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3. WI contingent, Page 4

absolutely Logboy...I just finished my Master's thesis and turned it into the grad office yesterday. I am free and clear after the weekend and the festivities. I see the forecast is calling for a lot of rain so we will have to play it be ear and see how things turn out. I would imagine the forecast will change a bit after the weekend.

heading out...I'll be on the river by 11am. I drive a early 90's Dodge Dakota and will be wearing a Stout hat if anyone comes out and wants to say hi. I usually can be found off of 570 or in el paso. Hopefully I'll see you guys out there.

I think the Stout fly fishing class is at Cady Creek again tuesday night. Head west on 29 a few miles and turn left onto PP (the turn off to lumber farm). Follow that till you get to Elmwood at the bottom of the big hill. Hang a right right before town and follow the road along the creek. The entire stretch is restored trout habitat. Bring lots of flies, theres plenty of trees and brush to lose them on. Its full of brookies though.

Hey whats hatching on the Rush right now? Caddis were hatching on Cady, but I haven't been on the Rush because of finals. I might hit the Namekagon when I visit the folks in Hayward later this week. Anybody fishing up there lately? Anything going on?

Caddis and BWOs on the Rush...they were hatching like crazy yesterday. Caught 15 fish all on the surface. It was a blast.

What time of day are you fishing?

this was actually mid-day. I was quite surprised. I'll be out again today. Leaving around 9am.

My wife has finally agreed to give fly fishing a try. I bought her a rod, waders and boots 4 or 5 years ago but she has never used them.

I haven't been on the river for a week so I am not sure when the hatches are happening. I would like to try and get her on the river when the fish are rising so I have the best chance at hooking her into the sport. As they say, HAPPY WIFE, HAPPY LIFE.

So, the question is: Currently, what time of day is best? Should it be a morning, afternoon, or evening date?

I assume we will end up on the Rush but not sure where. I would guess it will be our own land but the stretch in Martell with improvements may be better for her to learn(no branches). Any ideas for teaching a newbie who is also a wife? type of water? Fish from the bank? Plan on divorce?


She is 5'2" 94 lbs and physically fairly weak(mentally and emotionally she is ten times stronger than I am) so I think I best avoid the deep fast water.

Well, today there was a huge BWO hatch between 1pm and around 4pm. I would say to load her up with BWOs and head for either El Paso or 570. Grab some caddis as well...between the BWOs and the caddis you should be covered. Get out around 11am and then wait for it to begin. Both days that I have gone this week have been sunny and clear and the fish have been biting during that time. I would suspect that any of the clear and sunny days upcoming in the forecast would work out. Good luck, my wife fishes with me and, it is true, it makes things way easier.

So Logboy...what does next week look like for you? Have any days where you'd like to try and get out?

If my wife can do it, so can yours. Let her go at her own pace, and don't expect her to be as excited to fish as you are. Just don't be too upset when she catches a bigger fish than you do (I've been hearing about it for the last two years).


I was out on the chippewa flowage tonight crappie fishing. Managed to pull in 5 crappies and a northern on a little white crystal flash minnow. Funny, I caught more fish than my old man, and he was using two spinner rods and minnows. Goes to show what you can do on a fly rod.

If anyone is interested, the trout fishing is really picking up on the namekagon river north of hayward. The hayward fly fishing company said they're getting them on caddis and dark hendricksons.

I'll be back in Menomonie sat night. Freepow lets link up sometime early next week (sun, mon, tues). I want to try fishing the rush where you do, apparently theres a lot more action than around martell.

Went out on the Rush tonight around 6. Tried going at 570, but didnt feel like sharing the river with the 8 cars already there so I went over to the 72-BB intersection. There were trout rising all over the place, but for the life of me I couldn't key in on them. I tried all the usual bwo, blue quills, and a couple caddis but they didnt touch it. Talk about frustrating! I even saw a 12" leap completely out of the water to pounce on something on the surface. I think they were hitting on the caddis, because the bwo werent getting much attention. I finally switched to a woolly bugger and caught two 12 inchers. Pretty sad fishing considering all the surface activity. Anybody got a more effective caddis pattern than an elk hair?

I had similar trouble in El Paso. Fish were rising everywhere but were not taking my caddis or my BWO. I believe there were multiple bugs in the hatch though...including caddis and crane flies. I am pretty sure the fish were focusing in on the crane flies and I didn't have anything to imitate them...so I tied something that I think may work when I got home. I'll keep you posted and if it works I'll post the recipe. Logboy...I am heading out today around 11am and will be coming back to Menomonie around 5pm. I'll either be in El Paso or at 570. I'll send you a private message with my phone number. Call me if you want to get out today or sometime soon. I'm still just looking for a job so my schedule is flexible.

If the trout are slashing and leaping it is generally for some sort of caddis emergence this time of year. Try going wet with a small flymph, sparkle caddis emerger or even a small wet march brown spider with gold ribbing, hares ear body and grouse hackle.

You may also see diving caddis that are going back in the water to lay their eggs. Sometimes you will even find the eggs laid on your waders under the water as well. A sure sign to change to a wet caddis fly imitation.

Good luck!

Saturday the fish were clearly keying in on crane flies. I sat and watched the flies float by a rock and nearly every one of them were swallowed up.

Haven't seen as many crane flies lately but the caddis are still hatching nicely. For some reason I can't seem to get the fish to hit my caddis though. I tied some darker colored ones and got a bit of action, but nothing consistent. I had great luck on a caddis pupa...hooked a real big fish, fought for about 5 minutes...and then poof! he was gone. Never even got a good look at him...so disappointing. I am looking forward to a shift in the hatches...does anyone have any suggestions on how best to fish the caddis hatch? The caddis themselves really seem to jump around and the fish seem to key in on this behavior. I can't seem to figure out a way to even begin to mimic this behavior. I tried throwing downstream and trying to bounce the fly back to me but this is not cutting it. Any tips would be great. I may just have to stick to the pupa though...

When the caddis hatch is just getting underway I like to use a small bead head caddis pupae imitation, or deep sparkle caddis imitation, throwing the fly upstream, letting it sink and then when it gets across or just below me lift it towards the surface.

Once the hatch gets going I like to use Gary LaFontaine's Sparkle Caddis pupae imitation. This is the best imitation I know of that replicates the air bubble surrounding the pupae as it is emerging from below. Again, I throw it up and across and let it get below the surface. There is also an Emerging Sparkle Caddis pupae imitation for just under the surface film. For on the surface I use a fluttering caddis.

Here are a couple of caddis imitation examples:

http://www.danica.com/flytier/fthompson/deep_sparkle_pupa.htm
http://www.danica.com/flytier/fthompson/emergent_sparkle_pupa.htm

Had a bit of luck on the Caddis pupa this weekend. Caught a nice 14" throwing it through a medium speed riffle. It hit hard and fast and I was completely surprised that it was a fish and not a snag for once. Nymphing can be so exciting sometimes...its good because it offsets the frustration I am experiencing as I get accustomed to fishing underwater. Anyone get out today or yesterday? What hatches are you guys seeing? What time of the day are they hatching?

Sorry I didn't get back to you freepow, unfortunately its log rolling competition season for me so my schedule is horrible. I haven't been out trout fishing lately, but I've been slaying a lot of crappies and bluegills. I did a one day float trip down the Namekagon south of Hayward with the Hayward Fly Fishing Company. I caught over 20 smallmouth bass and a few northerns. There arent many trout that far south of Hayward, but there were a lot of hatches going on. Saw a few spinners, and a lot of caddis all day. I did some scouting north of Hayward and found quite a few in the 15" range. The section is catch and release only, so I suspect its really putting a cramp in the tourist worm/spinner-bait eat-everything-you-catch fishing. Are they still keying in on the craneflies on the Rush? I'm looking forward to the summer hopper season here soon. There's nothing better to break the monotony than splatting down a hopper as hard as you can.

No biggie Logboy...just get ahold of me when you get some free time and we'll get together for a beer and tying talk or maybe a chance to get out to the river. I've been out 2 or 3 times a week lately. The hatches seem to have moved from mid-afternoon to early and late. The caddis are still popping up in the mid-afternoon but not as heavily. The BWOs are coming out in the morning a bit now and fish are sipping heavily on them and midges. I can't seem to get a good midge pattern (dry or larval) that consistently catches. I caught a real pretty 11" brookie and a 14" brown a couple days ago. The other wildlife is alive and around too. Yesterday I saw 6 deer throughout the day. Mostly I was sneaking up on them as they drank from the river. The herons are out too and fun to watch. They are fishing just like we are...except their lives depend on it. The craneflies are still out but I don't think the trout are as keyed in on them. The hatch isn't as heavy and I am seeing some that are HUGE. One yesterday was about baseball size. I think all this rain in the forecast is going to really mess the river up for a few days but perhaps after things settle down there will be some really nice hatches.