Pre-Game to Wisconsin's 2016 Fishing Opener

The Boy and I decided to test out our arms today. His baseball season is in getting into full swing. I'm just trying to see if my arm still know how to cast.

The rain we've had this week, and driving by the local river made me ditch the fly rod and settle on throwing spinners. In reality, it would have been a great day for nymph fishing. Water clarity was far better than expected. Even so, spinners did the trick. I think it was a nice confidence boost to the Boy, (and yours truly).

We made our way to a nearby river, and interrupted nesting geese. They honked at us for some time. Not wishing to disturb them, we moved on... to where we ran into more geese. We just may have to come back here next fall! It wasn't trouble to find water without people, but the birds are nesting everywhere!

It took some doing before getting dialed-in. For one, I hadn't done much to prepare the rods for this season. Line was in rough shape on one combo. The other was missing the inner ring on the last hole, making casting difficult. If I could cast it 40 feet, I felt like a champ. The boy was getting chilled and bored. We left the thermos of coffee in the car, as I had forgotten to bring my pack. He was throwing a size 2 purple fox, which is a personal favorite, but having no luck. I was throwing a size one Panther Martin, silver. Things picked up when I switched to gold.

Tied into my first small Brown a couple feet from me, and in the midst of water I wouldn't have though held fish. I put a similar contraption on the Boy's rig, and suddenly he wasn't cold anymore.

We started having success, pulling a few more browns, but I knew the fast water was ahead. That's when I tied into this beauty of a brown.

Needless to say, my day was made. What a beauty! Everything else was just gravy. The good news was, there was gravy, cranberry sauce, apple pie, and a touch of ice cream too. The Boy and I both landed some better than average browns and brookies in that stretch. They were definitely working the current and bends this morning. I did see a late morning hatch, and a few surface, but they were smaller. If we had the time, I'd have loved to come back this evening and try a few mayflies or caddis patterns. Here are a couple more we connected with.

And one more.

Next Saturday seems like a long ways off. The weather forecast calls for a slow warm-up, and pretty-steady pattern. For a warm-up to Wisconsin's fishing opener next week, I say "Game On!"

Tight lines everyone.