Pat fishing Trout Run in Minnesota

Pat and I recently returned from a combination family and fishing trip in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Sure took care of the problem of California’s high water!  We fished a few of the streams in the “Driftless Country” again as we did two years ago.  Returned to a couple of favorites like Trout Run in Minnesota and Timber Coulee in Wisconsin and had time for a few new ones.  The fishing was excellent but the weather was typically Midwest in that it was warm and humid with occasional rain and the bugs were out in force.  We caught most of our fish using dries and droppers with the fish, predominately browns, taking either one.  The most successful dry was a size #14 parachute ant and the most successful nymph was a flash-back PT on a 18 inch dropper.  We didn’t see any hugh hatches but enough bugs came dribbling off to keep the fish looking up.  Most of the hatches were sulfur duns which are imitated well enough by our PMD imitations.  With the amount of rain they have had back there, the waters were slightly discolored which, frankly, made the fishing easier than it was two years ago.  If you ever get a chance try the “Driftless Country” you will enjoy the experience and the fishing!

Bohemian Creek, Wisconsin

Here the situation hasn’t changed from when we left.  I spent yesterday (July 1, 2011) up in the North Yuba drainage from the summit at 6700 feet down.  The river is over 2400 cfs with peaks to 3000 cfs in the late afternoon.  The creeks are brimful and ripping.  The only possibility that I saw was that Goodyear Creek was fishable as was Indian Valley.  I don’t know if any appreciable numbers of fish have remained in these tributaries.

The Lower Yuba has been fluctuating between 9000 cfs and 7000 cfs with the river near 7000 cfs this morning (July 2, 2011).  The fly fishing is extremely difficult with nymphing the way to go, even though there are thousands of grasshoppers available.  You just need to walk and search out the soft spots.  A good day right now would be a couple of fish a day in the 14-16 inch range.

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