The Driftless Angler is happy to endorse Recycled Waders!

Go Green with your old waders.

There are few things in your fishing arsenal that go with you as many places as your waders do. Recycled Waders keeps your old waders on the mend with practical repurposed gear for your fishing and non-fishing adventures.

A great company doing an even better thing. Turning old breathable waders into packs and other useful bags. They’re giving back to the fishing community, but also to the environment by creating practical re-usable solutions for old, leaky and damaged waders.

We are accepting old breathable waders to donate to Recycled Waders, and will give you ten bucks in store credit for your drop off.

You can check them out at Recycled Waders.

Are you one of the anglers who drive to the area early in the morning and always seem to have much better luck in the afternoon? There is a trend that I have spotted guiding here that explains this. I guided a great client the other day who could not control his casts in the morning. He was casting too hard, his hook sets could have broken his fly line in half, and as much as I told him to slow down and take it easy, his casting jumped back into hyper drive. I finally put it all together. My questions was this “How many cups of coffee did you have driving up here?”

Having driven cross country many times in search of fishing, I understand the occasional need for caffeine as a jump start. However, too much mixed with the anticipation of fishing can cause you to be a bit twitchy the first few hours of a fishing trip. These hours can be some of the best fishing as the weather warms in late spring and summer, so next time you go for the refill of coffee, or reach for the Red Bull. Think about how it may be interfering with your success rate.

Don’t let coffee do this to you!

I took an hour after work yesterday to try out a new technique. Dead drifting sculpins. I have dead drifted leeches with a twitch every so often, but had never tried it with patterns that were designed to swim. So I tied on a marabou and rabbit strip sculpin pattern (materials that move and ‘breathe’ underwater were the key) and sunk it down with a mini sink tip. Fished right below a riffle and had some nice trout absolutely slam the fly. Streamer fishing is not all about how quickly you can strip a fly, sometimes it is about how slowly you can.

I’ll be honest, I was not at all familiar with scuds as a trout food before moving out to the spring creeks of the Driftless Area. Sure I fished them on big tailwaters and had an inkling that they were fairly important, but there is more to these crustaceans behavior and lifecycle that can help us all catch more fish on our fertile waters.

Scuds require nutrient rich alkaline waters with quite a bit of vegetation. They also require calcium and other dissolved chemicals found in abundance in our spring creeks (as do crayfish, see the article below). So we have ideal scud habitat, so what. Well Scuds make up a significan portion of any trout’s diet, and since they are found in such large numbers in our waters, it is something that anglers should focus on a bit more.

This time of year (mid to late April) scuds begin to mate (Water temps at the magic 50 degrees) which makes them quite vulnerable to trout as their instinct is less on survival than making babies. Scuds with a distinct pink or orange spot fish well when they are mating as pregnant females develop a distinct brood spot.

With spring rains forcing water levels up and down, scuds are flushed from their slower water habitat into the main stream, again making them vulnerable to trout. Fishing scuds as water is dropping after a rain can be a great way to catch a bunch of fish in our area! Orange is preferred under these circumstances as scuds die they lose their natural coloration and turn orange (due to the presence of Carotene)

Which color of scud to use is determined by major events such as high water, or mating season, as well as environment. Under normal circumstances scuds are a bit of a chameleon. Early in the season before weed growth and in sandy or rocky bottoms, they are tan to grey in color, olive scuds are found later in the season especially in weedy areas. As scuds get old they tend to turn an amber or yellow color.

Something to keep in mind if you are buying or tying your own scuds. Make sure you have some tied on straight shanked hooks. When scuds swim, they are elongated and straight. When they are dead, or in your hand as you look at them, they are slightly curled. Trout are usually not super picky about body shape, but in some instances having the right shape and color can make all the difference.

We’ve just received a couple of the new fly fishing movies. Soulfish and Fish Bum Diaries I: Mongolia.

Soulfish spans the globe featuring anglers fishing species from Peacock Bass, to Taimen, to bonefish and tarpon. Very few trout segments, it will get the travel bug to bite you for sure. Now if they could just get Mikey Weir to stop trying to act…

Fish Bum Diaries (from the Angling Exploration Group) puts the boys in Mongolia fishing for Taimen. After overcoming a steep learning curve on flies and Taimen behavior, they travel out to remote streams to catch some monster fish in beautiful rivers. Definitely worth the watch!

Both movies are now available at the shop.

Todd Hanson’s “Map Guide to Improved Trout Waters of Wisconsin” have hit the shelves. We have a few copies at the shop and they will be quite useful to answer the question of whether or not there is public access on a stretch of river you are fishing.

However, there have been some debates over a few details on the maps.  We at the shop always encourage that you meet the landowner and ask permission, say hello, or if nothing else to thank them for easements and stream work on their land. They are a large part of the reason our area has such good fishing, and a kind thank you or common courtesy goes a long way to continue the great access we enjoy in SW Wisconsin.

The Drake Magazine celebrates its tenth anniversary this issue! (man has it been that long?)  We have a few copies going fast, so drop by and pick one up on your way to the streams!

As much as I love seeing water put into the groundwater, enough already! Seriously, there was a light snow today and an Eastern storm front is on its way out meaning better fishing for the weekend. Saturday was good, Sunday I closed the shop a bit early and had a blast fishing a great midge hatch before noon.

A few more pictures added to the photo gallery, fly bins are full, and some new products from Simms, Scott, Echo, Airflo and others including Patagonia and Korkers.

Well, it was chilly.  The snow was shin deep in most spots and crusty which made it less than favorable to walk through.  The creeks were in great shape with a water temperature of 37 degrees at 5:30 P.M.  (Yes I still only get out to fish after I close the shop).  One small fish landed on a pink squirrel.  There were customers who had rising fish to midges, and a few more warm days should really get things going.  All in all a great opening day, despite the doom and gloom over the web about how crummy the conditions were going to be.

Here is the outline of the presentation I gave to a few groups this winter. I hope you enjoy some of the ideas and if you ever have any questions or would like more information, I encourage you to stop by the shop, call, or e-mail us. We are always happy to share information.

Leeches, Crayfish, Lamprey and Mice: An alternative approach to fly-fishing the Driftless Area

Those of us that are familiar with the Driftless Area know of its abundant insect and crustacean populations. We have seen thick caddis hatches, had scuds clinging to our wading boots, and watched fish rise to dainty Tricos on warm summer mornings. The standard approaches to fly fishing work very well on our waters, but there is another approach, another side (some call it the dark side) that can be equally (if not sometimes more) effective than dry fly or nymph fishing.
Leeches, Crayfish, Lamprey and mice are not the type of flies that make one feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, nor are they custom fit for fishing on a delicate 2 weight. So why even bother?
First off breaking from the standard way you usually fly fish is a great way to expand your skills and learn new presentation techniques that can crossover into all fly fishing areas. It is easy to tie on a pink squirrel or a grey scud and catch fish all day, I am guilty of doing it all the time! However, certain situations require you to reach deep into your bag of tricks to catch fish in tricky conditions. The bigger your bag of tricks, the more fish you can catch under varied and difficult condtions.
Secondly, fishing the off patterns is a great way to take a census of a stream. These bigger patterns are large meals to trout, and something that invades their territory. In other words, fish will move a long distance to either eat these larger offerings, or get them out of their home territory. In addition, you can cover quite a bit of water with these patterns. Rich Osthoff wrote in length in his book “Active Nymphing:Aggressive Strategies for Casting, Rigging, And Moving the Nymphs” about covering water with searching patterns to find fish, especially big fish. Within the Driftless Area’s spring creeks, there are many hiding spots for fish, and using these techniques you can unlock some of the secrets to where fish are.
Fishing larger patterns and fishing a lot of water is also a great way to run into really big fish. A crayfish drifted by the nose of a big brown trout will be much more enticing than a tiny mayfly nymph. Large fish can be extremely tough to get excited to eat, but if you drift something equivalent to a steak and potato instead of a carrot stick, you are much more likely to get it to bite!
I have been known to show quite a bias to this style of fishing for one simple reason. My job only affords me the opportunity to fish at first and last light, when fish are on the prowl for these larger meals. All the creepy crawlies I will write about come out in low light conditions and fish feel more comfortable without a bright sun shining down on them which adds up to some heart pounding action.
Let’s begin with leeches. There are many leeches in the Driftless Area waters from swamps to lakes to our spring creeks. They vary in length from 3/4 of an inch to up to 6 inches and are found in our favorite fly tying colors; black, olive, and brown. The important leeches to the angler are the swimming variety that look like ribbons flowing through the water. Movement and shillouette is critical in tying or selecting a leech pattern. You should select one that is flattened and undulates. One fly that is passed as a leech pattern, the wooly bugger, is not necessarily a great imitation of a leech as it pulsates and swims instead of undulates and flows. Leeches tied with rabbit or other strips of hair are great choices especially when weighted up front. A bead head or non-lead weight at the head of a leech can help to make it swim realistically through the water.
To effectively fish the leech there is one principal rule to keep in mind. Leeches do not swim upstream! Even the best pattern that is cast downstream and worked up back towards the angler will get the attention of a few fish, but most will ignore it as something too out of the ordinary.
There are 3 simple ways to cover water fishing a leech. The first is the ‘upstream census taker’. The angler casts upstream and twitches and swims the leech back downstream. This is a great way to see if any fish are hiding in a section of stream.
The second is to cast the fly up and across stream and SLOWLY twitch the fly back towards yourself. This is my favorite way of fishing leeches, and is very similar to swinging soft hackles with the added twitches get the pattern to undulate. Using the swing and twitch technique you can cover a hole or area very efficiently and very thoroughly.
The final technique is one to use when the fish seem to be hiding in the lunker structures under bright sun or fishing water that has been worked by another angler recently. It can be incredibly aggravating seeing fish just outside a lunker or an undercut bank and not being able to entice it into eating your fly. To fish a leech (remember many fish will respond to a bigger meal even if they seem lockjaw?) at these fish, you should keep a low profile and cast your fly at the head of the lunker structure and either throw a reach mend or large mend downstream as close to the lunker as possible and let the leech drift right next to the bank. The current will pull the fly downstream and there is no need to twitch the fly as you will probably have to throw small mends to keep your line in the right spot and it is these small mends that will give action to your leech.
Leeches are great patterns and ones that quite a few people are familiar with, but the crayfish of the Driftless Area are more numerous and unfortunately passed over by many fly anglers. The chemistry of the Driftless’ spring creeks is great for crustaceans as exoskeleton growth is dependent on calcium and other natural chemicals found in abundance in limestone spring creeks. Every stream has crayfish in it, some of them are teeming with the lobster’s little cousins! They live in rocky to sandy stream bottoms and are found in lengths from about an inch to six inches, and are abundant in the colors brown, olive and brown.
Crayfish shed their exoskeletons a handful of times each year, the younger the crayfish, the more shedding it does. This process is often stressful and can result in the death of a crayfish. If they do survive they are in their vulnerable ’soft-shell’ phase that lasts up to a week. These soft shell crayfish are much paler in color and are much easier to digest. Although there is no study done on trout to my knowledge, there have been studies done on smallmouth bass that show a preference to the softshell stage crayfish over the shelled stage.
All of this information gives us a clear picture of which patterns to choose or tie, and how to fish them. A pattern with distinct claws, legs on the underbody, and a shell on the back are preffered. I like to tie my pattens hook point up and weighted on the bottom so they can bounce along the bottom without hanging up. Also, always tie your crayfish patterns with the claws sticking off the back of the hook and the tail near the eye. Keeping in mind that the softshell variety is much more friendly to the bellies of the trout, patterns should be tan to pale brown and olive.
Effective fishing of crayfish in moving water is done in a couple of ways. Crayfish either crawl slowly along the bottom, escape swimming in bursts backwards, or dead drift as they are stunned or dying. It is near impossible in moving water to mimic the walking crayfish even with a sink-tip line. Plus when crayfish spot a predatory trout, it does not casually walk around. Remember above when I suggested you tie your crayfish with the claws off the back and the tail at the eye of the hook? This is essential for fishing a fleeing crayfish. You can use the deep twitchy swing that you used for fishing leeches (or soft hackles!) to mimic the fleeing crayfish, but keep in mind again that crayfish do not normally swim upstream.
The most effective way to fish a crayfish is to simply dead drift it near the bottom mimicing a dead or dying crayfish. Plop a weighted crayfish right below a riffle and let it drift downstream into deeper water and hold on!
From more common leeches, to less common crayfish, we will not jump to a fly pattern that will convince you that I may just be insane. Lamprey. The word conjures up images of mouthes full of sharp teeth and attached to larger fish draining them of blood until they perish. But there really are kinder and gentler lamprey, that are a great source of food for trout in the spring time.
Northern Brook Lamprey are a native species of non-parasitic lamprey found in almost all of our spring creeks. As larvae they filter feed on dead organic material in slow, mucky backwaters. When they hatch in the late winter and early spring they do not even feed! The are olive in color and are found between 2 and 7 inches long. Much like leeches they swim with an undulating movement. They spawn in the spring and are a very vulnerable food source for larger trout.
Lamprey patterns are usually large marabou leeches or olive zonkers. Although they are available only for a limited time during the season, if you see these little guys swimming around your wading boots you should consider tying on a big bug that imitates an incredibly large seasonl meal for trout.
To come back down to reality, our final non-standard patters are mice patterns. The fields and forests of the Driftless Area are full of mice in the late spring and into the season’s closing in late September. Mice are usually very shy and only venture out to feed during the night. They are important to trout when they lose their footing and plop into the water. The plop and subsequent swimming and splashing of a mouse is similar to ringing a dinner bell for trout. On smaller mouse patterns I have caught fish as small as ten inches!
The key to fishing a mouse is creating a wake and disturbance just under the surface of the water. Mice do not walk on top of the water as a treated deer hair pattern tends to do, rather they swim with their heads up and most of their bodies under water. Picture a dog swimming and scale it down. The simplest way to recreate a swimming and struggling mouse is to attach a mini sink tip to your leader that will sink the spun hair pattern under just under the surface film. Plop them near the shore and strip them towards you in steady strips creating a bulge and wake on the surface.
Mouse fishing is the best way to catch a fish of a lifetime in the Driftless Area. If you can get over the occasional snarling raccoon and stumbling over logs in the dark you can be rewarded with great action and a great experience fishing by sound and feel.