While visiting friends in the Central Sands region of Wisconsin I got out for some fishing on the Sand County trout stream where I cut my teeth in the fly fishing game. The Central Sands region features cold, spring/marsh fed with slightly tannin stained water and mostly sandy/somewhat rocky substrate. I expected to find high and stained water but even with temps in the high fifties the stream stayed clear.
Brown and Brook Trout call these waters home and feed heavily on mayflies, midges, and minnows. I brought the Pink Squirrel of Prey up from the driftless to use on this day but in college I fished parachute adams and pheasant tails with fair success. In college a friend used to drop me off to fish on his way to work at a really good access point but that section is currently closed. Apparently many of the Sand County streams are closed or have only sections that are open.
This area was much different than the Driftless streams I've become accustom to. This stream in particular was a mix of pocket water boulder fishin' and wide sandy runs. I landed a few smaller browns from pocket water before hooking into a few more respectable ones.
After I landed this guy I launched a cast to the head of a wide run and turned a solid 16" trout but missed the hook set.
This guy earned the distinction of being the biggest fish of the day. He put up a great fight on the three weight. If I would have though a little harder when packing gear I would have brought a 9ft 4wt for better distance on my casts. The sun shined bright and it took longer casts to avoid spooking 'em.
After landing around 6-7 browns I decided to head to another Central Sands gem to chase brookies. This picture makes it look pretty open but in slower areas the stream was frozen over. I walked around for a bit before going to visit some friends.
I hope I find the chance to fish up here again soon. It was challenging to fish this type of stream, especially on a sunny day!
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