North Woods River Runner: Two Short Stories On Fishing

A week ago I got off the highway looking for some public access to a creek in Southern Wisconsin that I thought had the potential to hold trout. What I found was a nice looking little pond that from what I could see held a decent amount of pan fish. I had completed this scouting endeavor before the sun was even cresting the horizon; having dropped my wife and daughter off at the airport in Milwaukee at some ungodly hour beforehand. I planned a return trip to check it out, figuring not too many people fish it very often.

That opportunity came 4 days later when I decided to leave a few hours early to fish that pond before picking up my two favorite girls; back from their adventure together.

It was warm and humid, and while I was there it even rained off and on, but I had a lot of fun. I tried keeping count of the number of fish I caught, but lost track of the specific number, knowing it was somewhere between forty and fifty sunfish and bluegills. My first sunfish was beautifully colored with blues, yellows, black, and red. I had decided to fish like the days of old using a #8 hook, two split shot sinkers, and a little red and white bobber. On my way up to the pond I had stopped and bought a dozen crawlers and simply pinched them into sections as needed. Remarkably, I caught all of those fish, and still have four night crawlers left in the fridge (appropriately marked so as to not mistake them for food). I will use these for another outing; next time with a friend and his boys.

Northern Sunfish

Most of the fish I caught can only be described as bait stealers that would easily fit inside of the palm of an 8 year old kid. Still, I loved the simplicity of it all and setting the hook when the bobber started to dance. From the multitude of fish I caught I kept four; three because they were halfway decent size and one because he had hooked himself too bad. I’ll have them for lunch sometime before school starts a month from now. I also caught and released four largemouth bass; one small one, two at twelve inches long, and one at thirteen. One of them had another fisherman’s leader, line and soft, plastic lure stuck down in its throat, but I managed to free him of it before I released him back into the pond.

A Largemouth Bass With Some Extra Hardware I Helped Remove

Fishing with worms and a bobber brought back some good memories. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve fished like that, but I decided it was a good idea to periodically reconnect to that setting which most people who fish started out with. It was about as “All-American” as country roads and apple pies; just short of having bare feet, cut off jeans, and a can pole. Maybe I’ll do that next time for posterity’s sake.

I was in the water by 7:30 and fished for a half hour or so before I caught my first trout; a brown trout. The water was high and running cloudy yesterday after heavy rain fell earlier in the week. With the overcast sky and cool air, it provided perfect conditions to fish. I had sprayed for mosquitoes beforehand, when they had been a nuisance while I was putting my waders on, but once I stepped into the water with my sweatshirt and hat, they no longer bothered me.

My First Trout Of 2017 - A 13" Brown - Caught & Released

That first fish that I caught was 13 inches long, beautifully marked and feisty. I marveled at it, took a picture of it, and then took a video while releasing it. I fished for a little over five hours. In that amount of time I caught twenty browns, and released twenty browns. Their sizes are as follows (according to the order in which I caught them): 13, 16, 12, 17, 13, 12, 12, 14 (this one jumped six different times; all in the same hole where I had caught my first trout outside of Michigan back in 2000), 12, 14, 11, 12, 12, 8, 12, 6, 10, 9, 7, and 8 inches. I had stretches throughout where I didn’t catch many, but I had others where I simply did everything right. I used a copper colored #2 Mepps for most of the fish that I caught. Unfortunately I lost it on a simple snag in shallow water and couldn’t find it in the murkiness. After switching to a #2 blue and silver Mepps I still managed to do all right.

A Beautiful & Chunky 16" Brown Caught In Fast Moving Water

This 17" Brown Jumped Twice Before I Could Bring Him In

The Crazy 14" Brown That Jumped High Into The Air Six Different Times

Towards the end I almost kept a few to bring home because I was getting tired and hungry, but today was all about the first outing of the year. The recent high waters had blasted out most of the log jams that had built up in recent years, so the deeper, open holes in the bends were awesome places to cast for trout.

It was my official “Opening Day” of trout fishing even though it was the middle of the summer. Next week I will be up North with my cousins fishing some “Blue Ribbon” streams, and I needed to make sure I still had what it takes to get it done before I headed up.

Yesterday’s outing will forever be earmarked now as a memorable story, on a perfect day, catching a number of great fish, in one of my favorite creeks.

See you along The Way…