The Witching Hour

Date: July 31st

Weather: 89 degrees

Stream: Clear, 92 cfs

Hatch: Tiny tricos

Beer: The Dancing Man

            With my last class wrapping up soon I should have spent the evening working on my project but I hit the river instead. Screw homework, when the fishing is good I can’t focus on something as dull as that. Typically, July is usually a mix bag when it comes to fishing the river. Hatches are slow and small and trout rise less frequently. But I’ve been experiencing a fishing renaissance this summer. The trout have been all over my line.

            The runs I stopped at all produced trout, mostly around eight inches. Nothing too significant but still fun to catch. A few holes yielded some eleven inch trout which fought great. Since I started nymphing, I’ve been hitting different spots with some great results. One spot, which for a few years I’s always thought looked to be a great spot, had never produced a trout despite plenty of effort. Tonight was different, drifting a stonefly nymph towards the end of the run I saw my strike indicator submerge. I set the hook with a low drag and took my time reeling in the trout, letting it run. When I netted it I saw the side of its face looked different. At first I thought the hook did something but the poor thing was missing its eye. I didn’t have the heart to keep it. 


The moon was beautiful tonight too. 

Drinking some Dancing Man

Date: July 23nd

Weather: 93 degrees

Stream: Clear, 96 cfs

Hatch: Tiny tricos

Beer: The Dancing Man

            There are three things I love most: fishing, drinking beer and, well, I can’t include the last one lest some younger people read this. When the fishing isn’t going well I can always polish off a night drinking a smooth Dancing Man. Tonight was one of those nights, I was so eager to return to the river after catching a load off trout the other night. I dead drifted and high sticked every spot I knew but it wasn’t like last night. The weather slowed me down; showers caught me in my prime spot and the pressure system moving in slowed down the bite. Good thing I brought beer.  

Pastoral evening in Wisconsin

            
After restocking my tried and true nymph patterns I was so certain I catch my limit. It’s funny how that works, when you want to keep fish you only catch a few but when you don’t want to keep any you can’t keep them off your line. The two I caught were smaller; around nine inches, good smoking size. It wasn’t the ones I caught that haunt me; it’s the ones I missed. I hooked three more but each threw the hook though I was certain I had set it. As the light faded, I stopped at my last spot and drifted a nymph. After a few drifts I hooked a huge trout but after a run, it threw the hook to my disbelief. That was disheartening. 

How David Got His Groove Back

Date: July 22nd

Weather: 91 degrees, humid

Stream: Clear

Hatch: Tiny BWO’s

Beer: The Dancing Man

            Today, I made an early pit stop at the Kinni Creek Fly Shop in River Falls to pick up some strike indicators, terrestrial and nymph patterns. The owner sure makes herself out to be a lot nicer over her website than in person. She had a nice selection of flies though.

            I’ve never had decent strike indicators ever so I gave it a whirl today and the trout started biting. I used a pheasant tail with a tungsten head to maximum effectiveness. I did so well I couldn’t believe I had been neglecting this tactic for so long. The long runs of medium depth held the most trout; they were slightly smaller but gave a good fight. Snags were a major annoyance. I lost three great bead head nymphs and I had nothing left in my fly box at the end of the night. I can live with that; last year this time I wanted to snap my rod in half.

            I loved nymphing; I could hit some different water and hook fish when they weren’t rising. Although, every time I situated at a nice spot kayakers passed and swirled the water spooking the trout. I forgot to bring a pen to mark trout but I think I hooked around 12 and kept two for a Balsam Lake smoke out. Also, a cute girl gave some positive feedback about my camouflage pants I always wear which gave me a good laugh. They were the cheapest ones and a man just needs to wear camo pants in Wisconsin.

            Anyways, what the hell is Summit Brewing doing these days? They pulled their vaunted Summer Ale off the shelves to replace it with Oktoberfest more than a month and half before that is supposed to arrive on shelves. Their Summer Ale sucked big time but shelf life is what the brewery is going for these days. They canceled their summer Hefe because they couldn’t ensure quality. But that’s stupid, who cares about ensuring quality in Florida, stick to your home market like New Glarus does. The Minnesota beer market is wide open for some real innovators, who will it be?

Healing My Bones in the Magical Waters

Date: July 17th

Weather: 101 degrees, hazy

Stream: Clear

Hatch: Minimal

Beer: The Dancing Man

            Global Warming is messing up one of my favorite activities. This extended heat streak has kept the trout deep and spooky. Bass and suckers have swum up from the St. Croix to the Kinnickinnic’s cool spring fed waters. It’s hot for everyone but I finished an online course today and I wasn’t going to let 101 degrees prevent me from fishing.

            I switched between throwing worms on my spinning rod and a hopper on my fly rod. The hot tip out of the Bois Brule River called for casting hoppers off the stream bank. Sounded good to me but on the stream the trout were uninterested. Wormin’ produced two trout at my first spot but the river went quiet after; no bites and no rises.

            

           With weather this hot a refreshing dip is always a great idea. After fishing I stopped at a great pool to find salvation. 67 degree water is really, really cold in such a good way. All the sweat, grime and ticks washed off me as I dived into the depths. Its magical water that flows through the Kinnie and it’s only found in a few places I know.   

Nymphing and Swinging Streamers

Date: July 12^th

Weather: 91 degrees

Stream: Clear

Hatch: Minimal

Beer: The Dancing Man

            The trout are staying deep right now and reluctant to take a fly off the surface. I read something like 85% of a trout’s feeding is subsurface. That means dead drifting nymphs on an indicator rig. It’s an incredibly effective way for hooking trout and not unlike wormin’. I just love dry flys so much I never nymph if I have to.

            My nymph selection is lacking to say the least, mostly scuds and pheasant tail nymphs. The indicators I used were from my original fly rod way back when I started. I laugh at how naïve I was when I started; I could hardly cast on the river let alone dead drift a nymph. It started out alright; I had a few follows but nothing too big. However, my indicators were so old they broke apart after a few drifts and I was left with few options so I switched to an olive wooly bugger steamers.

             At a nice bend, after casting and stripping, I hooked a beautiful bass. At first I figured it was a massive trout, it made some huge runs and I had to run up and down the shoreline but it turned out to be a nice bass. On a fly rod a bass is an incredible catch. Your rod doubles over and the reel strips out line faster than you can reel it in. After the bass, it was bad luck after. I missed a few strikes on a dry fly at my secret spot to great disappointment.

            In last flickering rays of twilight, I finally hooked a nice ten inch trout on a large royal humpy, a dry fly I rarely use and tied on out of desperation more than anything else. My first drift resulted in a trout literally leaping a foot out the water. A few drifts later it was mine. Sometimes I feel so bad about keeping such a beautiful fish, but as a friend told me once, you should be willing to kill something if you want to eat meat. 

Why Go Anywhere Else But The Kinnie?

Date: July 7^th

   

Weather: 85 degrees

Stream: Clear

Hatch: Minimal

Beer: Summit Horizon Red Ale

            The last week has been misery with such extreme temperatures and no air conditioning. It was like 104 degrees last Friday and my house was a steamy 95 degrees inside. The heat finally broke and I had to get outside to enjoy some time on the river with my buddy Donny. The Kinnickinnic has been my river so why change a good thing but it’s hard to believe I haven’t even made it out to the Rush River.

            High temperatures have put a halt to the hatch though July is when tricos start appearing. No sign of them so far. Wormin’ is the way to go and at the first hole we started catching some beautiful 8-12” trout. The biggest highlight was seeing a ‘sconnie kayaker get spun around in the rapids and tip her kayak right over our fishing hole. Good thing for her Donny made the jump right in to save her at the expense of his cell phone.

            Huger suckers and smallmouths were on the river. There are always a few but I bet they swam up from the St. Croix to find cooler water. At one spot there was at least a 12 pound sucker we tried hard to catch but to no avail. The bass bite was hot too which is always a fun time. I missed the biggest trout I’ve ever seen at a rarely hit spot so before the season is over I will catch it. With all this hot weather, next time I will have to set up my Czech nymphing rig.

Wormin’

Date: July 1^st   

Weather: 93 degrees

Stream: High and clear

Hatch: Minimal

Beer: The Dancing Man

            I thought the Kinnickinnic canyon and cool water would offer the perfect respite from the heat wave. So certain, I brought my younger brother Eric out to ply the Kinnie. But it was just as hot as St. Paul. With this heat wave, insect hatches are negligible so the trout stay down in the deepest pools. The best technique to reach them is either nymphing on a fly rod or using a worm on a spinning rod. Wormin’ is the way to go and you can hit great water unavailable to a dry fly where the biggest trout lurk.

            A little ways up the Kinnie is a huge Willow tree that fell into the river during the late summer flood in 2010. It created the perfect spot for trout: deep water, shade, cover and current. Eric and I started wormin’ there and quickly caught some nice trout. Further upstream, we hit my hot spot and caught quite a few more trout. Eric hooked a beauty at my favorite spot. I only saw a few rises during the evening so the trout were keeping low in this hot weather.

            With the heat, it was hard to stay long on the river. There was no breeze throughout the canyon but the water was beautiful. At our last stop, I threw a worm into a deep pool I had never hit before and my first cast hooked a fat 16 inch bass, a rare catch on the Kinnie. A few trout later we packed up and headed out without even stopping to drink my customary beer after an evening of fishing. 

Will a Real Minnesota Brewer Please Stand Up?

Date: June 29^th 

Weather: 92 degrees

Stream: High and clear

Hatch: Minimal

Beer: The Dancing Man

            For such a long time I have taken leaky waders as a fact of life. I just bought a new pair and my mind was shattered by the fact that I spent a few hours on the river and my socks and camo pants were completely dry. The only thing which brought me down to earth was the big blister on my heel the size of a nickel.

            The water is still high from the seven inches of rain we received over the course of a week but it’s now running clear. It’s sad to say but I think the peak of the mayfly hatches are over July always has a few surprises. I hooked two trout, one on a cahill and the other on a caddis. Not the greatest night but compared to 2011 this year has just been fantastic. As the water levels start leveling the fishing should pick up.

            On a side note, my disappointment in our local Midwest brewers continues. My search for a solid complimentary beer to the dancing man has produced nothing. Bell’s has some decent beers but what sane person wants to spend ten dollars for a sixer? Summit is just disappointing and New Glarus is pretty good. Maybe, I’m too demanding but it feels like all these brewers are selling the fact that they are craft brewers but not being innovative.