Trip Report: Eagles and Trout

Today I headed northward to fish in Wisconsin with my friend Sean today. I was excited to take the river road in hopes of finding eagles. The river road did not disappoint and by the time I pulled in next to Sean I spotted 130 eagles! Of course I had to stop for a few pics.

 I struck first blood on a few small ones before Sean pulled in this foot long brown. This stream was small and crystal clear making long and accurate casts a must.

 I landed this well figured brownie on a pink scud. Often I'll barely hook 'em with the pink scud but these guys took the fly like the meant it. Sean fished with a number of pink squirrel variations and other small nymphs.

 This stream had a ton of woody debris and a rocky substrate with intermittent areas of sandy muck. It was also prone to flooding. Wisconsin has a generous stream access law which only required us to remain below the high water mark when wading through private property. This made getting around pretty easy.

 All the fish we landed had really nice, light coloration. With Sean feeling under the weather and me itching to get back to the eagles we parted ways around 130pm.We hoped to find fish rising to small mayflies today but we had no such luck.

I took a little different way home and I found a great little brook trout stream by accident! I landed four browns and 7 brookies in a little over a half hour. Most fish came from one, long, deep pool.