Magic on the Kinnickinnic

Date: May 30^th

County Road F bridge demolition 

Weather: 63, cloudy

Hatch: Cahills, Baetis, and a big one I’ve never seen

Beer: New Glarus Spotted Cow

            Maybe it’s my one night changeup in beer from Dancing Man to Spotted Cow. Or maybe it’s the construction on the County Road F Bridge keeping most of the anglers off the Kinnie. May is always good to me but tonight was something else. I hadn’t been out in a while due to a barrage of big, rolling Midwest storms which churned up the rivers. Tonight, the mayflies were buzzing all over the river’s surface and trout were catapulting themselves out of the river for each bite. It was a good sign because I had just restocked my supply of dry flies.

            It was a bitch getting down to the Kinnie in the first place. The angler’s parking lot is closed so I had to walk from the state park through the woods and scale down a canyon to get to my spots. Scaling down canyon walls while holding a fly rod in your mouth is a little scary but not too bad. It was worth it though. I only fished three spots but I caught so many fish I didn’t need to go very far. The second spot I fished was one I usually skip over but the trout were jumping in rhythm as I approached. Every trout I hooked had some extra fight in it. After the initial set, they were jumping straight out of the water and fighting hard, even the little ones too. I was catching so many trout I started a tally on my arm to keep track. This evening was unlike any other, I could keep writing but the pictures do better justice.

        

Sulphur Hatch on the Kinnie

Date: May 18^th 

Weather: 93, clear, blue skies

Stream: Clear

Hatch: Sulphur

Beer: The Dancing Man

            My luck on the Kinnie a couple days ago has brought me back. 93 degrees was the temperature in the Cities and I had to make it to its cool canyons. The first two hours fishing was slow. I spooked a turkey walking through some brush and it kept gobbling at me as I fished a pool nearby. I did manage to hook one fish but played it too hard and snapped my line. That sucked as the fly I had on had was the closest resemblance to the ongoing mayfly hatch I spent a long time in agony drifting a variety of flies over some great water with no luck.

            I was about to pack it in and head upstream when I finally hooked a small brown on a small yellow and white fly. As I let the fish go, I saw a plethora of small yellowish mayflies rising off the water. An angler walking by later told me they were sulphurs. They would emerge from just below the water’s surface, float to the top, rest on the surface and fly off. The trout started going crazy trying to slurp as many insects off the surface as they could. There are a lot a great sights in nature but witnessing an insect hatch accompanied my hungry trout is spectacle to behold.

            Till sundown I couldn’t keep the trout off my line. It seemed almost every drift I was getting a strike. If it wasn’t for the mayfly hatch I would have been kicking myself. For every fish I hooked I probably missed one or two strikes. That’s a lot and my only saving grace was the hatch, brown trout are spooky and don’t usually give you another chance.

             With the sun dropping low, I headed back to parking lot while hitting up a few spots downstream. I stopped at a great spot and on my first drift hooked a nice fish. Hooked another one after that and they both went in the creel. When I arrived at the parking lot I popped off the top to a dancing man, threw the fish in the beer cooler and enjoyed the last flickers of light. 

The Kinnie

Date: May 14^th 

Weather: 83, clear, blue skies

Stream: Clear

Hatch: Cahills

Water Temp: Cold

Beer: The Dancing Man 

            May is too beautiful a month to pass up an opportunity to head outside. With school done, any excuse to go fishing is good enough for me. After work, I jumped in the car and headed out to the Kinnie, rolling through scenic St. Croix County blasting the good vibes of Bunny Wailer. You don’t get too many May’s in your life and I have to enjoy my favorite month to the fullest.

Foul hooked

Lovely stretch

            When I got to the river, the parking lot was a little more crowded than I anticipated for a Monday evening so I hiked way up the Kinnickinnic to find some good spots. The first few spots I hit were slow, no rises and only a few mayflies so I headed on. It seemed every time I arrived at a great spot kayakers would rip through and spook up the fish. That’s the worse part about the Kinnie, kayakers are always passing by and they have no tact. Has it ever occurred to them to paddle closer to the shore instead of over the deep runs when they pass an angler?

            Heading up the river, I stopped at my honey hole. There are few things more frustrating while trout fishing when you are trying to match the hatch and it’s not working. All around me, trout were slurping insects off the surface but every dry fly I threw was simply ignored. After digging deep in my fly box, I threw on a pale yellow Light Cahill because I didn’t have anything else similar to the hatch. My first drift resulted in a strike! I fought it for a few seconds but the trout managed to throw my hook. That always sucks but I was feeling great, I finally found the winning fly.

            However, just as I found the right fly a group of four kayakers paddled through the area. The first three were nice but the last guy was just an idiot. His boat was weighed down with too much water and as he tried talking to me about fishing, he capsized the damn kayak right in the middle of my spot. Unbelievable, how does anyone capsize a kayak on that stretch of the Kinnie? He didn’t even apologize for spooking the fish and being a complete jackass. Just pissed at that damn ‘sconnie, I headed upstream but found no luck.

Look at those shoulders!

            With no luck, I headed back to my honey hole where the hatch was happening. It’s a weird thing with mayflies; they can hatch at one section of the river but 150 yards upstream they are not even there. Light was fading but the fish were rising so I threw a fly out there. After quite a few misses I hooked a beauty. I didn’t measure it but it was easily 18 inches and fought like a tiger. After that, my luck held and I kept on hooking trout. I missed a few more but it was great. It was such good luck I stayed till after the sun dropped over the horizon and hiked back in last flickers of sunlight. I popped open a dancing man in the parking lot and savored every drop sitting on the sand bank listening to the river babble. Another great trip fishing, this season is already way better than the entire 2011 season. 

Graduation in Winona and the Whitewater River

Date: May 12^th

Weather: 68, clear, blue skies

Stream: Clear

Hatch: Light Cahills

Tall drink of water or
chunk of coal?

Water Temp: Cold

Beer: New Glarus Dancing Man

Whitewater as I stepped out of car

            This last weekend was another busy one for me. Just as I finished finals I went down to spend the weekend in lovely Winona for my little sister’s graduation. It was a great weekend; Winona is in the center of the Mississippi bluff country full of rolling forested hills, gentle flowing rivers and beautiful weather. Most of my weekend was consumed with graduation related stuff and I didn’t have too much time to do anything else. However, after the graduation ceremony Saturday I managed to sneak away for some fishing.

Nice pool

            Winona is stone’s throw away from some of the best Minnesota and Wisconsin trout fishing. In particular the Whitewater River Valley is spectacular. The valley is surrounding by immense bluffs and behind the bluffs are rolling, endless Midwest farm fields. It’s a weird combination but it works. In the valley, the Whitewater runs clear and is loaded with wild trout. Saturday evening was too beautiful an evening to pass up; I had to make it out fishing if only for a few hours.

Don't take photos facing the sun

Sweet

            As I drove through the valley looking for a spot I saw so many anglers. I knew the Whitewater was popular but I didn’t anticipate this large of a crowd. Regardless, it’s a wonderful feeling investigating a new river and finding new spots to check out. Today, the insects were hatching so the Whitewater was even more welcoming. The branch I fished didn’t have the deep pools and runs like the Willow and Kinnickinnic but still had excellent spots. The Light Cahills were hatching, so the trout were rising for those off the surface. Fly casting was tricky because the section I was on was so narrow and tangling your line in the vegetation was a constant hazard.

Farm field behind

            I hooked a few small browns in one particular run. Initially I thought it was too shallow but a trout jumped out of the water before my eyes so I threw a fly out there. The stream being so narrow, I had to crouch in the brush to keep a low profile so as not to spook the trout. One I hooked fought like a fish twice its size; it was a nice little brown.

Just beautiful

Light Cahill in mouth

            I had to get back to Winona early for dinner so I figured I could work my way back upstream and hit some spots again. That plan went down in flames when a group of eight young anglers came stomping through the stream looking for trout but only silting it up. Just no tact, it was infuriating. That ended my evening on the Whitewater an hour early but it was a great little side trip nonetheless. I didn’t know what to expect on the Whitewater only fishing for three hours but it was great. It’s a river I will have to make it back to this summer. 

School is Out and the Dancing Man is on the Shelves

Date: May 10^th 

Weather: 73, clear, blue skies

Stream: Clear

Hatch: caddis flies but no trout rising

Water Temp: Cold

Beer: New Glarus Dancing Man

Lovely May ferns

            Today I finished my last class of the semester. Good lord, it couldn’t have come soon enough. I’m so sick of homework I was hoping my brain would just turn off. I did manage last night to pack up all my fishing gear so I could take my final and head straight to the Willow. The final was a piece of cake and soon I was cruising the back roads of Washington County into the St. Croix Valley and across to Wisconsin admiring the beautiful, pastoral scenery of the area as farmers were out getting ready for the new season. I stopped in Stillwater for homemade sandwich at Len’s family grocery then headed into Hudson for some coffee and beer.

The Dancing Man

            This time of the year is always special with new life, green growth, opening of the regular trout season and New Glarus’ Dancing Man hitting the shelves. Without question, it is the best beer on the shelf. A beautiful hefe weizen style with some yeast at the bottom for a cloudy appearance, it can’t be beat. The Dancing Man is only out for the summer so its brief appearance makes it that much better. Especially with Summit’s passé, uninspiring new Summer Ale replacing its Hefe Weizen, the Dancing Man is my go to brew. Today, I found it on the shelves for the first time and I had a big smile on my face as I bought a case.

Nice little spot

Big Willow fell over one of my
favorite spots

            It was already a great day and I hadn’t even hit the river yet. I arrived at the Willow around two and the sun was pretty high so I stopped to eat my sandwich and drink my first Dancing Man. It was the best lunch ever. As I finished I set up rod and hit the river. For the most part I was out too early in the afternoon and sun was directly overhead the good spots so the trout were laying low. I hooked a nice rainbow at one run and as it jumped out of the water, it threw my hook and was gone. Few more bites on some spinners I threw but nothing to special.

That is one big, nasty sucker

            Worse than the direct sun was the unbelievable number of suckers cruising through the best spots on the river to spawn. They crowded out entire stretches of the Willow just swimming back and forth splashing up the water as they spawned. I wish I had brought a spear. Too often though I hooked one of those nasty fish, and one was huge. They don’t even fight, they just feel like reeling in a big log.

            As I finished up, I ended up talking with some locals as they were out fishing. A slow day for everyone it sounded. A guy told me the morels were pretty much finished but oysters were still around. No trout but still a good day.

Opening Day on the Willow River – Wisconsin Regular Season

Date: May 5^th 

Weather: Upper 50’s, overcast

Stream: Clear

Hatch: A few mayflies

Water Temp: Cold

Beer: Lake Superior Mesabi Red

            Few days of the year are more exciting than the May 5^th trout opener. By this time spring is in full swing: the forest is awash in the new growth’s lime-green foliage, insects are hatching, trout are active and the semester is about finished. It’s my favorite time of the year. After all, how else could I force myself out of bed at 5:00 am on Saturday? For this year’s opener I headed out to the Willow River with my uncle Bob and my dad.

Bob, the master angler

            The Willow is a wonderful, underrated river. It’s very narrow so it’s not conducive to fly fishing but rather spinners and worms so that’s how we fished. I hadn’t been here since mid-March and the water was so much higher thanks to an abundance of spring rain. Our first stop on the river was a great start. My dad and Bob each caught a beautiful rainbow, we kept one. I forgot my creel so I had to throw it in my backpack; I hope everyone in class doesn’t notice any strange smells. After a few more casts we moved on to the next spot. That’s the beauty of trout fishing, if you’re not catching anything just move on to the next spot, it’s way better than being trapped in a boat.

First brown

I forgot the creel

            Later down the river, we hit up a sweet spot with a downed willow tree hanging over a pool. There are always some trout down deep but you have to have enough sinkers to beat the current. No luck there but Bob did catch a nice bass that put up a great fight. Around the next spot, I hooked my first brown in deep run; a beautiful 13 incher just above the slot than ended up in my backpack. Further up, I hooked another brown in a deep pool but it was a shade under 12 inches so I had to let it go.

Another trout in the net

            We worked our way around the river catching some more fish. I caught another beautiful brown at the same run I caught my first trout of 2012. Further upstream, as I was taking a break looking for morels I heard some yells from the river. By the time I ran over to investigate, my dad had hooked a massive brown but lost it. It’s always one of the biggest disappoints in fishing to hook a trophy but only see it spit the hook in front of your eyes. Next time on the Willow, I am going to hit up that spot.

Our haul from the river

            One of the best parts about trout fishing is finishing up and having a beer. We had been out all morning a beer break sounded great. As we were talking and drinking, my uncle Bob suggested I throw a spinner in some riffles just underneath the parking lot bridge. I had always skipped this spot when I fished the Willow but gave it a try. My first cast hooked a rainbow, followed by another and another, all the time Bob and my dad were watching above on the bridge. None of the rainbows were keepers but I couldn’t believe I had been skipping this spot all these years. It was a wonderful close to a great start to the season.