Wow, it's been a helluva week of angling, this boy has been all over the board...Lets re-cap it shall we?
Thursday 6-12: Fished the mighty Kinni with Leo and Janet from Rockford Ill. We met them in Chicago at the Fly Show and they came up for a long weekend to explore our area. Sadly, the water was still high and in fact, rose about 4" in the 5 or so hours we fished. Needless to say the fishing was tough although Janet managed a nice little brown nymphing out of the current areas. Sometimes the timing is just tough and with all the rain we've had we're pretty lucky compared to some folks.
Friday 6-13: More high water, this time with a group on the Croix. My boat was the smallie rig and good thing because the smallies are biting well on the croix. We fished south of Afton mostly, pitching tubes and spinner baits into the trees and dock areas. We did find numbers but no slobs, save for Steve's 16" on a pepper tube. Thanks for a fun day guys, hope you had a nice outing!
Saturday & Sunday: DOS RIOS! Friday I left immediately for Dos Rios WI for the first salmon trip of the year. Got in late, slept a couple hours and was ready for the first light bite...which never came. Here was the deal, the twin rivers had dumped an enormous amount of mud and sediment in the lake, in the early a.m. we had no clue as to the depth of breadth of the mudline and this turned out to be the key for the weekend. Once the sun came up and we found the edge, we lit them up! The mud from the rivers, including the Manitowak was out to 125 to 175fow, maybe 4-6 miles off shore. We found a really solid edge of blue water vs. mud and worked the edge hard and started picking up fish almost immediately. Spoons on stealth leadcore rigs and clean lines were the keys as usual and saturdays box was the biggest at the cleaning station. So much so that the local charter guys cornered Ben for the details on what we were doing out there. Our trolling program is tough for them to match for a number of reasons, namely speed and style of gear. it's tough for the charters to run stealth gear, IE: put it down efficiently and keep it at the right speed. Our ability to change quick, check speed and move quietly is what keeps us on the top of the heap at the end of the day. Needless to say saturday we were off the water @ 10:30 with 8 in the box (5 four year old kings and some nice steelies inc a 32"). Overall we went 17 for 25, released a bunch of 2-5lb lakers and a couple smaller silver-fish too. Ben's got himself a new fillet knife, looks like some damn Ninja tool, he cuts, I pack....After a nap and re-grouping we gave the afternoon a shot, but storms in the area picked up the wind from the SE and that's bad in Dos Rios, we got blown off the water and had to settle for the sunday morning troll instead.
Sunday morning we found the same program, but the ever changing mudline challenged us just a bit more and we had to work till 1 or so to fill our box. Not as many big kings on sunday, but lots of nice fish and fewer lakers, although we did kill one for the smoker.
As fun as this is, the drive over and back, plus the bodily wear and tear means I am stunned for a couple days afterwards (sorry Jennifer!) It's tough fishing but soooo worth it!
Monday 6-16: Today was my favorite kind of trip on the Croix, the mixed bag day! Fished with Max and Taylor Kearns of the St Croix Valley. We started out focusing on smallies to get on the board, feel some tugs and get a feel for the high water, which had gone up 2' over the weekend! We found smallies in the usual places, tight to shore, rocks and sand etc. having had our fill of smallies and a sweet lunch break at Afton State Park, we decided to fill the remainder of the day with Muskies and Walleyes. Headed up to Afton to cast for a bit, neither fella had boated a musky so despite the mid-afternoon timing we donned bucktails and topraiders and gave it a go. From his "Bill Dance" seated position up front, Max almost instantly had a follow on the TR and the fish was hot, so we stayed in the area and hunted for a couple more. Mind you. 1:30 in the afternoon here....Well 15 minutes or so and 25 casts later Max hooked up at boat side on the same TR. The fish exploded out of nowhere and grabbed the bait, Max put the Almighty wood to him and it was game on. He was able to keep the beast close at hand and it was in the net in less than 15 seconds. Not the epic lengthy battle but rather the boat side meltdown and chaos of a musky on a short line. Good Work! High fives all around! Remember, this was from a seated position, I'll have to try that...stealth.. So we got our muskie, then decided to roll for some walleyes out in the main lake. Dealing with a 15mph north wind, we set up on the humps and did manage to get a couple but kept none for the box, just a nice way to round out the day. 5 species, mixed bag and a heckuva good day!
As if that's not enough!
In doing some recon for tonight's trip, I went to the Kinni last night with Ingy. It was his first time with a fly rod in a couple summers but he did just fine. We hiked a long way down, which is the norm for me, escape the hoards....Despite the sporadic bug activity which included Stoneflies of all things, fishing was pretty tough. I mostly fished a caddis just as a searching pattern, pitching to cover and small slots. got a number of grabs but I'll be damned if I didn't got skunked. Tough one for the Guide to admit but it happens. However I learned enough to be fully ready for tonight's action, busting out the big stimulator's to get their attention, especially as dark rolls around. I'll have a report later this evening, including pics from the previous weeks action!
Jennifer and I are going to kayak the kinni tomorrow and have a nice camp out in El Paso, very much looking forward to an evening away with my lady!
more to come, stay tuned!
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