Last week I accompanied a fellow student and friend to the Rush River in WI. Having never been there before, I was excited to see what it had in store for us. We had set out around 6:30PM and ended up at the river around 7:30PM. I parked the car and popped the tops on a couple of cold ones while we got our gear together. After having a flashback to my undergraduate years while chugging a grain belt we set out. He led the way as he had been here before and had a prime spot for us to fish for the evening. It was about a ten minute hike upstream to the spot he knew would hold fish.
My heart stopped as I have not seen rising trout before and we quickly spotted the addresses on a number of small brook trout. Before we set up our rods he took the time to spot which trout were rising consistently. He put a beetle on one rod and a shallow sinking nymph on the other. Within about 20 minutes my friend had landed the first fish of the day, about an 8 to 10 inch brook trout on the beetle. He did get a little overly excited and could have caught the fish when he set the hook, but he was not the only one with the same, if not, higher level of excitement.
After using the nymph for a while we realized that was not going to work and we tied on an Paraschute Adams, my friend tied himself I might add. I was casting for probably 20 minutes and had a number of strikes and as we worked our way up the pool we were in I caught the address on a rising brookie and sent the fly over the top of it. As suggested by my guide for the day I took in the slack as the fly came down stream and, suddenly, there was a ripple in the glass surface of the river. Now, as I mentioned before, my friend could have caught the fish he landed, well I could have too. I set the hook a little too hard and that infant brook trout went sailing. I could not help it, I was too excited and did not want to miss the strike as I have so many before. It was roughly the same size as the previous fish caught, but none the less beautiful. Trout really are some of natures best art work and I am so blessed to be able to partake in fly fishing.
We fished out the evening with my friend catching another brookie and my missing strikes. When the sun set we put on our head lamps and hiked upstream for another 10 minutes or so. We streamer fished in the dark. My partner was using a mouse imitation (he wanted a shark to take a picture with I think) and I tied on a sculpin imitation. You cant see much night fishing, but you sure can hear things better. It was not too long before my buddy roll-casted his mouse out and we heard a familiar, but much louder, splash of the water. We can only imagine how big that fish was, but it was still a pretty awesome experience.
Apologies for the blurriness of the fish in the photo, I had a pretty awful time holding on to that little guy. There were a number of laughs on the water that day.
My heart stopped as I have not seen rising trout before and we quickly spotted the addresses on a number of small brook trout. Before we set up our rods he took the time to spot which trout were rising consistently. He put a beetle on one rod and a shallow sinking nymph on the other. Within about 20 minutes my friend had landed the first fish of the day, about an 8 to 10 inch brook trout on the beetle. He did get a little overly excited and could have caught the fish when he set the hook, but he was not the only one with the same, if not, higher level of excitement.
After using the nymph for a while we realized that was not going to work and we tied on an Paraschute Adams, my friend tied himself I might add. I was casting for probably 20 minutes and had a number of strikes and as we worked our way up the pool we were in I caught the address on a rising brookie and sent the fly over the top of it. As suggested by my guide for the day I took in the slack as the fly came down stream and, suddenly, there was a ripple in the glass surface of the river. Now, as I mentioned before, my friend could have caught the fish he landed, well I could have too. I set the hook a little too hard and that infant brook trout went sailing. I could not help it, I was too excited and did not want to miss the strike as I have so many before. It was roughly the same size as the previous fish caught, but none the less beautiful. Trout really are some of natures best art work and I am so blessed to be able to partake in fly fishing.
We fished out the evening with my friend catching another brookie and my missing strikes. When the sun set we put on our head lamps and hiked upstream for another 10 minutes or so. We streamer fished in the dark. My partner was using a mouse imitation (he wanted a shark to take a picture with I think) and I tied on a sculpin imitation. You cant see much night fishing, but you sure can hear things better. It was not too long before my buddy roll-casted his mouse out and we heard a familiar, but much louder, splash of the water. We can only imagine how big that fish was, but it was still a pretty awesome experience.
Apologies for the blurriness of the fish in the photo, I had a pretty awful time holding on to that little guy. There were a number of laughs on the water that day.