to slightly stained and running well. There is a chance of seeing some rising fish in the afternoons to midges and some leftover olives too. The hatches have been sparse but if they show up, fish are rising to them!
Cloudy with a high near 38. SW wind 6-8 mph. Chance of some scattered snow/rain today. Not the prettiest weather to be out in, but the fish are already wet and don't care! Wisconsin's season is CLOSED until the first Saturday in January. This report is for Iowa. Fishing remains solid subsurface all day long with fish eating heavy bead heads rolled along the bottom as well as midge larvae in the riffles later in the day. There has been sporadic surface activity, but nothing crazy good lately.
Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. Mostly sunny, with a high near 39. West wind 5 to 7 mph. Dusting of snow on the ground this morning. but overall a pretty day. It's starting to morph into cold weather fishing mode. Fishing smaller nymphs and scuds deep under an indicator or tight line nymphing in the morning, then switching to olive dries if the fish start to rise in the afternoon. While chilly, it is still quite pleasant out there right now.
Sunny, with a high near 48. Calm wind becoming southwest 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Wisconsin's season is closed. We are fishing and guiding over in Iowa. The last couple of frosty mornings have started to put a hurt on terrestrials. While we are still using larger foam patterns as indicators through the day, they have begun slowing down in the fish catching department. Rolling small nymphs and scuds below the runs is still effective, and we are seeing some spotty rising from fish mid day and into the evening. There is no need to get up early as the chilly mornings are typically quite slow. The real action is when the sun warms the stream bed a bit and the bugs start moving around.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Breezy, with a southeast wind 6 to 11 mph becoming west 12 to 17 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Today is the last day of trout season in Wisconsin. Get out there and fish. The shop will be open until noon (we need to get our last few fish in this afternoon!) Thank you all for a great season!
Areas of frost before 10am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 47. Southwest wind 3 to 8 mph. Creeks are in good shape. Only today and tomorrow to fish. We're going to simply suggest you get out and fish and do not worry too much about what's going on. Hopper with a dropper and streamers/leeches today and tomorrow. Shop closes at noon tomorrow (tuesday).
Showers, mainly after 1pm. High near 42. Breezy, with a southwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Cold this morning and the wind is a bit annoying. Good thing the fish aren't as fussy about cold and wind! Fishing was solid yesterday with fish loving crickets and darker foam patterns on the surface. Subsurface fishing has been great on zebra midges, perdigons, purple drank and food as well as scuds. There have been many anglers hooking some really nice fish on leeches and streamers too! Season shuts down after the 15th, only 4 more days of fishing left! Get out there while you still can.
UPDATE 4:15 Rains today missed most of the Wisconsin Driftless. They stayed west of the Mississippi for the most part. Only brief light drizzle in town and the surrounding area. A chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 65. Southeast wind 8 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch. While the weather sounds ominous on paper, this is excellent fishing weather (if you can tuck in and avoid the wind) The rain isn't scary right now. It looks like they are predicting drizzle to light showers which should not do anything to mess our creeks up. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures perfect for this time of season. The fish are starting to put on their fall colors and become aggressive on streamers and foam patterns on the surface. Subsurface fishing has been great on purple hot spot pheasant tails, small frenchies and zebra midges as well as pink squirrels and prince nymphs. There are only 5 days left in Wisconsin's season (closed after the 15th) get out and fish!!!!
Sunny with a high near 67. South wind 11 to 13 mph. Gorgeous fall day today! Season closes after the 15th, so get out there and fish. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with only the lower end of large creeks still sowing some color. Fish have been happily eating smaller terrestrials all day long on the surface, then switching to olives in the late afternoon and early evening. Subsurface fishing has been best on scuds, purple belly pheasant tails and food. Fishing nymphs in the riffles or just having one tag along with a terrestrial as a dropper has been effective. Streamers and larger leeches are starting to pick up some larger fish too as the fall weather has trout becoming a bit more aggressive than normal!
Sunny, with a high near 62. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph. Creeks are clear to stained with excellent temperatures. The murkier water is down near the kickapoo river. If you drive up the creeks a bit the clarity is far better. The majority of water is in excellent shape despite the rainy weekend. The past couple of days things have dropped and cleared quickly. We're fishing scuds and heavier bead heads deep in the cooler morning, then switching to hopper and dropper mid day. In the later part of the day olives are hatching and bringing fish to the surface consistently. Remember season closes after the 15th! Get out and enjoy the great weather and conditions!!
Periods of showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 55. Breezy, with a southeast wind 9 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Raining as of opening this morning. This first system will be some normal rain and not muddy things up completely. There is a second band coming through that will hit around 11 or noon-ish. After that, there should be no more rain.
Partly sunny, with a high near 55. Calm wind becoming northeast 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Creeks are clear to medium stained. The headwaters are in great shape, the creeks that flow into the Kickapoo or have flood control dams on them tend to be much murkier. Fish were feasting yesterday subsurface on larger nymphs (scuds, purple drink, prince nymphs etc) and should continue to do so on the stained water. Fishing a foam indicator is still very effective, but a bit slower as the cooler and wetter temperatures mean less movement by terrestrials. Size down a bit and the fish will eat them more often. Leeches and streamers are picking up steam. The cooler temperatures combined with the stained waters have fish looking for some bigger meals right now!
Moistly cloudy with a high near 54. Breezy with a northwest wind 10-16 mph gusting to 25. No real rain yesterday gave the waters a chance to drop and start clearing. The smaller creeks and headwaters are clear to stained and the larger creeks are still going to be muddy, especially the lower sections that dump into the Kickapoo. Things drained a lot quicker than we expected and we had fishable water as early as yesterday! In the murky water, fish black leeches and squirmy wormies. In the clear stuff go back to using a foam fly with a bead head dropper (hippie stomper or chubby chernobyl with food and drink below). We're finally getting some fall weather the next few days so look for fish to start getting a bit more agreeable and aggressive if the weather doesn't heat up again! Remember season closes after the 15th of this month. Make some time to enjoy the Driftless again before things shut down!
UPDATE 8:00 Our guide Nick has already found fishable water. While the majority of our creeks are still murky, this is a great sign that things are dropping and clearing quickly. Showers likely, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 56. Northeast wind 9 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. We're on the tail end of the rains. Anywhere between and inch and two fell in the last 24 hours. The good news is that the heavy storms last night went south of us. While our creeks are muddy this morning, they did not blow out like crazy as they were forecasted to do yesterday. This means things are dropping and clearing through the day today. Expect the tiny springs and even some small, headwater creeks to be fishable if not clear by this evening. Barring any more major rains, tomorrow is looking good!
Periods of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Temperature falling to around 63 by 5pm. North wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible. The luck streak seems to end today. It's already raining and we are forecast for an inch or two tonight. Today and through tomorrow are looking grim. We will head out after the rains as always and keep you posted as to overall clarity. But it looks like a couple days of poor to no fishing are in the cards.
Areas of fog before 11am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 82. South wind 6 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Conditions are excellent right now outside of the wind. Creeks are clear and flowing well with really solid water temperatures. The next couple of days are showing some rain especially Tuesday night. Things are good now, but keep an eye on our report for what the rains Tuesday are going to do to the creeks. Foam with a dropper and olives in the evening.
Showers likely, mainly before 8am. Cloudy, with a high near 64. East wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Yesterday we received no rain and the creeks were clear. Last night we only had some light rain, up to 1/4 of an inch. This morning there is no real rain, only some drizzle. That means the creeks remain clear to stained!!! Fishing has been good, but the sunny days have been tough, especially mid day. The major feeding activity has been in the evening when the olives are hatching. Otherwise, fishing shady areas with a hopper/dropper close to the bank or tight line/competition nymphing the deeper runs has been successful.
Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 4pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 65. South wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Creeks are clear this morning. We had a very brief and very light shower roll through the area, but it was drizzle. Not nearly enough to change the clarity much at all. We might get a bit more rain later today, but so far we are not worried. Fish are happily eating smaller terrestrials with bead head droppers as well as olives that are hatching in the evenings. So far, things are looking great for today and into tomorrow rain and clarity wise!! If anything happens we will keep you posted.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. West wind 5 to 9 mph. Ahhh fall in the Driftless. The leaves are beginning to turn, the trout have started to get their fall colors too, and the fishing has been great! Creeks are clear to slightly stained and flowing well. Fish are eating midges and the occasional olive spinner in the mornings, then switching to terrestrials once the sun dries the bankside vegetation off. Fishing foam with a dropper is deadly through most of the day. In the evenings we are getting a hatch of fall olives as well as a few craneflies. Do not neglect leeches and streamers right now too. Fish have started to chase some bigger meals as they transition into fall pre-spawn mode.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 68. West wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Creeks are clear to slightly stained and in excellent shape. The storms missed us pretty much completely last night (see radar photo, Vernon county barely got hit) Olive spinners first thing in the morning, then hopper and dropper all day long. In the evening we are still seeing hatches of olives and a few craneflies and caddis. The hatches are spotty and seem to be random. If there are not a lot of bugs in the air and fish are rising but not eating your olive patterns, tie on a small ant or beetle! Larger fish are starting to chase streamers and leeches again too as the water settles down.
Sunny, with a high near 75. Southwest wind 7 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with only the ones near the main branch of the Kickapoo still murky. Water temperatures are in the high 50s to 60. Fishing is fantastic so far this fall! Fish are happily eating foam on the surface (hoppers, hippies, ants etc) and also subsurface. Scuds, hot spot pheasant tails and other thin but flashy patterns (think perdigons!) are working well. For dry fly activity, the later afternoon and evening has fish rising to olives and craneflies. Fish are starting to get aggressive on streamers and leeches too. Look for some aggressive strikes especially on cloudy days and stained water.
Sunny, with a high near 71. Light west wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning. After a rainy weekend things are back on track. Many of the larger creeks will be heavily stained this morning, but will drop and clear out pretty quickly (except those that dump into the main Kickapoo, they will remain fairly murky). The small stuff is where it is at right now. Fish are happily feeding in the stained water on larger foam patterns with droppers below them, leeches and buggers, scuds and san juan worms. In the afternoon and evening we are seeing craneflies, and olives hatching with fish rising sporadically. Fall fishing is here and the fish are hungry! They are also starting to get their fall colors! Get out there and fish as our season ends October the 15th.
Periods of showers and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly before 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. High near 67. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Cloudy and drizzly day today! The major rains missed us for the most part over the weekend and creeks are clear to stained. The lower sections of creeks will be murky as they dump into the larger, non trout rivers. Fishing has been fantastic this weekend with fish happily eating foam attractor patterns and hoppers as well as rising to olives, craneflies and midges in the afternoon and evening. Subsurface fishing has been good on just about anything too! Larger fish are eating leeches and streamers and the fish are starting to put on their fall colors.
Cloudy and breezy with a high near 72. Chance of showers and thunderstorms at 40%. Things are actually quite good area wide with the creeks clear to slightly stained. Only the larger creeks that flow into the Kickapoo are still murky. We're watching the potential storms closely. It is a slim chance it will rain today, but tonight could drop some moisture. The ground is saturated, so any heavy rain could blow things out. We will keep you posted! For now, hoppers and foam with droppers are still the main menu item. We are seeing some midges and olives hatching mid day and into the evening so keep an eye out for rising fish.
A slight chance of showers before noon, then a slight chance of showers after 4pm. Patchy dense fog before 11am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 80. Southeast wind 3 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 10%. No more rain fell yesterday or through the night giving the creeks a change to clear up quite a bit. While the lower sections of larger waters will still be murky, look for clear to stained water at the headwaters and on the smaller tributaries. Fishing scuds, leeches, worm patterns and pink squirrels in the murky water is working well right now. On the clearer water, zebra midges, brush hogs, and scuds subsurface. Fish them below larger hopper or foam indicator patterns. We are still seeing blue winged olives hatching in the later afternoon and evenings. Saturday is still dicey looking at the weather forecast. The ground is pretty saturated. If it rains things will more than likely muddy up again. It all depends on the amount and intensity of the rain, something that we will not know until it hits.
UPDATE 3 PM. Significant dropping and clearing on some tributaries (like this one on the Timber Coulee). While most creeks are still murky we are starting to find fishable water. If things stay dry (only 10% chance of rain tonight and only 30% tomorrow) fishing will hold through Saturday. We're still a bit nervous about rain on Saturday. If it hits we could be muddy again... UPDATE: 1PM Things had calmed down rain wise but most creeks are still muddy. It is settling quickly and, barring any more rain, we should see headwaters fishable by the evening, but still not very good out there. Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. High near 78. South wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Steady rain all night last night. The rains fell in a really weird pattern seemingly random through the night. While we have been out scouting this morning and will continue to do so, things are pretty grim for fishing this morning. While some creeks are running chocolate milk however, we have found some with only a medium stain (in other words fishable). Put in some windshield time this morning and you could find some fishable water. If you do, toss larger scuds, San Juan Worms, leeches and pink squirrels. We will keep you updated on conditions through the day.
Partly sunny, with a high near 81. South wind 9 to 13 mph. Although a bit warm for humans, the fish are happy with the cool flows and good levels. Hopper and dropper is the way to go through the day until olives start hatching. When noses come up switch to a parachute or an emerger. There are some scattered storms predicted to roll through the area tonight. We will keep you posted!
Sunny, with a high near 82. South wind 6 to 11 mph. Creeks are clear to stained with only the lower sections of 'big' water showing a medium to heavy stain. The rains have had plenty of time to clear out! Water temps are in the mid 50s to low 60s. Fishing has been solid lately mid morning once the sun has dried the ground. We're fishing ants, beetles, hoppers etc with a dropper when we can. The dry/dropper fishing lasts until the evening when fish start rising to olives and olive emergers. Nymphing with heavy tungsten bead flies is also very effective. Fishing them below indicators or tight line/competition style is quite good, especially mid day when the fish are sulking on the bottom hiding from the sun. Leeches and streamers and mice are very effective when the sun is off the water (dusk until dawn!). While it will be warm the rest of the week, cooler weather hits this weekend. The warm temperatures are not making fishing harder as water temperatures are very stable and the fish are happy.
Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 80. Calm wind becoming southeast 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with good water temperatures. While we are due for some warm-fish late summer weather (hitting highs near 80 most of the week) the fishing is more than solid. Look for fishing to pick up in the late morning when things dry out and the terrestrials start moving around. Fishing a foam fly with a dropper is excellent right now! In the evenings we will see some rising fish eating olives. Simple parachutes and film critics will get the job done. Subsurface flies are trending toward thinner bodied. Food, copper johns, pink and purple belly PTs etc.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 74. Light southwest wind increasing to 8 to 13 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Creeks have had a lot of time to drop and clear. We did have rising fish on some headwater creeks yesterday, and the main branches had calmed down and were fishable, but not pretty. Today should be a whole different ball game. Expect clear to mildly stained water through the area and north. South in Crawford county and into the Fennimore area, things were hit far harder by the rains and creeks will be chocolate again. Leeches, squirrels, worms and scuds in the stained to murky water. Hippie or training wheel with a dropper (food, purple drank, perdigons, purple zebras etc) in the clear water. Also watch for olives on the clear creeks as they have been coming off. It still isn't a massive hatch but where they appear, fish are rising to them.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 63. Breezy, with a west wind 11 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Creeks are stained to muddy today. Rains hit heavy at about 7 pm last night. That gave some creeks enough time to start to drop and clear overnight. Rains hit far heavier south of us in Crawford and Grant counties. Most creeks will be murky (the West Fork was blown this morning) but the tributaries and head waters were looking fishable. Things will only get better as creeks drop and clear through the day. While it might not be dry fly water, fish will be happy later today and through the weekend. On the murky water, fish worm patterns, leeches, large scuds and pink squirrels. On the clear water, terrestrials caddis and olives on the surface with thin bodied bead heads (food, perdigons, pink and purple belly pheasant tails). We dodged a pretty big bullet the past couple of days. Amazed that the creeks held up with the onslaught of rain the past few days!
howers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 2pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Cloudy, with a high near 70. East wind 13 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Heavy rain hit about 3 in the morning muddied things up, but it was less than we expected. Nothing major on the radar so far this morning. We will keep you posted. Expect murky water through the day today. Leeches, large scuds and San Juan Worms. If the next batch of rains misses us, then we will go back to normal as things drop and clear. We will keep you posted.
EDIT 12:25 Forecast for the rest of the day (until 3 am now) This Afternoon Cloudy, with a high near 79. South wind around 7 mph. Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 79. South wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible. First round of storms missed us this morning! One a few rain drops and some threatening thunder as we opened, but the major storm was north of I-90. We're not forecasted for another round until about 5 p.m. That means the window is open to enjoy some really solid fishing. Yesterday was excellent with creeks clear to slightly stained as the ground soaked up quite a bit of the earlier rains. Fish were rising all day (not crazy strong but a nose popping here and there) on most of the creeks we fished and scouted. Olives are hatching, so make sure to have some good flush riding patterns in your fly box. Other than that, fish are still responding well to both larger and thicker bodied sub surface bugs (scuds, purple drank, pink squirrels) as well as thin bodied smaller flies (zebras, food, pink and purple belly PTs). We're still fishing our nymphs below a hopper or large foam indicator fly. Even with the periodic rains and wet grass, fish will occasionally eat the foam pattern. It serves as an edible indicator!
Periods of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 10am. High near 83. Southwest wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Anywhere from half an inch to an inch and a half of rain in the past 24 hours. Expect stained to muddy water. We aren't supposed to get anything after this morning so things will be fishable by the afternoon. Bad news is that rain are predicted to hit the area again through the week. We will keep you posted. Fishing has been quite good with fish happily eating subsurface and rising to olives, caddis and midges in the evenings. With the rain putting color in the water, focus on scuds, squirmy wormies, and leeches in black. In the stained to clear water your normal bead heads and olives on the surface will work.
Update 12:30--- So far scattered showers but nothing heavy. Nothing bad to report! Periods of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 3pm. Patchy fog before 1pm. High near 68. Southeast wind 7 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. The forecast sound foreboding, but so far, it looks like a band of heavy rain will hit quickly. We will keep you updated on what we see. Olives have become THE item on the menu. Over the chilly and cloudy weekend they showed up well in the afternoon and into the evenings. The terrestrial bit slowed down a bit with chillier and less dry weather, and looking at the week ahead that will not change. Look for action to be subsurface until the olives show up.
Saturday, September 14th, we are happy to have a fly line demo day sponsored by Scientific Anglers! What it is: Bring your own fly rod or rods that just do not seem to be performing right. Representatives from Scientific Anglers will be on hand with pretty much every fly line that they make. You will be able to test different tapers, weights, and textures of fly lines to create a perfect match for your fly rod! Instead of just guessing what will work well with your fly rod, you get a chance to test drive a bunch of different lines to get a perfect match for your fly rod and casting style! This is not a parking lot event, there will be water to cast on (as well as a bar inside...) to get a true feel. The event is free and starts at 3 p.m. at the Bad Axe Country Club in Esofea. For more information or directions, please e-mail or call the shop!
Increasing clouds, with a high near 70. Light west wind becoming northwest 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Beautiful weekend for trout fishing! Cool water temps and good flows have the fish very happy. There are a few tricos around in the morning, but the spinner fall has been very spotty all summer long. Mid day fishing a foam attractor or terrestrial (beetle/hopper etc) with a thin profile bead head below is the ticket. Fish are eating the nymph far more often than the hopper, but bigger fish will come up and smash the foam! Just make sure to target grass lined banks. In the later afternoon and evening we are seeing an olive hatch as well as a few caddis.
Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 73. North wind 11 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Last windy day today before the weekend. The wind isn't necessarily a bad thing though as it is blowing terrestrials into the creeks! We're looking at some cloudier weather for the weekend and a slight chance of drizzle. In other words, it will be cool cloudy and give anglers the edge versus a bright sunny sky! Excellent conditions We're still doing best on hoppers with droppers during the day. A chubby chernobyl or a user friendly (the fish are liking slimmer profiled foam flies) with purple drink, food, frenchies or zebra midges dropper below are great right now. In the late afternoon and evening we are seeing our late summer hatch of olives. A sparkle stacker or bunny dun emerger (as well as simple parachutes) will get the rising fish to eat. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the mid 60s. Excellent summer conditions!!
Sunny, with a high near 76. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Creeks are clear to stained with temperatures in the high 50s to 60. Fishing hoppers should be better today as the sun is bright first thing this morning drying out the bankside grass. Tricos are sparse with only a few spinner falls area wide getting the fish to rise early. Seek out the grassy banks and plop a foam fly with a dropper today for the best success. Olives are hatching in the evenings, but the hatch is still young and not quite thick yet. Leeches and streamers in the stained water have been deadly!
Mostly sunny, with a high near 70. Northwest wind around 6 mph. Things are great after the rains a couple of nights ago. Creeks are clear to stained and the flush in the creeks have the fish feeding a bit better than normal. Today will be an extremely pleasant summer day (again!) Tricos are still around in the mornings, but not in great numbers. Unless you are a morning person, sleeping in is a good thing! Fishing during the day on hoppers with bead head droppers is the key. Not only true hoppers, but foam patterns such as hippie stompers and training wheels or beetles have been good on the surface. Bead heads do not have to be anything fancy, but purple and a bit of flash seem to be working a bit better. In the evening we are seeing some olives hatching and fish feeding on the surface. If they do not seem to be eating olives, fish a royal stacker midge or a smaller foam ant.
UPDATE: Apparently we got a bit more rain than expected. Buzzing around creeks mid day today, a lot of things are murky out there. It is dropping and clearing quickly, but not clear like we reported first thing this am. A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before noon. Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 79. Breezy, with a southwest wind 8 to 18 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Last warm day in a while. A bit breezy and drizzly this morning, but nothing awful. Creeks re in great shape and fishing has been fantastic lately. With a touch warmer weather, the trico spinner fall has been a bigger thing, but still nothing to be super excited about. The main action is terrestrials and nymphs still. Fish are loving ants, beetles and hoppers as well as simple foam attractors. Tying a bead head below them lets you hit two different pieces of water at once. In the evening fish are rising to some late summer olives. Again, not the major hatch, but enough to get fish looking up. This has been one of the best trout summers we can remember. It's definitely worth getting out here and fishing and things will only get better as the rest of the week cools down!
Sunny, with a high near 71. Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph. No, that is not a typo. High is 71 today.... Fishing remains strong. With the stable weather we have seen more trico spinners, but still not enough to get super excited about. The main attraction is fishing foam and a dropper through the day, then if fish are rising on the creek you are on, fishing olives in the evening (or ants!!!). Creeks are clear and fish can be spooky mid day, but overall the conditions are fantastic for summertime. Saturday's high is 67 and cloudy with a chance of drizzle.....
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. Breezy, with a west wind 6 to 11 mph increasing to 12 to 17 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Great weather continues. No major changes to creeks or conditions. We did get some light rains yesterday and last night, but nothing to stain creeks significantly. This is still incredible weather for summertime! Get out there and toss a hopper or other foam bug with a dropper and you will catch fish! There are a few sparse hatches of olives, a few trico spinners in the mornings on select creeks too. Streamers are catching quite a few fish lately too.
Cloudy, with a high near 71. Calm wind becoming east 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 20%. It sure doesn't feel like August! Mild weather continues all week with a few days high temperature barely reaching 70 degrees. The creeks are in great shape, crystal clear and cool for mid summer (temps in the mid to high 50s to low 60s). Hopper, ants, and beetles are still the food of choice from mid morning into the evening. We are also seeing sporadic hatches of olives and craneflies on many of the creeks. If the fish are rising, a parachute (don't forget to twitch it) or a film critic will get fish to eat. If not, an ant certainly will! Foam with a dropper is still the go to rig with most fish eating the bead head, and the larger fish eating the big foam pattern. We're still waking up each morning and our jaw hits the floor when we step outside and are chilly. This is unseasonably awesome weather. Get out here and fish!
Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph. It's gorgeous out. Go fish! Hopper dropper is hot. We've got quite a few sparse hatches too. Caddis, olives and craneflies are around and we have seen quite a few rising fish through the day. Creeks are clear and flowing well and temperatures are solid pretty much area wide (mid 50s to low 60s) This is absolutely fantastic weather for August. The trout are very happy and it is just pleasant to be outside.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 74. East wind 6 to 8 mph. All weekend the weather is going to be in the mid 70s with overnight lows in the low 50s! We might not see this weather again in August again. It is seriously amazing to just be outside and the trout are in great moods. Fishing is a bit slow in the morning but you will find fish rising to midges (royal stacker midge) and parachutes (purple and adams). The major fishing is mid day though (so weird to say that in August!) on hoppers and droppers. Hippie stompers, training wheels, hoppers and large beetles are working up top. Ice cream cones, purple jig PTs, zebra midges and food are working subsurface. In the evenings we have started to notice an olive hatch. It isn't super intense, but there are bugs hatching and fish rising. The hatch is on the smaller creeks and headwater streams. The key seems to be finding the grassier banks. The larger rivers and even to an extent the grazed creeks are not fishing as well as the jungle-esque waters right now.
A chance of sprinkles after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 74. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the afternoon. The incredible weather continues! It's just pleasant to be outside in late August with the weather like this. Add to that cold water temperatures are very good trout fishing. Why aren't you hear fishing? Creeks are clear to slightly stained and flowing well with temperatures in the mid 50s to low 60s. There are a few fish rising early to midges and parachute adams. Through the day, a foam hopper or attractor pattern with a thin bodied bug below is deadly. The evening fishing is good with the hopper/dropper but we have already seen small hatches of blue winged olives and started to see a few pods of rising fish too.
Partly sunny, with a high near 75. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. Creeks are clear and flowing well with cool water temperatures. The high the next few days will be in the mid 70s and the lows in the low 50s! What more could you ask for in August?!?! Sparse hatches early and late, fish a purple parachute or CDC and elk caddis to rising fish. The vast majority of fishing right now is a hopper or foam fly with a bead head dropper. Hippie stompers, user friendlies, beetles etc with a purple drink, food, or simple red copper john below is excellent right now! The weather has been more than fantastic lately, we hope you can get out and enjoy this cool summer weather and chase our happy trout!
Isolated showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 11am and noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 81. Light and variable wind becoming south around 6 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temps in the high 50s to low 60s. This is forecasted to be the hottest day the rest of this week. Once again, get out here and fish! We do not get mid August weather like this often and the trout are in VERY good moods. Hopper/dropper is the key right now as hatches are sparse. Seek out the creeks with lots of bankside vegetation and even some shady areas and fish later in the morning and through the day. Terrestrials are not active first thing in the morning when there is dew on the grass. Early morning, and on the more open water, tight line nymphing, competition style fishing, or nymphing deep with an indicator will catch fish. They are a bit unwilling when the sun is overhead so fish early and late. Hatches are very sparse (which is normal this time of year) so focus on simple generalist patterns like purple parachutes and royal stacker midges for the surface bite.
Sunny, with a high near 79. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Creeks are clear to very slightly stained with water temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s. The summer continues to give us incredible fishing with fish feeding well on terrestrials and bead head droppers. Hatches are sparse, but there were fish rising yesterday to craneflies, egg laying caddis and midges. Fishing was best on small heavy droppers fished in the riffles and runs. The larger fish are actually the ones slurping the terrestrial so do not forget to use a larger foam pattern in your rig right now! While the percentage is low, the big fly is a tempting target to larger Driftless trout. Fishing is still best early and late when the sun is off the water. If you can find some tree lined creeks then fishing is good all day! This has been one of the best summers in the past decade! The weather this week looks good again with only one day over 80 and mid week temps in the mid to low 70s.
A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 9am and 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. West wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Brief Sunday rain report. It did rain last night in our area, locally heavy rains of up to an inch in the 'new normal' quick storm. Overall though creeks remain clear and fishable to stained. The larger amounts of rain were well south of Vernon County. Guide trips all went out this morning, and scouting around the area first thing this morning we found quite a bit of fishable water. Hopper dropper on the clear water. Leeches and San Juan worms on the stained stuff!
Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. Creeks are clear and just a bit low with water temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s. Excellent conditions for the middle of August! The terrestrial fishing is still extremely strong with fish eating beetles, ants, and hoppers quite well. Fishing a hopper/dropper or a hippie/dropper right now is a ton of fun. Fish are eating the larger terrestrial well and the shy fish are still eating subsurface. Purple hoppers, hen sitting on egg hoppers, and hippie stompers have been the most effective with Japanese beetles and Ungamunga beetles a close second for the foam/dropper rigs. Subsurface fishing has been best on purple zebra nymphs, purple drink, frenchies, and food. We can't say enough how good the water temps and flows are for this time of year! Get out there and enjoy some mild summer weather and trout fishing!
Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon. This is about as warm as it has been the past week! The unseasonably mild weather has fish in a great mood. While we have had some rainfall, most creeks are flowing clear and the rain has helped keep water temperatures cooler than normal for this time of year. Terrestrials have been HOT. Like trout cruising out from under cover and across the creek to eat your hopper hot. Hatches are sparse and the trico spinner fall has been mediocre (partly due to it being too cold), but ants, beetles, crickets and hoppers are making up for the lack of aquatic insect surface activity. While you can catch fish all day, your best fishing is still early and late avoiding the mid day sun.
Showers, mainly before 10am. High near 70. North wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. There was rain last night, anywhere from and inch to half an inch area wide. It was heavier north of the shop. It should not be enough to blow anything out or ruin fishing by any stretch of the imagination. Today is more than pleasant weather wise! We're forecasted for continuing temperatures in the 70s and cool overnight lows the rest of the week. While there are no major hatches going on (the tricos are sporadic and ok, but don't bet on the spinner fall being consistent) fish are looking up to terrestrials all day and simple purple parachutes in the evening. Subsurface fishing has been great lately too with fish eating mostly smaller, thin bodied nymphs as well as scuds and pink squirrels on days like today with some cloud cover.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 8am. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 78. Calm wind becoming northwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. The long weather report means it might drizzle with the slim chance of some localized heavier rain. So far it is nothing to be scared of. Overall creeks are clear to stained with excellent water temperatures for the summertime. Some scattered rains last night have a couple of creeks flowing stained this morning, but not anywhere near unfishable. Tricos have been showing up much later in the day due to cooler temperatures. We're seeing the spinner fall around 9 instead of 5 or 6 on the creeks that have tricos. The best fishing on the surface right now is on terrestrials. Fishing a hippie or a training wheel with a bead head tied below will consistently catch fish. Many days you can even take off the dropper and fish the foam pattern exclusively! Subsurface fishing has been best on smaller and thinner patterns like zebra midges and pink belly pheasant tails. Streamers and mice are doing a good job of picking up some larger fish at night right now too.
Showers likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 1pm. Patchy dense fog before 10am. High near 75. East wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Very humid out this morning which will go away once it rains. The rain forecast is not scary at all, it is just calling for some summer showers. If that changes, we will let you know. Creeks are clear and flowing well for summer with water temperatures much cooler than normal for summertime. This translates to really good fishing!!! Tricos are around in the mornings, but the spinner falls have been just OK with nothing too heavy to get excited about. The foam hatch, on the other hand, is great! Yesterday we never changed from foam hoppers and training wheels. Hoppers, ants, beetles and simple attractor patterns fished near the banks and below riffles have gotten fish to eat all day long. Subsurface fishing is also quite good with smaller, thinner profile bugs being the best (think perdigon and frenchie instead of hare's ear and prince). Either fishing them below a foam/hopper pattern or tight line nymphing them deep in the pools is effective. Early and late, fish are chasing streamers and leeches as well as mice too! Trout have been in a very good mood lately.
Scattered showers, mainly after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A bit of cloud cover and drizzle this evening could really get trout moving. As it is, the summer has been wonderful. Cooler than average water temperatures and pleasant days out on the creeks. Tricos are showing up in spinner falls in the mornings, then fishing a hippie stomper or large beetle with a bead head below through the day. Nothing too noteworthy fly wise, but solid fishing all day long right now! At night, some bigger fish have been eating mice and larger leeches too.
Sunny, with a high near 76. Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph. Can't complain about the weather so far this August. Temperatures are cooler than average, the creeks are clear and flowing well thanks to a rainy spring keeping the water levels up, and the fish are eating tricos in the mornings and terrestrials all day long on the surface! Dry dropper is the way to go after fish stop feeding on tricos at dawn. Fishing a training wheel or hippie stomper with a bead head tied below will work all day long! We're even forecasted for some clouds and drizzle tomorrow. With the sun being the limiting factor right now, a break from sunny summer days usually means better fishing. Shop will be open from 9-5 tomorrow (Saturday).
Sunny, with a high near 75. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. Creeks are clear to slightly stained. Weather is gorgeous, trico spinner falls are happening on most mornings, and the terrestrial bite has been excellent lately. With these cooler temperatures, fish are very happy for August! It's time to take a sick day or two.....
Sunny, with a high near 81. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. Scattered storms the past couple of days have some larger creeks stained up. Expect clear to slightly stained water area wide. Fishing is in its summer rhythm. Tricos in the morning, then terrestrials (with nymph droppers) all day long. When the sun is off the water, fishing is better! Very pleasant few days ahead with highs in the high 70s to 80! This has been an EXCELLENT weather summer for trout fishing.
Increasing clouds, with a high near 83. Southwest wind 5 to 9 mph. Summer Driftless fishing! Weather is still incredibly pleasant for mid summer. We're seeing tricos in the mornings and fishing hoppers and droppers through the day. Fishing is still best when the sun is off the water so fish early, fish late, and avoid the mid day sun. If you're out mid day, toss your terrestrials right on the bank and underneath overhanging vegetation, or fish nymphs in the deep pools. Creeks are low and clear with water temperatures in the low 60s. Only a couple creeks are hitting 65 degrees (the larger ones). It is still a good idea to use your thermometer as anything over 65 degrees will be slow fishing and much warmer than that can be harmful to hook trout in.
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Light north wind. This has been a huge block of stable weather, and the trout are loving it! Creeks are clear with only a couple still stained. Water temperatures are right around 60 with the exception of one or two of the larger creeks. In other words, near perfect summer conditions! Tricos in the mornings, terrestrials on the surface all day long. Fishing a hopper or attractor foam pattern with a dropper through the day can be deadly. Rolling a nymph along the bottom (whether it be tight line nymphing or indicator nymphing of the deeper pools) can also produce some excellent fishing during the summer. Mousing reports have been generally positive but lately numbers have not been great. The good news is it seems the best mousing is at dusk and slowing down late at night.
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Light north wind. This has been a huge block of stable weather, and the trout are loving it! Creeks are clear with only a couple still stained. Water temperatures are right around 60 with the exception of one or two of the larger creeks. In other words, near perfect summer conditions! Tricos in the mornings, terrestrials on the surface all day long. Fishing a hopper or attractor foam pattern with a dropper through the day can be deadly. Rolling a nymph along the bottom (whether it be tight line nymphing or indicator nymphing of the deeper pools) can also produce some excellent fishing during the summer. Mousing reports have been generally positive but lately numbers have not been great. The good news is it seems the best mousing is at dusk and slowing down late at night.
NOTE: Shop hours have been changed while we are on our hosted trip to Fernie B.C. Shop will be open 9-2 Monday-Sat and 9-Noon on Sunday. Fish early, stock up mid day, then fish again later in the day! Sunny, with a high near 81. Calm wind. Tricos in the morning, switching to ants and beetles in the later morning. Hopper (or hippie stomper, or training wheel!) with a dropper through the mid day, then back to ants and beetles in the evening. Stable summer conditions with excellent water temperature and clarity. Thanks to a very rainy spring, the creeks are flowing well and mostly clear with temperatures in the low 60s. The key is timing right now. Fish early, fish late, and find shade. Undercut banks and deep pools provide a break from the sun for fish mid day.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. North wind around 6 mph. Chilly nights and mild days the rest of the week! We have started to see some tricos spinners in the mornings!! It is still in the early stages, but clouds of tricos are in the air on some creeks right now. Fishing through the day with a foam pattern and a bead head is still key. Hatches, outside the tricos, are sparse so throw terrestrials on the surface. Subsurface fishing is best on smaller, thinner bodied bugs like zebra midges, purple drink, and perdigons. The best fishing is still early and late when the sun is off the water, however in these cooler temperatures it is more comfortable for trout (and anglers!) to feed mid day. Make sure your casts are right on the bank and near overhanging vegetation for the best results.
UPDATE: Eyes on the creek are telling me that the Timber Coulee and tributaries are clear and the West Fork even looks good. The rains were far more severe south of us. So head north of the shop to find clear and fishable water! Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Northwest wind 6 to 14 mph. It did rain last night with at least 1/2 an inch falling and in some cases up to 1.5 inches. This means we will have murky water on some creeks this morning but it should drop and clear very quickly on all but the largest creeks. Otherwise, the fishing conditions have been excellent for mid summer! Water temperatures are very good (again with the exception of the larger creeks) and these summer rains help keep things cooler than normal for late July. We have started to see some trico spinners in the mornings! It's just about time to start waking up early and chasing risers to these mayfly spinners. Otherwise, fishing a terrestrial with a bead head dropper has been fantastic. Chubby chernobyls, hippie stompers, even small hopper patterns with a brush hog, purple drink, or frenchie tied below has been great all day long. Fishing is still best when the sun is off the water, but mid day temps are such that bombing the banks with a hopper/dropper is productive and comfortable for anglers! (all week we are looking at highs in the high 70s or 80)
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Sunny, with a high near 85. West wind 6 to 9 mph. Creeks are clear to stained with water temperatures in the low to mid 60s. Remember anything over 65 will be poor fishing and much higher than that can be lethal to trout! Mornings have been good, but a tad slow on the surface. Nymphing and hopper/dropper in the mornings and through the day is effective. The evenings have been where the action is the past couple of days. Fishing ants, beetles, training wheels, and purple parachute have been quite a bit of fun! Subsurface fishing is decent all day. Go deeper as the sun gets higher in the sky. Fish will pod up in the pools mid day and push into the riffles and runs to feed when the sun is off the water. With stable weather and water levels, mousing is picking up!
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Breezy, with a south wind 10 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. A consistent week of weather means stable fishing. Great water temperatures this summer mean happy trout. Things are great this summer in the Driftless! Creeks are clear to stained with only a couple still showing some stain (bigger creeks are still heavily stained). Early in the day and later at night (when the sun is off the water) you will see some rising fish. These fish are eating stacker midges and purple haze. As the sun comes out and dries things up, terrestrials start moving around and become the preferred meal for trout on the surface. Ants, beetles, even small hoppers are effective right now. Fishing a large foam patterns (hippie stomper, training wheel) with a bead head tied below it is the way to be fishing. Not only will the fish eat the subsurface fly, but they are crushing the indicator bug too. In the deeper water, leeches and streamers are turning some significant fish.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Another gorgeous summer day in the Driftless! Creeks are mostly clear with a few showing a persistent stain. The smaller waters and tributaries are all clear. Fishing has been great for summer early on bead heads below hippie stompers and hoppers, then later in the day going to smaller terrestrials on the surface fished right next to vegetation and overhanging trees. Of course you can also keep your foam/bead head dropper on and catch fish all day! Actual hatches are sparse this time of year, but you will still get fish rising to some rusty spinners in the morning, and midges and craneflies in the evenings.
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Sunny, with a high near 82. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Solid summer conditions! Stable temperatures and good water temperatures have the fish very happy for late July. The limiting factor is the sun. Fish early and fish late and avoid the mid day sun. Spotty showers yesterday especially east of Viroqua have a few streams running with a stain again today. While it might take a little windshield time, each valley received a different amount of rain so while one may be murky, another is crystal clear. Most of the hatches have dwindled as we wait on the trico hatch/spinner fall. Fishing midges and generic mayflies early and late works for rising fish. The main tactic right now is fishing terrestrials right up against the bank and near overhanging vegetation, or fishing a hopper or foam fly with a bead head dropper.
Sunny, with a high near 79. Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph. It felt chilly first thing this morning! Weather has stabilized and it looks amazing for the next week. Creeks have calmed down from the storms late last week and most are clear to slightly stained. The high waters moved some things around and changed some holes, so expect some new holes and runs out there. The rains insulated water temperatures from skyrocketing with the heat wave last week too. Things are in more than great shape right now. While there are no major hatches, sporadic mayflies, midges and craneflies are getting fish to eat when the sun is not shining on the water. During the middle part of the day, fishing a beetle, ant or even hopper is very effective! Fish are hitting terrestrials with abandon right now. Subsurface fishing has been great lately with scuds, leeches, and squirmy wormies working on the stained water, and zebra midges, perdigons and brush hogs getting the job done on the clear creeks.
Sunny, with a high near 76. North wind 6 to 10 mph. Weather is back to normal! After a weird last few days with heavy rains, flash floods, and a heat wave... Things are back on track in the Driftless. There are still quite a few creeks running with a heavy stain. Many are fishable and all are dropping and clearing quickly now. Fishing leeches and streamers, squirmy wormies, and scuds on the stained water has been very good. We started to see the return of rising fish yesterday too on the clear waters. They're eating terrestrials and attractor patterns on the surface as well as midges at night. We're looking forward to a week of stable conditions and comfortable summer weather. Creek temperatures are quite good for this time of year as the recent rains have everything a bit cooler than normal.
Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming northeast in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Things are SLOWLY clearing and dropping. Unfortunately we are predicted to get some scattered heavy rains again this afternoon. There is a little fishable water. Lots of leech and San Juan worm opportunities with a few headwater creeks clear enough to dry fly or nymph regularly. If you are out this morning, it might take some drive time to find the surprise creek that is running clear to slightly stained. It isn't pretty out there, and if we get the rains predicted then things will blow out again. The only piece of good news is the rains have kept the water temperatures from rising rapidly in the heat wave of last week.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 93. Heat index values as high as 107. South wind 6 to 10 mph. Bad news: We got some heavy rain that has creeks high and muddy this morning. Bad news #2: It is supposed to be over 100 degrees with the heat index Good News: The high water and rains will help keep water temperatures down Good News #2: The temperatures are predicted to return to normal tomorrow (high of 85 Saturday and 79 Sunday) Expect muddy water this morning. The storm that looked like it was going to miss us last night ended up pouring the area with rain this morning. Looking at the precipitation totals, there has been about 4 inches give or take in the past 24 hours. We're not supposed to get any more rain which means we will have fishable water by this evening and though the weekend, but today is pretty much a bust until much later on. The heat wave is supposed to break tonight too. So giving the creeks a day off (and not roasting in the heat today) means cooler temperatures and cleaner water for angling tomorrow.
Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 102. Southwest wind around 11 mph. Might be a good day to not fish.... Rains hit harder south of us dumping 2-3 inches. North of the shop was only 1-2 inches, but enough to muddy things up this morning. While the creeks will bounce back quickly, the heat will be rough today. We're looking at very hot an humid conditions. Be safe if you are out fishing and drink tons of water, sit in the creek to cool down etc. Or better yet, wait a couple of days for the heat wave to dissipate! Fishing has been quite good so far this summer especially in the evenings on terrestrials.
Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 86. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Despite the heat, the fishing has been good. Just make sure to use your thermometer as some of the larger creeks are hitting the 65 degree mark. Once water temps get there, fishing shuts off. The fish are not boiling in the water, the just hunker down near the springs and relax. Otherwise, fish early and late and find some shade! Creeks are clear to slightly stained due to the spotty rains we have had the past few days. Hatches are sparse. Midges and parachutes in purple and adams get rising fish to eat right now, as well as craneflies. Most of your trout are being caught on terrestrials. Fishing a larger foam indicator pattern or even a hopper with a bead head below is deadly this time of year. Rolling heavy nymphs along the bottom on a tight line is another great way to catch fish that are deeper in the pools. Don't neglect ants! They are excellent in the summertime, both dry and fished as a dropper below foam.
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Southwest wind 3 to 7 mph. It's still hot here in the Driftless. Fishing has held on for the most part, but larger creeks are starting to get warmer and slow down. Look for the smaller headwater streams and fish early and late (when the sun is off the water) for the best fishing. It doesn't look like the heatwave will last forever, we just have to get through the weekend then things are predicted to normalize. Midges and purple parawullfs in the morning and evenings on the surface. Hopper or hippie stomper with a dropper all day long.
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 88. Southwest wind 7 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Hot time, summer in the Driftless... Creeks are clear with a couple still stained. Water temperatures are in the low to mid 60s. We're starting to carry thermometers again with this heat wave. The larger creeks are creeping above 65 degrees which means slow to no fishing. Otherwise, the smaller creeks are still in good shape for mid summer. Look for the best fishing when the sun is off the water. This means getting out early, taking a break mid day, fishing late, and finding shade through the day. Hatches are sparse, but that does not mean you are forced to fish subsurface. Terrestrials during the day and into the evening are a hoot, while early in the morning and at dusk, fish are rising to midges and some egg laying caddis. Subsurface flies are thinner profile, small-fish(16-20) and heavy. Fish them in the bottom of the pools and below undercut banks.
Sunny, with a high near 85. Light southwest wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Summer in the Driftless. There are still trout to be caught! Creeks are clear to stained with water temperatures in the low 60s. The main factor will be the sun. Try not to fish hard when the sun is on the water. Concentrate your efforts early and late when there is shade. There are sparse hatches early and late. Mostly midges and random mayflies (parachute adams or purple hatch!) and craneflies. During the day it is terrestrial time. When the sun dries the dew on the grass, ants and beetles are out and about. We're even seeing baby hoppers now. Fishing a single terrestrial tight to vegetation, or a larger foam bug with a bead head dropper is excellent right now. At night, mousing and throwing larger streamers can be effective. It hasn't been the best mousing year so far, but with a string of drier weather for the next few days it could pick up quite a bit!
Mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 78. North wind 6 to 9 mph. Looks like the last cool day for a while. We have low to mid 80s coming up for the next few days. Water temperatures, thankfully, are holding steady right around 60. Creeks are clear to slightly stained. Midges and parachute adams early and late when the sun is off the water and fish are rising. During the day, we are in summertime mode. This means fishing an ant or beetle near overhanging grass and vegetation, or fishing a hopper/hippie with a dropper below.
Increasing clouds, with a high near 82. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Cloudy and 82 in the summertime? Excellent! Fish have seemingly stuck in summer mode. They are feeding on midges in the mornings and evenings when the sun is off the water, then feeding on hopper/dropper through the day. Tiny hoppers, hippie stompers and training wheels on the surface, perdigons, purple drinks, and food subsurface. Nothing too tricky right now in the Driftless! Creeks are clear to stained with the exception of one or two larger creeks. Water temperatures are in the low 60s.
HEADS UP: There is a roofing job going on across the street on main street and traffic is being re-routed. This means there will be no main street parking for the next few days! Please park on the side streets and municipal lots to the west of the fly shop. Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. Summertime in the Driftless! It's getting warm mid day and a wee bit uncomfortable to be out fishing for humans. Luckily with the recent rains, water temperatures are still hovering right around 60 degrees on most of our creeks. The larger ones are getting a touch warmer, but we have not found anything to be in the 65 plus range yet. If we keep up the night time temperatures in the 60s and daytime not quite topping 80, then all will remain well. Midges on the surface in the morning and evening, then fishing terrestrials with a dropper throughout the day! There are still a few light colored mayflies and caddis hanging around, but not in huge numbers. It's all about ants and beetles right now!
Partly sunny, with a high near 84. North wind 3 to 5 mph. Creeks are clear to stained. The recent rains the past couple of days have water temperatures a touch cooler than normal for this time of year. Look for fish to rise early to midges and small mayfly spinners. Once the sun hits the water the rising activity will stop. After a couple hours of nymphing terrestrial fishing will start to pick up (wait for the dew on the ground to dry). Fishing a hopper or indicator pattern with a dropper will catch fish all day long. Some deep nymphing will also be effective below the riffles and under cut banks during the day. In the evening fish will start rising again to midges, caddis, craneflies and a few mayflies. The hatches are sparse so don't expect magic. If there are not a ton of rising fish, continue fishing your foam pattern with a dropper.
Shop will be closed July 4th. Back to regular hours on Friday the 5th!
Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the morning. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Little to no rain yesterday has creeks clear to medium stain today. The larger creeks are still running murky. Fishing was solid yesterday as water temperatures are unseasonably cool and flowing well. The hatches are not strong this time foyer, which is very normal. You can catch fish on midges and skittered caddis as well as parachute purple things when trout are rising early and late, but the main surface activity is on terrestrials. While we have not seen much in terms of hopper activity yet, ants and beetles are quite good. The vast majority of feeding is subsurface with fish eating scuds, perdigons, pink belly pheasant tails, and purple drinks. On the murky water leeches and San Juan worms are still deadly.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Quite a bit of rain again last night has creeks stained to muddy this morning. The relentless rain has really narrowed down the number of fishable creeks. They are out there, but the number is shrinking as we get more rains. Today looks like a break from the rains thankfully with a small chance of scattered showers through the day. Again, these rains, although temporarily annoying, are a good thing heading into summer as they keep the springs pumping cold water into the creeks, and will keep things cooler than average. Fish are feeding well on ugly bugs. Leeches, San Juan and Squirmy Wormies as well as large scuds and black streamers. As things drop and clear, the hippie stomper hatch is in full swing!
Scattered showers and thunderstorms before 1pm, then isolated showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. West wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. We're looking at a chance of storms all week long. This is a double edged sword as the rains are keeping things cooler, and the stain is definitely helping with fishing on sunny days, however the ground is saturated and enough heavy rain will cause things to muddy up quite a bit, When the rains come, spend some extra windshield time as certain valleys tend to clear quickly even after heavy rains. Yesterday and this morning's rains were heavier south and east of the shop (Fennimore area got pounded again!) so head north and you have a better chance of finding fishable and clear water. In the murky water, black leeches, San Juan worms and squirmy wormies work quite well. On stained water, scuds are your best friend as are other larger bead head nymphs. When things clear up, an indicator dry (hippie stomper, training wheel, unsinkabeetle) with a bead head below will catch fish. Hatches are spotty and sporadic. There are still some caddis and light colored mayflies around, and midges are becoming a popular menu item for trout recently too.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. Light and variable wind. Hot and sunny this weekend. Fish early and fish late and avoid the mid day sun. It will be far better for fishing as well as angler health/comfort! Creeks have dropped and cleared significantly with only the largest bodies of water still murky. Expect clear to stained conditions area wide. Hatches will be sparse and limited to when the sun is off the water. Look for midges and a few lighter colored mayflies. Most of the action will be on terrestrials right now. Fishing a hippie stomper with a dropper has been excellent. Deep nymphing the pools below the riffles is the other way to go. Photo is from our guide Pete this morning.
Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 9am. High near 85. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. After a brief, but heavy thunderstorm yesterday afternoon creeks were muddy but dropping. This morning at about 5 am we had another brief thunderstorm that caused micro flash flooding area wide. An hour later, there is no more rain here (quite a bit south though) in Viroqua. What this means is that the creeks will be muddy this morning. It looks like the storms have passed us for now, but we still have the chance for a bit more rain in another hour or two. We will keep you updated.
EDIT 2:15 p.m. A large gully washer briefly pushed through the area casing some minor flash flooding. Expect muddy water for a few hours, and mud to continue through tomorrow if we get the forecasted 1-2 inches of rain tonight. We will keep you posted. Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 4pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 85. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Summer fishing is in full swing here. Water temperatures are in the high 50s and low 60s. Still excellent area wide if it weren't for the bright glowing orb in the sky. The sun is the major limiting factor. Fish early, fish late, avoid the mid day sun and find shade to find fish. Fishing an indicator pattern (hippie stomper, training wheel) with a dropper is the most effective way to catch fish right now during the day. Very early and very late we do have some rising fish, so have your light colored mayflies and some midge patterns handy. Subsurface fishing has been best on perdigons, frenchies, pink and purple belly pheasant tail nymphs and ice cream cones.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. West wind 6 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Light rain happening first thing this morning. Nothing to muddy up the creeks. Rains were sparse yesterday in Viroqua and north. There was one cell of rain south and east of us that hit hard. Overall the creeks are in very good shape today, clear to slightly stained with a higher chance of stain and cloudy water east and south of the shop. Trout are easing into summer mode meaning fishing through the day with terrestrials on the surface or a larger foam attractor pattern with a bead head is effective. As always, tight line nymphing heavy bead heads is working too. In the evening we are continuing to get rising fish. They are eating a mix of lighter colored mayflies (cahills), caddis, and parachute adams. Remember to twitch your flies as fish are keying in on movement right now.
UPDATE: 3:00. Rain was only south and east of us. There has not been a drop of rain in Viroqua and the sun is shining! They also dropped the chance of rain today to 40%. It's looking like we are dodging a bullet again today! Showers and thunderstorms likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. High near 72. Southwest wind 6 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. We were dead wrong about yesterday. The storms never came and it was on and off gentle showers most of the day yesterday! Creeks are still in good shape right now. We are supposed to get some more storms this afternoon however. Fishing continues to be solid area wide with fish feeding subsurface throughout the day, and focusing on the hatches in the evenings. While this week will warm up temperature wise a bit, water temperatures are excellent for summer. Just avoid sunny parts of the day and you will catch trout!
ncreasing clouds, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 9 to 14 mph. Today is looking great. Creeks are clear to stained with temps in the low to mid 50s. These temperatures are 5-10 degrees colder than normal for this time of year!! Fishing a hippie with a dropper during the day is catching fish. If you are an early riser, you can find fish feeding on small spinners and midges first thing int he morning on the surface. The evening brings out more hatching bugs (light colored mayflies and caddis) and can get the fish feeding. If the hatches do not come off, just continue to fish the indicator dry and dropper or nymph deep to catch fish. Tomorrow doesn't look friendly with thunderstorms predicted all day long.
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 72. Southeast wind 6 to 14 mph. Looks like rain will hold off until late this weekend! Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the 50s. You did not read that incorrectly, we are still getting temperatures that low right now! Fish are starting to key in on terrestrials right now with fish eating ants and beetles well. That also means the hippie stomper and chubby chernobyl bite is getting even better. (Don't forget to tie on a bead head dropper below your larger foam pattern!) Subsurface feeding has been very random as fish are seemingly eating everything. From perdigons to brush hogs, from food to coulee scuds. Your best bet is to grab a bunch of varying patterns. Think/thick, dark/bright etc. Keep switching bead heads until the fish tell you what they want. Mousing and streamer fishing at dusk and into dark is definitely picking up!
Partly sunny, with a high near 73. Light and variable wind becoming northeast 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Another gorgeous day in the Driftless. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the 50s. Everything is going just fine for the last day of Spring. Fish are eating on the surface early in the mornings and again in the evenings on most creeks. They're feeding on a mix of caddis, craneflies, and lighter colored mayflies. When in doubt, a parachute adams or parawulff in purple will get fish rising. During the day smaller terrestrials (ants and beetles) are doing great on sunnier days like today. Fish them close to the overhanging grasses especially near undercut or shady banks. During the mid day lull, a hippie stomper or training wheel with a bead head tied below works. The larger fish have been eating the hippie on the surface instead of the bead head! Your bead head does not have to be specific. Instead carry some thicker bodied flies, and some thinner profiled flies and let the fish tell you what they want to eat. There is a ton of food drifting around right now, so change flies often to get the subsurface bite dialed in!
Partly sunny, with a high near 72. Northeast wind 3 to 7 mph. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the 50s. Only one or two creeks are still heavily stained from the rains a few days ago! Fishing is good during the day on nymphs and terrestrials. As things dry out, beetles and ants become more effective throughout the day. Throwing a heavy nymph right below the riffles and into the pockets in the riffles is deadly all day long. In the evening things light up with most of the creeks having pods of rising fish. They are feeding on craneflies, caddis, lighter colored mayflies and even midges!
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 74. Calm wind becoming west around 6 mph in the afternoon. Mild and partly cloudy today! This spring weather has been more than excellent for the trout streams. The rains have kept the springs pumping out water and water temperatures have been incredible. Creeks are clear to stained with temperatures in the 50s. We're still seeing quite a few hatches including sulphurs, cahills, caddis and craneflies. Most of the hatch activity is in the evening. During the day fishing nymphs either tight lined, or as a hippie stomper/dropper is effective. While the fish are not pattern specific subsurface (outside of scuds!) having a few tungsten bead nymphs in thick and thin profiles is not a bad idea. Keep switching flies and the trout will tell you what they like. With the recent rains, mousing has slowed down a bit. Look for a string of drier days and mousing will pick up again.
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 74. Calm wind. Creeks are clear to medium stain after a weekend with spotty rains. Only one or two creeks are muddy as everything has had quite a bit of time to drop and clear. On the clear creeks, fishing heavy bead heads during the day right below the riffles and rolling them below undercut banks is key. As the sun starts to go down later in the day, we are seeing lighter colored mayflies (sulfurs, cahills, PMDs) hatching alongside of craneflies and a few remaining caddis. On the stained water, larger scuds, leeches and San Juan worms will catch fish.
Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Calm wind becoming east 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Good weather morning this morning! Fishing has been quite solid with cooler weather and cloud cover. We are not expecting much in terms of rain today, but we will keep you posted. Creeks are clear and flowing well with temperatures in the high 50s and low 60s. Caddis, craneflies, light and dark colored mayflies are the main hatches. Subsurface fishing has been solid on heavy patterns fished deep or as a dropper below a hippie stomper.
Partly sunny, with a high near 72. Breezy, with a southwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Outside of the winds, conditions couldn't be better for mid June! Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temps in the mid 50s to low 60s. We're still seeing sporadic hatches of a bunch of bugs. When it seems overwhelming with the amount of insect life, keeping things simple is key. Parachute adams, parachute cahill, CDC and elk and craneflies will match most anything out there right now. On windy days like this, the ant and beetle fishing can be fantastic! Fishing them near grassy banks both dry and just subsurface can be a blast. Of course, going with the standard hippie stomper or training wheel with a dropper will work. Bead head wise, again nothing too specific. While scuds are hot right now, fish are also eating pink and purple belly pheasant tails, hot spot hare's ears, food, and purple drink flies. On the creeks that still have a stain, fish leeches, large scuds, and squirmy wormies.
Sunny, with a high near 67. North wind 6 to 10 mph. Cool and sunny today. Expect stained water with a couple clear creeks and only one or two muddy creeks. The rains fell heavily early yesterday and one heavy shower around 7 p.m. The ground did a pretty good job of absorbing much of the rains yesterday and the creeks have had all night to drop and clear. On the clear water, nymphing with a thinner bodied bug (zebra midge, food, coulee scud) has been excellent. On the creeks with a stain leeches and streamers as well as San Juan worms have been excellent! On a sunny day, finding a creek with a stain can be a good thing as fish are more comfortable.
UPDATE 8:40 a.m. Raining heavier than predicted. We will keep you updated, but some valleys have already received about an inch of rain. Again, the rains are not supposed to last for a long time and things should clear quickly. Periods of showers and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly before 1pm, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. High near 63. Light and variable wind becoming north 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. The forecast sounds far more ominous that it looks. We have a small cell of light rain over us that will turn into a brief shower at about 8, then it mellows out quite a bit with nothing backing it up. The rains should not be heavy enough to muddy things up as we have had little to no rain fall since last night. Creeks are clear and flowing well with water temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s. Hatches include craneflies, caddis, lighter colored mayflies, yellow sallies and a bunch of random mayflies (parachute adams hatch) Subsurface fishing has been best on the purple drink, coulee scuds, oops, and prince nymphs.
Cloudy, with a high near 73. Southwest wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. So far no rain in Viroqua. Just light sprinkles here and there. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temps in the mid 50s to 60. This cooling trend is doing wonders to fishing! Fish are happily eating subsurface on purple drink, pink squirrels, oops, and scuds. On the surface we are still having success with craneflies, light colored mayflies, and small terrestrials (ant hatch!!!)
A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Cloud cover, sweet cloud cover! The past couple of days have been tough with the bright sun and hot temperatures. It felt like August out there instead of June! The coming week looks like it will get back to normal. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s. Hatches are all across the board with caddis, sulfurs, yellow sallies, red quills, march browns and more hatching. Your best bet is to have a variety of sizes and colors to you dry flies. The key is the twitch. Move your flies for best results. Subsurface has been a bit better on slimmer and more subtle patterns like zebra midges and ice cream cones. As the sun goes away a bit and water temperatures cool down, the thicker bodied patterns and scud will pick up again. Do not neglect mice and leeches at dusk! We're seeing some aggressive and some larger fish showing up at night.
Sunny, with a high near 84. Southeast wind 5 to 8 mph. Creeks are clear with water temps in the high 50s to mid 60s. We're still seeing hatches of craneflies, caddis, and lighter colored mayflies. The sun is a limiting factor right now as it is causing a lull in fishing action mid day. Fish early and late and find shade for the best fishing! The upside of the sunny weather is that it has terrestrials moving around quite a bit. Our success with beetles and ants (especially sunken) has been quite good the past couple of days. Subsurface fishing is still best on heavy bead heads fished right below and up into riffles. Perdigons, purple drink, frenchies and scuds are all fishing well. The weekend looks like more of the same weather, so fish a hippie or training wheel with a dropper through the day and match the hatch early and late when the sun is not directly on the water.
Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 81. Calm wind. Things continue to roll along on our trout creeks. Expect clear to slightly stained water area wide with only one or two creeks still showing a medium stain. Everything is fishable! Water temps are in the high 50s to low 60s. Craneflies, caddis, lighter colored mayflies (cahills and sulphurs) are hatching and we are seeing yellow sallies on a few creeks too. Subsurface action has been great with tungsten bead head stuff working well. Prince nymphs, purple drank, and other thick bodied patterns are working on the stained waters where pheasant tails, midge larvae, and the oops fly are doing well on the clear waters. Do not be afraid to fish foam indicator flies. Even hoppers are catching fish even though there are no hoppers on the banks! A foam fly with a dropper is a great way to fish through the day when nothing is hatching. When the sun comes out switching to bottom bouncing nymphs is a good idea as things will slow down a bit with the sun directly overhead.
Partly sunny, with a high near 80. Northwest wind 3 to 5 mph. Patchy rains hit us yesterday, but only an inch or so with a few valleys getting anything much heavier. In other words, we escaped the bad storms once again. While there will be a few murky creeks this morning, the vast majority are going to be stained with a few already crystal clear as of this morning. If you find murky water and do not feel like fishing leeches and Squirmy Wormies (which are deadly on the stained water right now!) drive a valley or two over and you will find something clearer and fish willing to eat dries. Water temperatures are in the high 50s to low 60s. We are seeing light colored mayflies hatching in the evenings, as well as caddis and craneflies throughout the day. Subsurface fishing on the stained water will be great on leeches and squirmy worries. On the clearer creeks, coulee scuds, purple drink jigs, and other tungsten bead head jigs are quite effective. Especially when put below a hippie stomper or training wheel!
UPDATE 1:00 I was a bit wrong. The rains did stain the water fairly heavily this morning. However, it was a true 'mini flash flood' and creeks have dropped and started clearing as of mid day. There is quite a bit of clear to medium stained water out there now with only one or two creeks still murky. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80. South wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A small band of rain rolling through this morning. It will be gone by 9. Creeks are clear to slightly stained and fishing well. Hatches include craneflies, caddis, and lighter colored mayflies. Hippie stompers and chubby chernobyl's are doing well as indicator flies with a bead head dropped below. Bead heads of every variety seem to be working! Purple is a hot color right now. If fish aren't targeting thicker bodied flies like the brush hog or prince nymph, then switch to a zebra midge or perdigon. Water temps are mid 50s to high 50s. This rain will not muddy things up significantly with the rains this morning.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 76. South wind 5 to 9 mph. It's almost too nice out there right now! Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the mid 50s to low 60s. Lots of bugs are hatching including caddis, craneflies, and lighter colored mayflies. Fish are also feeding well on ants and beetles. Fishing a hippie stomper with a bead head below has been just deadly lately. Do not forget to twitch your flies every once in a while. Subsurface fishing has been best on medium bodied patterns with a bit of flash. In the middle part of the day on the super clear creeks, switching to a zebra midge or something a bit thinner and more subtle will get spookier fish to eat.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the mid 50s to high 50s. Everything is going well in the Driftless! We're seeing hatches of crane flies, caddis, lighter colored mayflies, and yellow sallies! When the fish are not rising we are fishing a hippie stomper with a bead head below. There was a brief storm this morning that was more thunder than rain. We're looking at a great cloudy day today.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. West wind 7 to 11 mph. Hot and sunny today, but it mellows back out for the weekend. We're still seeing a bunch of hatches right now including; Caddis, craneflies, sulfurs, cahills, and yellow sallies. Add to that terrestrials on the surface (ants and beetles, no hoppers yet) and you have a great chance for some fun dry fly action this weekend. Subsurface fishing has been great on thinner bodied patterns. perdigons, pink and purple belly pheasant tails, spanish bullets, zebra midges. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with only one or two still running with a heavy stain. Water temps are in the mid to high 50s. Remember, we have Andrew Grillos as a guest tier this Saturday at the Bad Axe Country Club in Esofea! The event runs from 5-9. Free event with brats and sides available for purchase, and a cash bar! Call or e-mail for more info.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 76. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Creeks are all clear except one or two that have a slight stain to them! Water temperatures are in the mid to high 50s. We have seen caddis, craneflies, olive spinners, midges, sulphurs, and yellow sallies on the surface the past couple of days. In other words, we are in a bug soup situation! Creeks are mostly clear to a medium stain at worst on one or two larger bodies of water. Fish are feeding in the slicks and flat pools in the mornings until the sun shines on the water. They then push into the runs below riffles waiting for hatches and feeding heavily subsurface. In the evenings, they spread out again looking for mayflies. If the sulfurs continue hatching, look for trout to feed on them the last few hours of the evening. Subsurface fishing has been best on pink and purple belly pheasant tails, as well as purple zebra midges and scuds.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 77. West wind 6 to 11 mph. Yesterday was excellent with clear water. The morning rains did not affect the creeks at all. Last night we had some very quick and heavy rains. Rainfall totals for the past 24 hoursup in La Crosse were pushing 1.5 inches, Richland center register 1.75 inches, down in De Soto 1 inch. Viroqua was less than half an inch and Newton only received 1/4 of an inch in last nights storm. What that means for fishing is that the closer to Viroqua you are this morning, the better the water will be! Scouting this morning, creeks just to the east of us were in great shape, clear to slightly stained. There is fishable water out there, and the creeks that are running muddy will drop and clear quickly as the rains came and went very rapidly last night around 10 pm. In the murky to stained water, it's worm time! A San Juan or squirmy wormy can be deadly. Add to that leeches and large scuds and you will be set. On the clear water, we will see caddis on the surface again, as well as craneflies. With the bright and sunny weekend, it is doubtful any olives will show up except late in the evening. Subsurface bugs should have a bit of thickness to them to imitate the caddis and cranefly larvae. If you run into a murky creek, drive into the next valley! It might take a bit of exploring first thing this morning, but there is fishable water out there and rising fish were spotted at 6 this morning!
UPDATE 10:30 AM. The storm lost intensity on the Mississippi. While it is still raining lightly, it looks like we escaped the heavy rains. There is no storm backing this one up, so expect some creeks to stain up this afternoon, but with no major muddy damage for the most part. In other words, later today and into tomorrow are looking quite good! Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 67. East wind 8 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. We're watching rain start to develop this morning. Overnight we had some light rain, not enough to do any damage. Expect updates throughout the day as we monitor the rains. If this storm hits it will not be anything to permanently muddy up the creeks outside of for this afternoon. The holiday weekend will be fine. As of 8 this morning the storm is in central Iowa and losing some intensity as it travels east. Fishing has been quite good lately as the storms have barely touched us leaving our water in great shape! Caddis, olives, craneflies and midges are hatching daily (usually in the afternoons) and, while not on every stretch of water, pods of rising fish are being found. Subsurface fishing has been great with heavy bead heads with a thicker profile (pork chop express, purple pills, prince nymphs, and brush hogs are catching fish regularly. We're fishing them under hippie stompers and chubby chernobyls. A few fish are eating the large indicator fly too! Leeches and streamers have been excellent on the days with cloud cover and if we have some stain on the water.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. West wind 9 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temps in the mid 50s. Caddis (both black and tan) and craneflies are hatching, and we ran into a pretty nice olive hatch last night too. Everything is humming along in the Driftless! Subsurface fishing has been good on pretty much everything. From scuds to zebra midges, and brush hogs to dirty birds. The key is changing quite a few times to find out what the trout want! Get out there and fish, this is the peak of season!
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 72. Breezy, with a southeast wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Fishing remains strong! Creeks are a bit stained up after up to an inch of rain last night, but most streams are slightly stained while only a few are murky to muddy. Everything will drop and clear quickly as the rain hit last evening and we are not predicted to receive any more today. The rollercoaster weather has everything hatching, but in limited numbers. We are still seeing caddis, craneflies, a few olives and midges. You can find pods of happy fish, but we haven't seen entire packs of risers the last couple of days. Subsurface action has been good as we need a bit more stable weather for excellent dry fishing. Fishing a heavy pattern right along the bottom can get fish to eat all day long.
Showers likely, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 53. Breezy, with an east wind 7 to 12 mph increasing to 16 to 21 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Things are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the low to mid 50s. It looks like things will cloud up a bit but we are not supposed to get any significant rain. Look for olives and craneflies again today! Subsurface fishing has been hot on scuds and brush hogs as well as purple and pink belly pheasant tails. Do not neglect leeches and streamers, especially on cloudy days like today.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 58. North wind 6 to 11 mph. The storms this weekend just brushed us and never hit hard. We have clear to slightly stained water with only one or two creeks unfishable in our area! Fish have been eating craneflies and tiny olives on the surface. If the clouds stay overhead the olives will continue to hatch. If it clears up and becomes sunny then look for caddis to be more abundant. Craneflies are hatching regardless of the weather. Subsurface fishing has been best on purple belly pheasant tails, coulee scuds, and brush hogs. The photo is from yesterday mid day!
Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before noon, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 69. Southeast wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Wow have we lucked out. The rains last night missed us and the storm today is splitting around our area! Creeks are clear to stained and fishing quite well. On the stained water, leeches and scuds are key, while on the clear water fishing a dry/dropper with a high visibility attractor fly (hippie stomper/chubby chernobyl) with a flashy dropper nymph. Yesterday our guides were even fishing dries as there are craneflies, caddis, and a few stoneflies and olives around;.
EDIT 1:30 Rain missed us mid day. It doesn't look like anything is behind this storm right now, so fishing will remain solid into the evening!!! Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 58. East wind 11 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Creeks are clear to stained with the exception of the largest creeks which are stained to murky. We had no more rain after the brief storm yesterday morning which means things have dropped and cleared significantly for today. We're forecasted for showers with a random storm cell here and there in the afternoon. Nothing to freak out about through the day so far. Things should be on track. The weekend might be a different story. Tonight is a wild card, we might get some rain again, but nothing significant. The same goes for Saturday. Saturday night is the rough forecast as it is supposed to dump an inch or two of rain on us. What this rain will do we will not know until it falls. If it is a shower or gentle rain we will have fishable water. If it falls heavily and over a short period of time, then things will get messy. We will keep you posted! For today, caddis and craneflies on the surface, as well as small terrestrials (ants, beetles, and attractors such as the hippie stomper). Keep an eye out for some larger spring stoneflies too as they were coming off yesterday. Subsurface fishing has been excellent with scuds and pink squirrels as well as pink and purple bellied pheasant tail nymphs in the clear water. Swinging soft hackles and leeches below riffles has also been extremely effective.
EDIT 4:45: Creeks to the north were clear to a fishable level about mid day. Some of the medium sized creeks have lost their murk and are now fishable with a heavy stain (leeches and scuds!). We're still have sunny skies and rain is still not predicted to hit until tomorrow afternoon. Lots of positive reports on the Coulees and other smaller streams from mid day! Of course there will be muddy water out there, especially on the larger bodies of water, but there is water out there that is in good shape (even caddis hatches on a couple). Get out of your comfort zone and explore on days like today! EDIT: 2:00 Rain hit hard this morning, but the storm was very brief. Guides found stained water and fish already this morning on some smaller, upper sections of creeks. Things are dropping and clearing quickly and there is no more rain forecasted for today (it is sunny in Viroqua as I type this). The photo is from Nick's trip this morning. Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. The rain today is a narrow band that is currently north of us (as of 7:15 am). The storm looks to be very brief and should not do any damage to our creeks. We will keep you updated! With the switch in weather, look for olives to show up today with a smattering of caddis and craneflies. Subsurface fishing will be quite good on leeches and scuds with the cloudy day along with the normal nymphs that have been working (brush hogs, pink and purple belly pheasant tails). We are not flooded! The flood warnings you see on weather reports are for the Mississippi river, not our trout creeks. The creeks are clear and slightly low with water temperatures in the low to mid 50s.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph. Another gorgeous day in the Driftless! Creeks are clear with water temperatures in the mid 50s. The sun today will be a bit of a limiting factor. Plan on fishing dries early and late, and concentrate on deeper pools and undercut banks or shady areas mid day. We're seeing caddis and cranefly hatches on most creeks. These hatches have not been steady or consistent. More like a pod of rising fish here and there throughout the day. Dries are definitely working though, both matching the caddis and cranes as well as attractor dries and small terrestrials (ants have been hot the past couple of days!) Subsurface fishing has been best on heavy tungsten beaded nymphs fished directly below the riffles and near undercut banks. When the sun is off the water, fish are very grabby on leeches and smaller streamers too.
Partly sunny, with a high near 66. South wind 7 to 10 mph. Creeks are clear and a touch low with water temperatures in the low to mid 50s. Fishing has been quite good with craneflies and caddis hatching. Move your dry flies as trout are picking up on movement on the surface right now! Subsurface action has been best on brush hogs, pork chop express, pink belly pheasant tails, and scuds. It's gorgeous out there right now and the bankside vegetation is low and manageable! This is the peak of season, get out and fish.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. North wind 3 to 7 mph. Creeks are clear and flowing well with water temperatures in the low to mid 50s. Fishing has been quite good lately with fish eating craneflies and small training wheels on the surface. There have not been any predictable or major hatches, but we have seen a few caddis here and there on certain creeks. Scuds are starting to really ramp up, as long as they are fished quite deep. Leeches and streamers have been catching some nicer fish in the evenings too!
Mostly sunny, with a high near 57. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Creeks are clear to slightly stained. The rains a couple of days ago did nothing to our water levels or clarity. Yesterday was a good day of fishing! Today will be a touch more difficult with the sun shining on the water. Look for fish to be most active morning and evening when the sun is off the water. Unless we see a caddis hatch, fish close to the banks with small terrestrials and fish the deeper runs and pools with heavy bead heads. Do not neglect the riffles as fish are starting to move into shallower water to eat emergers! Water temperatures are right around 50 degrees. We're still seeing olive hatches (mostly on cloudy days) as well as craneflies and caddis. Subsurface fishing has been best on brush hogs, pink belly pheasant tails, and Spanish bullets.
Isolated showers before 10am. Cloudy, with a high near 45. Breezy, with a west wind 8 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. The rains yesterday were thankfully light in our area. While we received up to an inch in or more in Vernon County it never poured. What that means is we are expecting light to heavy stain on the water this morning, and everything dropping and clearing quickly today. With few exceptions there was not any crazy flooding of the creeks. Fishing leeches and san juan worms in the off color water will be excellent, then switching to craneflies, caddis, and olives as things clear and fish start rising will catch fish.
Periods of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 1pm. High near 45. Breezy, with an east wind 15 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible. Chilly drizzle this morning. Creeks are clear and flowing well with only one or two having some stain or color. It doesn't look like this rain will muddy things up over today and tonight, but we will keep you posted. On cloudy days like this, the olives have still been hatching well and we are also seeing craneflies throughout the day. Subsurface fishing is best on frenchies, spanish bullets, and hot belly pheasant tails. We are also still having quite a bit of success with a small training wheel (attractor terrestrial) with a bead head tied below. It's not too early for dry/dropper!
Partly sunny, with a high near 58. East wind 9 to 11 mph. Creeks are clear to stained with water temps in the low to mid 50s. The fish are very happy as long as the sun is not shining directly on the water. Craneflies showed up yesterday in pretty good numbers. If you see splashy rises without seeing many bugs, they are feeding on craneflies. Subsurface fishing has been best with your fly right on the bottoms. Tight line nymphing with a heavy tungsten bead or too is deadly right now. There are a few olives hanging on and that hatch should intensify with the clouds and drizzle the next couple of days.
UPDATE: We did find that the West Fork is muddy this morning. Other creeks are in good shape. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58. Northeast wind around 9 mph. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Most of the week is calling for cloud cover and showers! This weather has been excellent for fishing. Creeks are running clear to slightly stained with water temps in the low 50s. The rains last night were brief and didn't do any major damage to the creeks. Things are in really good shape again today. We're seeing olives hatch in the cloudy weather, and caddis when the sun peeks out. Craneflies are hatching all day regardless of weather. There are pods of rising fish, usually in the mornings and evenings, but if the clouds stay overhead we have had some risers all day long on a handful of creeks. Subsurface fishing is solid on pretty much anything from pink squirrels to spanish bullets to purple zebra midges. Add in leeches and streamers for larger fish and you have the perfect conditions for fishing the Driftless right now!
Partly sunny, with a high near 59. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. The clouds are all but gone in the area meaning the olive hatch will disappear and (hopefully) be replaced with caddis. Creeks are clear and flowing with temps hovering right around 50 degrees. Surface fishing has still been best on terrestrials. Fishing While the olive hatch was strong the past couple of days, with the loss of clouds it will fade into the background bit. Watch for caddis and craneflies. Subsurface fishing has been best on brush hogs, pork chop expresses, and purple belly PTs. Don't forget to move your flies! Action and movement has been catching a bunch of fish that were otherwise lockjaw!
Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 58. Calm wind becoming northwest 5 to 7 mph in the morning. The cloud cover the past couple of days has made the fish very comfortable! We've had olive hatches that have lasted hours the past couple of days. If the clouds stay in the area, expect more solid fishing. Creeks are clear and running normal to a touch on the low side with water temperatures in the high 40s to low 50s area wide. With the cloud cover the olive hatch has been excellent. While we are not seeing them on every creek, the ones that do have them are cranking out bugs! Subsurface fishing has been great on pink and purple belly PTs, brush hogs, perdigons, and, of course, pink squirrels. We are seeing creek lamprey on their beds too. Fishing a larger olive leech or streamer can be a great way to get a really large fish to eat right now!
Isolated showers before 10am. Cloudy, with a high near 52. Northeast wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Although the temperature is a bit chilly, the olives returned and fish are rising happily through most of the day! Creeks are clear and flowing well with water temperatures high 40s to low 50s. Fishing leeches and streamers are very effective while trout are waking up first thing in the morning. In the later morning and through the afternoon we are seeing rising fish to olives and a handful of craneflies and caddis (this hatch will last as long as the cloudy weather stays overhead). Smaller foam terrestrials are still working too. Subsurface fishing has been best on smaller, heavy tungsten bead heads. Zebra midges, pheasant tails, brush hogs and frenchies. Late in the day, throwing a larger streamer can move some signifiant fish.
Periods of showers, mainly before 11am. High near 51. Southeast wind 6 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Drizzle and clouds all day today. This weather should put the fish in a good mood! This is the forecast for the entire early part of the week as well. Look for the caddis hatch to have slowed down a bit with the cloudy and wet weather. Mayflies (olives especially) and craneflies will take over as the important surface food. Subsurface fishing has continued to be excellent on spanish bullets, brush hogs, and zebra midges. We are still fishing them below hippie stompers and training wheels. And, yes, fish are eating the terrestrial type flies too! With the gloomy weather, look for the all day effectiveness of streamers and leeches to climb. This is a great way to find fish through the day.
Snow before 3pm, then rain and snow between 3pm and 4pm, then snow after 4pm. Steady temperature around 34. East wind 10 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible. It is snowing. Heavily... Ugh.... Good news is that it will not significantly mess up the creeks (much better snow than rain!). Fishing will be solid despite the snow. Look for olives to hatch today, and subsurface activity on leeches and scuds to be solid.
Sunny, with a high near 57. Breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Wow does today look nice. Outside of a bit of wind, it will be an excellent day to be out there and fishing. Tomorrow's forecast is terrible. 4-10 inches of snow. Seriously.... Then Sunday turns around and is sunny and mild, but nice again. If you don't mind the snow, it will probably be a good day of fishing as miserable weather usually is. Creeks are clear to stained after recent rains with nothing unfishable due to water. The flood warnings you see on the weather forecasts are for the Mississippi and Wisconsin, not our trout creeks. We're still finding caddis as the main menu for trout. The hatch is still seeming a bit spotty and coming in waves throughout the day and week. It can be strong in one spot, then fade only to appear on another creek or farther upstream. But the bugs are around and the fish are keying in on them. Subsurface fishing has been quite good on heavy, thicker bodied patterns. Think prince nymph and hare's ear instead of midge larvae and pheasant tail. Getting the fish to roll along the bottom just below the riffles is fantastic this time of season. The guides have been doing well fishing with an indicator fly and bead head dropper. Stimulators, hippie stompers, training wheels... All are catching fish right now while doing double duty and acting as your indicator. When the sun is off the water, leeches and streamers are fishing very well with some big fish being hooked and landed recent.y
Rain showers. Highs in the lower 60s. West winds 5 to 10 mph...shifting to the northwest in the afternoon. Chance of showers 90 percent. Light drizzle predicted today, and we need the rain! Most creeks are a touch low. Overall creeks are clear to stained and have temperatures in the mid 40s to mid 50s. The caddis showed up again on a couple of creeks north of the shop yesterday, and we will continue to see them even through the goofy weather the next couple of days. Subsurface fishing has been best on thicker bodied patterns like brush hogs, pork chop express, and pink squirrels. Fishing them below a foam indicator fly has been quite good lately. Soft hackles fished downstream and swung with a bit of speed below riffles has been very effective too! When the sun is off the water, do not neglect fishing streamers and leeches!
Sunny, with a high near 71. Light and variable wind becoming south 8 to 13 mph in the morning. Well, the caddis stayed home a bit yesterday to aggravate us. They are around and hatching sporadically. Where you do find them hatching the fishing is excellent! Otherwise we are fishing essentially a hopper/dropper using a hippie stomper or training wheel on the surface and dropping bead heads below. The fish are picking up on smaller terrestrials and attractor patterns on the surface when there is no major hatch coming off. Soft hackles are another great way to catch fish right now. Swinging them below riffles will get some aggressive strikes. The fishing is better in the mornings before the sun has been on the water for too long (fish are spooky as our creeks are clear), and at the last hour of the day. In the evening tie on a leech or streamer and hold on!
Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 62. North wind 10 to 13 mph. Caddis showed up in good numbers yesterday (finally!) Both black and tan. We did get some rain last night, a nice soaking shower that dropped about 3/4 of an inch. This will not muddy things up in our area significantly. Expect clear to stained water today. Creeks are flowing pretty normal after the rain yesterday with water temperatures in the mid 40s to 50s. If the caddis continue, that will be the #1 meal on the menu for trout both on the surface and subsurface. Caddis larvae, pupae, and dries were effective yesterday, as was swinging a soft hackle below the riffles. We have also started to spot creek lamprey. Fishing a large olive colored streamer will get some larger fish right now!
High near 78. South wind 8 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Creeks are low and clear with water temperatures in the high 40s to mid 50s. Fish are eating thicker bodied nymphs in the morning (Pork Chop Express, Brush Hog, Cold War Caddis) as well as streamers and leeches fished slowly in the pools or swung down and across. In the afternoon we are seeing dry fly activity with the caddis hatch ramping up around mid day. A bit of cloud cover is needed to make fish happy and feed on the surface. Guide have also had success with small terrestrials and attractor flies with bead heads below.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. South wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Happy Easter everyone! Another sunny day which is nice to be out in, but the fishing can be tough. Creeks are low and clear with water temperatures in the high 40s to low 50s. We saw a few caddis yesterday, and conditions are right to see the hatch show up in a big way and second now. Fishing subsurface caddis larvae and pupae as well as pinks squirrels and scuds has been excellent along with zebra midges. On the surface, hippie stompers, training wheels, parawullf adams and caddis are the ticket. The fish are fussy because of the bright sun. If you find shade, or find a hatch the fish are hungry! Do not neglect streamers, even in the sun fish are chasing a larger meal right now.
Sunny, with a high near 68. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Beautiful holiday weekend. Creeks are low and clear with water temperatures in the mid 40s to mid 50s area wide. Were officially under caddis watch! They are showing up sporadically in between hatches of olives. Once the big hatch shows up we will let you know. It will be any day now.... Otherwise, fishing bead heads below and indicator fly (hippie stomper or training wheel) is a good bet until you see fish rising.
Sunny, with a high near 59. North wind 8 to 14 mph. Conditions are PRIME to start seeing the caddis hatch again. While we can not guarantee (political and fly shop owner speaking here) a hatch, things are lined up to where we should the hatch turn on this weekend. Creeks are clear to slightly stained and flowing well with water temperatures in the mid 40s to low 50s area wide. We did not suffer from the recent rains, and have had good fishing the past few days! The olive hatch is still around, but starting to fade a bit. Scuds are moving around subsurface and our bead head patterns are getting larger and thicker (think more pink squirrel and brush hog than zebra midge and PT). Leeches and streamers are still catching fish, and you can run into some larger fish in the lower sections of the creeks right now.
Patchy drizzle before 11am, then isolated showers after 3pm. Cloudy, with a high near 49. Breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Major rain missed us yesterday with only a couple of brief showers. That means our creeks are clear to slightly stained and in good shape this morning! We've seen olive hatches daily lately and while they are fading, fish are still looking up and can be caught on attractor patterns and even small terrestrials right now later on in the day. In the mornings we are fishing deep with heavily weighted bead head nymphs and leeches. With the warmer and sunnier weather tomorrow and Saturday we should see the caddis hatch show up again!!!
A chance of rain and thunderstorms, then rain and possibly a thunderstorm after 4pm. High near 56. Breezy, with an east wind 11 to 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Looks like rain this afternoon. Creeks are in excellent shape, and this rain doesn't look like it will be heavy which means the ground will soak quite a bit of it up and we shouldn't have muddy conditions. Olives are the bug of choice on the menu for surface activity in the afternoon. Unless the wind starts howling, fish are rising around lunchtime and will eat olive dries and emergers. Subsurface fishing is heating up on scuds along with the normal leeches, heavy tungsten bead head flies (squog, pork chop express etc) and midge larvae. Do not neglect streamer fishing as these temperatures have some larger fish on the prowl right now!
Isolated showers before 8am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 64. Light and variable wind becoming northeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Warmer and cloudy today. It feels like olive weather out there! Look for hatches in the afternoon. We're still fishing heavy nymphs and leeches early in the morning, but quickly shifting over to smaller nymphs (to match the olives) and emergers. There are a few olive hatches going on from lunchtime into evening. They are still a bit spotty so you might have to move a spot or two if you are chasing rising fish. Otherwise, just keep throwing your bead head and emerges and you will be fine. With the slight warm up, fish are also eating foam patterns again! Hippie stompers and small training wheels with a nymph tied below are hot again.
Increasing clouds, with a high near 53. Light and variable wind becoming south 6 to 11 mph in the morning. Things are back on track for springtime fishing in the Driftless! Creeks are clear and flowing well with water temperatures in th low to mid 40s. Nymphing and slowly twitching leeches in the morning is catching fish, and we are starting to see the return of olives in the afternoon (around 2 p.m.) as the sun warms the creeks a bit.
Cloudy, with a high near 39. West wind 11 to 14 mph. Far better out there today and through the next few days. There is little snow on the ground and is slowly melting through the day. The creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the low to mid 40s. We're fishing deep with the cooler weather and water, heavy tungsten nymphs rolled along the bottom and leeches or streamers twitched slowly through the runs are catching fish. We are still seeing a few olives but hatches are going to pick up over the next few days as things warm up!
UPDATE: Guides have caught a few fish out there, but things are not great. We pushed trips to tomorrow. There is nothing wrong with the creeks temperature or clarity wise, they just feel 'off' today. A slight chance of snow before noon, then a chance of rain and snow between noon and 4pm, then a slight chance of rain after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. The ugly stuff is over. There is an inch or two of crusty slush on the ground right now that will start to melt slowly today. The creeks are in great shape and the melting should not significantly muddy things up. We're still seeing a few olives hatching in the afternoons, but due to the cold snap fishing bead heads and slowly twitching leeches has been the most productive. Creeks are clear to stained and flowing well with temperatures in the low to mid 40s.
Rain and snow, becoming all snow after 4pm. High near 36. Breezy, with an east wind 15 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. Sorry for the lapse in reports! We have been in Argentina fishing the last week. With the cooldown in temperatures things have stayed stable in the Driftless. This means we are still seeing olives in the later afternoon on some creeks. Nymphs and streamers are still the best way to catch fish right now. Fishing starts mid morning and lasts until the sun goes down at night. We have crummy weather for the next couple of days, but things look good for the weekend.
Snow before 7am, then scattered snow showers between 7am and 8am. High near 50. West wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Wet snow falling early this morning, but it is all melting as soon as it hits the ground. This will not affect fishing or driving in the area. Creeks overall are clear and flowing well with water temperatures in the mid 40s. Olives are hatching, and we are seeing some spring stoneflies around too! Fish are responding on the surface to larger attractor patterns so we have already started fishing dry/dropper through the day. If the hatch comes off, it is typically later in the day. Subsurface nymphing has been good on the heavy thin bodied patterns, and scuds are starting to heat up.
Sunny, with a high near 40. West wind around 9 mph. What an end to the month! Fishing is quite good here in the Driftless with clear creeks and water temperatures in the mid 40s. Nights are still chilly, so there is no need to be up at the crack of dawn to catch fish. The best fishing of the day is between 9 and 5. We're still seeing some olives hatching, and we started to see some of our spring stoneflies flying around. Leeches and streamers are deadly, as is tight line nymphing a heavy bead head on the bottom. When you see noses coming up, do not be afraid to toss a small dark foam pattern as well as olive emerges and dries.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 50. Northwest wind around 6 mph. Things continue to get better day by day in the Driftless! Creeks are clear and flowing well with water temperatures in the low to mid 40s that will touch 50 degrees when the sun is shining on the water through the day! We're seeing more and more olives, and even a few really early caddis have been reported out there. It is still chilly in the mornings and the fish are sluggish. Giving them something larger (leech/streamer) will wake them up. Mid day nymphing in the runs with heavy bead heads has been very productive. Later in the afternoon is when we are seeing the dries come out. It has been sporadic and localized, but make sure you have some emergers and dries (blue winged olives) just in case!
A slight chance of rain before 2pm, then a chance of sprinkles between 2pm and 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. North wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Things are still quite solid in the Driftless! With the increased cloud cover we have seen a few more olives hatching. Still not the major hatch, but noticeably more bugs are beginning to show up. Creeks are clear and flowing well with water temperatures in the low to mid 40s. Things are still cooling down at night, so getting up at dawn is not necessary. Leeches, streamers, and larger nymphs early in the day are getting sluggish fish to eat. Once things warm up a bit, switching to heavy nymphs fished deep in the runs has been deadly. At the peak water temperature (keep using that thermometer!) we are seeing some sporadic hatches of midges and blue winged olives.
Partly sunny, with a high near 62. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 16 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph. Windy day today! Find some shelter in the trees or up against bluff faces. Creeks are clear to stained and flowing well. Temperatures are in the low 40s. We're still doing well with leeches and streamers early, showing the trout a larger meal for breakfast. Mid day nymphing has been best, just make sure you are getting down to the bottom, fish heavy bugs! In the later afternoon we have seen some dry fly action. Both midges and olives. It isn't a mega hatch yet, but you do have a shot at finding a pod or two of rising fish.
Sunny, with a high near 49. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the morning. Only a tiny bit of snow hanging on in the shaded areas and north facing slopes now! Spring is in full swing with clear creeks and good fishing. We're still getting chilly nights, so fishing something larger in the morning to wake the fish up has been very effective. Later in the morning switching to nymphing deep with heavy tungsten flies has been deadly. Once things really top out water temperature wise, switching to a dry dropper or just a dry can be a ton of fun. We have already started to catch some fish on small foam patterns! Creeks are clear and a touch low (sneak up on the fish as they are spooky on sunny days!) with water temperatures in the low to mid 40s.
Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 44. Northeast wind 6 to 10 mph. Fishing is strong in our part of the Driftless! Creeks are clear and flowing well with water temperatures right around 40 degrees. We still have a bit of snow on the hills, but nothing significant. Make sure you have your thermometer ready for the afternoon as snowmelt is still cooling things down on area creeks. Streamers and leeches are strong early. As the sun warms the creeks a bit (we have even gotten peak day water temps at 50!) we are switching to nymphs and emergers. Midges and a handful of olives are hatching making it possible to see some noses mid day and into the later afternoon. Make sure you are getting right down to the bottom as fish are still a bit sluggish and don't want to chase flies right now. Roll those nymphs deep!
A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly before 2pm. Cloudy, with a high near 52. Light east wind becoming northeast 5 to 9 mph in the morning. We are still getting melting snow in the later afternoons that is cooling the water down and slowing to shutting down fishing. However, with each passing day, there is less and less snow and things are shutting down a few minutes later each day! Fishing has been quite good for the winter/spring season. The streamer bite is on early with fish chasing some larger patterns and leeches slowly twitched or swung through deeper pools. As water temps rise, the fishing switches to nymphing the runs. We are seeing some dry fly activity, but it hasn't been as predictable the past couple of days. Mainly midges are hatching and we are seeing some olives still starting to show themselves later in the day. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temps in the low to mid 40s.
Sunny, with a high near 45. North wind 5 to 11 mph. Fishing remains solid for early spring. We still have a bit of snow on the banks which means we are getting a trickle of snowmelt each afternoon. This snowmelt, while not muddying up the waters significantly, will put a stain on the water, but more importantly it will drop the water temperature and slow fishing down quite a bit. Your best bet is to fish early-ish and make sure you are on the water for the peak of the day (10-2). Frenchies, midge larvae, dark spikes and other heavy, thin and dark bodied nymphs are working well. Hatches of midges are still around, although they have slowed down a bit the past couple of days. On the warmest springs, we have started to see olives hatching. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with water temperatures in the low 40s.
Mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 49. North wind 7 to 14 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Spring fishing continues to be good in the morning and into the afternoon. Late afternoon snowmelt is dropping the water temperature and shutting fishing down. The smaller creeks are clear to slightly stained while the larger creeks are stained. Things lock up at night due to colder temperatures so we do not expect things to get muddy. Fishing has been good on midge larvae, small dark bead heads and leeches fished slowly on the bottom. Streamers twitched through the deeper spots have also been quite good right now. Midges are hatching mid day and there is a good chance you will see some risers mid day. Creeks are running in the low 40s.
Increasing clouds, with a high near 44. West wind 8 to 11 mph. Creeks are clear to slightly stained in the morning with water temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s. In the later afternoon, snowmelt is still cooling water temperatures down and increasing the stain on the water. Make sure to use your thermometer as once the water temperature starts to drop, fishing slows down considerably! Midges are still hatching mid daily and fish are rising for them. We have seen mayflies (olives) here and there, but not a major hatch yet. It is coming soon. Most of the action is sub surface on small (16-20) thin bodied dark nymphs rolled along the bottom. Scuds, leeches and even San Juan worms have been very effective too. We have also had some success twitching large streamers for larger trout.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 48. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Major runoff is over. We're still left with some snow and the clear creeks (there are quite a few out there now!) will start to cloud up and have the temperature drop in the later afternoon. Creeks in more open valleys have far less snow than ones with shady banks. Overall creeks are clear to stained with water temps right around 40. Midges are still hatching mid day, and we have started to see the beginning of the olive hatch. Subsurface fishing has been quite good on heavy, small bead heads in black as well as on large scuds and leeches.
Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 39. West wind 3 to 8 mph. Our runoff ended this weekend and things are starting to shape up nicely! We've had a few guide trips this past weekend that were catching fish on dries! We have about 20% of our snow left, and this week is going to give us very pleasant days and nights that drop down below freezing again, making the chance of any major blow outs of the creeks quite slim. As of now creeks are clear to stained and running with temperatures right around 40 degrees. Midge hatches are still happening, and we have started to see some olives here and there too. Subsurface fishing has been best on tiny bead heads rolled along the bottom of the runs. Spring is here is here in the Driftless!!
Mostly sunny, with a high near 36. West wind 6 to 8 mph. Things are calming down! Runoff peaked early yesterday and things are beginning to drop and clear. There is fishable water out there, not a lot, but it exists. Look for even more stuff to start opening up later today. Creeks are muddy to stained but dropping and clearing. Water temps are in the high 30s to low 40s. Look at smaller creeks and headwaters to clear up first.
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 36. Breezy, with a northwest wind around 18 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Most of our snow has melted over the past couple of days! Things are quite high and muddy right now, but should start dropping slowly. With the colder weather and overnight lows dipping below freezing again, any remaining runoff will freeze up again giving the creeks a chance to flush out. We will keep you posted on what the creeks look like, but there is a bit of optimism for smaller creeks this weekend!
Showers before 11am, then a chance of showers after 1pm. Patchy fog before 11am. High near 53. Southeast wind around 9 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Snowmelt continues through today. We're getting rid of a lot of snow and ice area wide. Don't expect fishing today as it did not cool down enough through the night to lock things back up again. The good news is that tonight and into the weekend, the temperatures dip back to normal which means pleasant weather to be outside, and overnight freezes that will keep runoff from ruining fishing!
Rain, with thunderstorms also possible after 4pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Widespread dense fog, mainly before 2pm. High near 49. Southeast wind 6 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A good light rain most of the day yesterday and overnight temperatures above freezing means we already have snowmelt first thing this morning. We have two more good days of melting ahead of us before things lock up again over the weekend. Today and Thursday will be dicey fishing, while on paper the weekend is looking good.
Rain likely, mainly after 4pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 43. South wind 11 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Creeks are in really good shape for this time of season. We're getting some melting every day the sun pokes out or we get some rain. Most of the melting so far this week has been slight. Enough to drop water temperatures in the later part of the day, but not enough to blow things out on the small to medium sized creeks. We do have a couple of warmer days with a chance of rain coming up tomorrow and Thursday. Things cool down again on Friday just in time for any runoff to lock up a bit for the weekend! Midges are still hatching and if we get the warm up over the next few days, it would not be shocking to start to see olives hatching too. Creeks are a bit low and clear with temps in the mid 30s to mid 40s.
Sunny, with a high near 32. West wind 7 to 9 mph. After a weekend of rainy and snowy weather, things are back on track this week as spring start to show up. We have a few days of decent temperatures ahead. Just keep an eye on water temperature. As the bankside snow slowly melts, the temperature will drop and shut fishing down. As we start to warm, look for olives to hatch along side of the midges and winter stones. They haven't appeared yet, but they are due to show up soon! Creeks are flowing clear to stained with water temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 34. Southeast wind 3 to 6 mph. Today is one of those perfect winter days on paper. Warm enough to get fish to eat, but not too warm to cause significant melt. Unfortunately the weather report for the weekend turned sour. They are forecasting wind and snow now. The temperatures are still solid for winter fishing, but getting around might be a bit difficult. If you are out fishing this weekend, look for quite a bit of subsurface activity on midge larvae, and smaller bead head nymphs in dark colors (black/brown etc). The chance of dry flies is good, but not as good as a sunny day. Still, look for midges to hatch mid day and hopefully get some fish to rise for them. Creeks are clear and flowing winter time low so you still need some stealth approaching fish.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 23. Wind chill values as low as -1. Southeast wind 3 to 6 mph. Cold and cloudy today, not the best weather for fishing. Yesterday was surprising as the sun really warmed things up and got the fishing going. The sun is the key right now! The weekend forecast changed to look pretty grim. While the temperatures are quite good for winter fishing, there is now snow and wind in the forecast as well as potential freezing rain. Friday looks excellent, while Saturday and Sunday will still be good days to be fishing, but might get a bit tricky with the wind and winter weather.
A chance of flurries between noon and 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 21. Wind chill values as low as -4. West wind 5 to 11 mph. Still winter conditions. WHen the sun has peeked out from behind the clouds fish have been rising, even in subzero temps. It is just too dang cold to be out fishing! Things warm up for the weekend. Friday and Saturday look like considerably better weather than we have had the past week or so. The shop is closed this Thursday, but will be open regular hours (9-5) on Saturday and 9-Noon on Sunday.
Scattered flurries before 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 11 by 5pm. Wind chill values as low as -5. Breezy, with a west wind 15 to 18 mph. Still winter, but warmer weather is coming this weekend! We're supposed to get a warm (for winter) weather system rolling in and we should see 30 degrees on Friday. The shop will go to normal hours (9-5 M-Sat 9-Noon Sunday) starting this Saturday!
Increasing clouds, with a high near 6. Wind chill values as low as -29. West wind 5 to 14 mph. Cold. Again. The good news is that the days have been sunny meaning the streams have been keeping warm during this cold spell. Near the springs over the past few days we have been getting water temperatures pushing into the mid 40s. This cold weather releases its grip starting on Friday. We will see normal temperatures in the 30s to 40 over the weekend!
Scattered flurries before 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 24. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. Typical winter day. If the sun peeks out fishing will get good like it did yesterday. It is still a bit too much of a gamble to travel too far to fish, but after next week's cold front, warmer weather is finally predicted! Midges hatched yesterday when the sun was shining on the water, and nymphing with small bead heads took fish most of the middle part of the day. There is still quite a bit of snow on the banks and getting around can be tricky in some of the drifts.
Snow, mainly after 1pm. High near 25. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of around an inch possible. Yes it will snow again today.... The temperature is good, but tomorrow drops back down to too cold to fish. It isn't worth much of a drive to come and fish unless you are also skiing, snowshoeing, fat tire biking (there are trails here!) etc. Wait for better conditions for fishing. They will be here soon.
A chance of flurries between 11am and noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 20. Wind chill values as low as -3. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph. Still cold.... There is a brief warm up on Saturday and with some sunny skies, it could lead to a mid day feed for trout, but it really isn't worth driving a long distance for. Unless you are suffering from major cabin fever and would like to snowshoe and fish a bit on Saturday! The creeks are in really good condition and running winter low and crystal clear. The snow on the banks will be excellent to keep the springs pushing a large volume of water out through the late winter and early spring. We're just waiting for some warm weather!
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 16. Wind chill values as low as -3. Northwest wind 5 to 14 mph. Creeks are running clear with good flows, but it is still too dang cold to fish. We're just waiting on some nicer weather.
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 16. Wind chill values as low as -3. Northwest wind 5 to 14 mph. Creeks are running clear with good flows, but it is still too dang cold to fish. We're just waiting on some nicer weather.
Snow likely, mainly after 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 12. Wind chill values as low as -15. East wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Nothing spectacular weather wise this week. Pretty cold with a bit of new snow on the ground. Roads are clear but parking spots along the creek are pretty covered. It really isn't worth traveling here to fish right now. Creeks are in good shape though with pretty good flows and clarity. It's just cold!
Our apologies! After our hosted trip to Belize we got caught in the blizzard in Rochester MN. We were supposed to be back in the office today but the roads might not be open again until tomorrow. Please email us with any concerns or issues. The trip was incredible but we’re ready to be home!!!
Isolated snow showers after 2pm. Cloudy, with a high near 34. Breezy, with a southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest 13 to 18 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20% Not a bad day to fish today, but the window of opportunity will close quickly as we get a cool down for the weekend. Midges and winter stones were out yesterday in the sun and should show up in the middle part of the day again today. Otherwise rolling a scud on the bottom will get some fish to eat. NOTE: THE SHOP WILL BE CLOSED THIS WEEKEND AS WE WILL BE AT THE HAWKEYE FLY FISHING SHOW
Mostly sunny, with a high near 24. West wind 5 to 11 mph becoming south in the afternoon. Today and tomorrow are tolerable! The weekend brings cold weather again. We will be closed this weekend as we will be at the Hawkeye fly fishing show near Cedar Rapids.
Sunny and cold, with a high near 2. Wind chill values as low as -25. Breezy, with a west wind 11 to 16 mph. Way too cold again! Shop is closed this weekend and will reopen on Tuesday. Come visit us at the Badger Fly Fisher's Spring Opener Show in Madison this Saturday.
Snow. Patchy blowing snow after 5pm. Temperature falling to around 19 by 5pm. Blustery, with a northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest 11 to 16 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible. Icy rain last night with snow on top of it today. Not really what we would call pleasant fishable weather! Small roads are dangerous right now. Stay home. If you are looking for something to do this weekend to beat cabin fever, why not join us at the Badger Fly Fishers show in Madison? The shop will be closed on Saturday.
Snow likely, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 23. East wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Melting from the past couple of days has stopped leaving creeks high and a bit stained. Weather is back to normal for winter and it really doesn't seem like anything noteworthy for the rest of the week. Tomorrow and Thursday look ok, but there is a chance for some freezing rain. If you are out fishing, it is all about midges! They have been hot subsurface and, with the correct weather, they hatch mid day too.
A slight chance of freezing rain before 11am. Areas of dense fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 21 by 5pm. Breezy, with a northwest wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. After a couple of warm days, there is a lot of melting going on right now. Creeks are high and muddy and cold! Things will start to stabilize later this week as some sort of normal winter weather returns. It does not look like anything to get too excited about fishing condition wise all week.
Areas of fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 39. Southwest wind 6 to 11 mph. The deep freeze of last week is slowly releasing. There are pockets of fishable water to be had, but much of our fishery still has quite a bit of ice on the edges. We still recommend getting outside just to get rid of the cabin fever and enjoy some fresh air! Decent weather today and tomorrow then rain on Monday. Midges will be the key this weekend on the fishable stretches. Either that or drift a leech under the ice shelves near undercut banks and hold on!
Scattered flurries before 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Wind chill values as low as -6. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Ugh. It is no longer looking rosy for the weekend. After driving around a bit most of our creeks are locked up with enough ice to make fishing difficult to, in some cases, impossible. No real melting today as it is still cold and the sun is behind the clouds. Tomorrow will bring some excellent weather (especially compared to the past week!) and will make for a great day to be outside with some mediocre fishing. If you are headed to the area, bring your snowshoes and expect a good mental break day or two, but don't expect wonderful fishing outside.
A 50 percent chance of snow, mainly after 3pm. Increasing clouds and cold, with a high near -3. Wind chill values as low as -36. Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Still dangerously cold out there today. Tomorrow remains quite cold with windchill, then Saturday we hit almost 40 degrees. This is a bizarre weather pattern for sure as we are forecasted for rain on Monday! We will be out tomorrow scouting creeks and updating you on conditions. Today, we're inside trying flies again and trying not to get cabin fever too heavily.
Sunny and cold, with a high near -15. Wind chill values as low as -53. West wind 11 to 14 mph. It is really dangerous to be outside in the cold today. Please stay warm and stay safe. We are expecting a 90 degree change in temperatures (it feels weird to even type that) and are looking at favorable temperatures for Saturday and Sunday. We will keep you posted as the weekend gets nearer.
A 20 percent chance of snow. Patchy blowing snow after noon. Partly sunny and cold, with a temperature falling to around -13 by 5pm. Wind chill values as low as -39. Breezy, with a west wind 17 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Ugh. Record setting cold possible this week. Don't bother fishing as it could be dangerous even to be outside for long periods of time! The good news is the weekend is going to reach the mid 30s! Just a few more days and we will be able to get outside and play on the trout streams of the Driftless again!
Not much to report. Lots of snow last night up to 12 inches in some areas and it is still snowing lightly this morning. It will be quite cold the next few days with Wednesday a balmy -17 for a high before wind chill. No reason to go fishing. On the tolerable temperature days it is quite nice snowshoeing right now though!
Cloudy early, then gradual clearing and cold, with a high near 2. Wind chill values as low as -16. West wind around 6 mph. Yup, still cold.
A chance of snow before 1pm, then scattered flurries between 1pm and 3pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 20. Northwest wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. As of mid day, the snow has stopped and the sun is out! If you are around, the afternoon should be some good fishing! We're expecting a really cold snap coming up through the weekend with super cold temperatures and wind chills. Stay home and stay warm.
Winter storm warning in our are. Snow and possible ice predicted. In other words, stay home and stay safe. The snow is needed as we had some pretty bare ground so far this year. Creeks are clear and cold with some shelf ice forming after a cold snap. It's winter, and we are waiting for another warming spell so we can get out and fish again!
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 14. Wind chill values as low as -11. Southeast wind 7 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Nope, too cold to fish today. The next few days don't look great either with some more snow coming and a high of -1 coming on Friday.
Sunny, with a high near 16. Wind chill values as low as -2. North wind around 10 mph Cold, and we just had about 6 inches or more dumped on the area. Good weekend to stay home and tie flies!
Snow and freezing drizzle before 1pm, then a chance of freezing drizzle between 1pm and 3pm. High near 29. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Not the prettiest of days, but the last warm day for a while. Fish midge larvae deep all day and you will catch fish! The chance of a hatch is slim as the sun is not out today. Creeks are clear and cold with water temperatures hovering around 36.
Sunny, with a high near 26. Northeast wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon. Just barely tolerable to be out fishing today as the sun is shining and the wind is low. There will be active fish, but you will be fighting icy guides most of the day. It doesn't look like it gets much better condition wise from here on out. A slight warmup flirting with 30 degrees tomorrow and below 20 for the weekend. Looks like a good few days to tie flies! The shop will be closed this Saturday as we will be at Cabin Fever Days in Appleton. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday this weekend! https://foxvalleytu.org/cabin-fever-day-2019/
Patchy drizzle between 3pm and 4pm, then patchy freezing drizzle after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 33. Southwest wind 8 to 11 mph. Mild for January, but very slippery out there today. Be careful driving and walking if you are out fishing. Conditions are not the best, but better than normal for January. We are still seeing midge hatches mid day, but most of your fishing is subsurface on tiny, heavy bead heads rolled along the bottom of runs and pools.
Patchy fog before 4pm. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 30. Southwest wind 6 to 9 mph. Pretty ho-hum day today, nothing really exciting condition wise. Fishing has been decent mid day with fish responding well to midge larvae fished deep, and some soft hackles fished below the riffles when the water temperature is at its peak. Today and tomorrow looks nice while the rest of the week starts getting quite chilly. Remember your thermometer! You want to make sure you are fishing rising water temperatures. The only silver lining to chillier weather is there is little to no snowmelt that will rapidly chill the creeks down in the late afternoon.
Cloudy, with a high near 32. East wind around 9 mph. Still nothing fantastic condition wise. Fishing is good, but winter good. Make sure you are fishing rising water temperatures. That is, by far, the most important variable for catching fish in the Driftless in the winter. We're seeing midges and a few winter stoneflies on the banks, and pods of rising fish in the middle part of the day.
Sunny, with a high near 16. Wind chill values as low as -1. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Winter is here. Too cold to fish! The weather warms up a bit (for Wisconsin) starting tomorrow and we will see 30 degree temperatures again by the weekend.
Cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 24 by 5pm. Windy, with a west wind 14 to 19 mph increasing to 21 to 26 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 41 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. The weather is trying to return to normal winter weather. It looks like a cold snap until the weekend. The good news is that the runoff we had yesterday has stopped leaving creeks clear to slightly stained again. Fishing has been good for winter. Anglers having the most success are fishing the middle part of the day during the warmest water temperatures and seeking out the springs and seeps to find even warmer water. Midges are hatching on the sunny days and there is a chance to see rising fish in the afternoons. Otherwise, fishing deep and slow with tungsten bead nymphs and heavy leeches is the key.
Rain, mainly before 11am. High near 45. Southeast wind 7 to 13 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Light rain this morning and warm temperatures to start off the morning. This weather has snow melting and entering the creeks. Expect some stain on the water, and cooler water temperatures. These are not excellent conditions as the snowmelt dumping cold water into the creeks slows things down quite a bit. The weekend was quite good fishing with midges and winter stoneflies hatching/emerging and water temperatures in the high 30s to 40. We should see that again this coming weekend, but after today and tomorrow we get a cold snap. Midges and tiny tungsten beads rolled along the bottom are the key, as are small leeches and buggers. On sunny days, larger attractor patterns subsurface work too.
Sunny, with a high near 45. West wind 5 to 10 mph. Happy catch and release opener!! Unseasonably warm weather this weekend means being outside will be more than pleasant. Make sure you are using a thermometer as there will be a little snowmelt today. Once that happens it will slow fishing down quite a bit. If it is severe it will also make things cloud up in the afternoon. Scouting yesterday we saw midge hatches and emerging winter stoneflies. Today should be more of the same which means you may have a shot to rising fish. Otherwise roll some heavy, black or brown, and small (16-22) nymphs along the bottom or slowly twitch a leech under an indicator and you will run into some fish.
Sunny, with a high near 42. West wind 3 to 6 mph. This is not normal January weather! This opening weekend will be unseasonably warm. Just beware of snowmelt as once it starts hitting the creeks, things will shut down quickly. Make sure to have a thermometer along. Plan on fishing small, dark patterns tight to the bottom in the deeper pools in the morning, then starting to target the runs as the sun warms the stream bed up and midges start to (hopefully!) hatch. We have also started seeing winter stoneflies crawling around. As of now, creeks are in great shape!
Wisconsin's early season opens Saturday! Sunny, with a high near 35. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Unseasonably warm weather is headed our way starting today and through the weekend. Saturday's opener is forecasted to be 45 degrees!! Creeks will start to slightly stain up in the afternoons with the warmer days creating some snow melt. There is not a ton of snow on the ground and the color of the water should not matter, but water temperature will. Make sure to use your thermometer and fish rising water temperatures! Once snowmelt starts hitting the creek and dropping the temperature fishing will slow down or even stop completely. Heavy, dark bodied flies in smaller sizes (16-22) are key right now. Midges are the main food source both subsurface and surface. You can also catch fish on leeches and streamers fished slowly.
Wisconsin's season opens this Saturday (the 5th) for catch and release! Partly sunny, with a high near 23. Southwest wind 8 to 11 mph. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Creeks are in good shape right now. The first real snowfall of the season hit yesterday and today, but only dumped a couple of inches on us. We're supposed to warm up enough starting tomorrow through the weekend that much of that might melt. Creeks are clear and cold (it is winter....) and flowing well. Make sure to come ready with some heavy bead head nymphs and small leeches for opener. If the weather is warm enough, look for a mid day midge hatch too. You'll be surprised at the dry fly activity on warmer winter days. Shop will be open Saturday 8-Noon.
