with only being a week into January, it has been extremely busy and only getting busier. Browns and steelhead have been tricky to find and catch in the harbors but getting off the beaten path in the rivers have been the trick. Friday, we only had one swing and miss with a shiner on an Automatic fisherman but took 4 fish (including one fully loaded female coho) and missed two others jigging. White tinsel jig was the star followed up by a Rapala Slab Rap. Saturday I ran my

This past weekend was just a blast catching quality steelhead. Friday I met up with fellow Creek Candy Bead Company Pro Staffer Anthony Jewell and his buddy Henry. After missing two big browns in Mckinley Marina, we made a run down to the Root River. Despite the water still being dirty from the rain eariler in the week they both managed to stick two thick steelhead. Saturday I ran a full day with Matt, his brother and his dad. I had already planned on having to deal with

The fall push of brown trout and steelhead are starting to make a strong presence in the rivers of S.E. Wisconsin. The trick has been running a tandem Creek Candy Bead combo with a small spawn sac on the bottom hook. It's been a 50/50 mix of either the top bead or spawn sac getting hit. This weekend is going to be extremely brutal for the boat but with snow in the forecast means more river steelhead. UV Green and frosty roe have been the hot beads. Monday i was able to s

Yesterday I met my buddy (photographer) and his girlfriend on the river in search of Browns and chinooks. As I was standing on the bank finishing my coffee Kelsey yelled "I have one!" As I looked up I saw her fly rod bowed over and a very nice brown thrashing away. After a 15min fight Nolan had it in the net. She had just landed her biggest brown around 10lbs. After a few minutes I suggested moving up river for chinooks. We made our truck a half mile up river when I saw a lar

Had another fantastic morning trip today even though it started off slow going 1-3 in the Milwaukee harbor while trolling Berkley flicker shad and flicker minnows. It didn't take very long to abandon that idea and make a run to my home waters. Once we got to where I wanted to be, we worked a thick mud line and my two clients went 11 for ?? They landed three brown trout trolling, one being 12lbs and then laid into browns, steelhead and chinooks with my 13 Fishing Omen Black

This past weekend has had it's up and downs but overall it was a great weekend. I started out Friday evening after a line of thunderstorms passed and ended up 4-8 in only a few hours of fishing with a good friend. Sunday i got out with new clients who asked if I could come on their boat and show them how to run it. With the lack of gear, I couldn't have been happier how the day went. We ended up going 7-13 and the biggest fish was a 15lb steelhead! Monday i decided to ma

I came across a thread on chitownangler.com not to long ago saying there is a research doctor that is accepting emails with pictures of bait piles, date, time, lat/long ect. I emailed Dr. David Warner to confirm the post I saw and here was his response " What I hope to do is to try to turn what you guys see on hundreds of days a year into data that we can all use to try to understand predator-prey interactions. Once I get more than a few I intend to make a web page with a map

What a great weekend of trolling on the big pond. Saturday Lenny and I got into a few Chinooks and coho's with one of the Chins being a 14lber. Sunday I decided to run up to Milwaukee to get in on the coho action with Brittany and despite a slow start we ended up sticking 6 of them. Monday I brought a fellow Raven Tackle Pro Staffer out for his first trip of the year and after sticking a beautiful 10lb brown, Jarrett landed a smaller coho. While working out to deeper water an

The water levels on one of my smaller rivers became perfect for steelheading. During the mornings we loaded up on steel with creek candy beads, spawn and jigs under floats in the deeper holes but during mid day the fish became more active and were chomping at the bit to eat small stone flies and egg patters. Best news from this week is there were no suckers! My larger rivers are coming down from flood levels at a rapid pace and will be fishable next week as long as we don'

Saturday i had the pleasure of running the last ice trip of the year in McKinley Marina. The goal was to get my client on a bunch of steelhead but the brown trout had other ideas. I ran every close to every rod in the top 6' of water with a mix of shiners and spawn sacs on. it didn't take long after setting up for the first automatic fisherman to pop off with a very nice 12lb brown. While my client was fighting that one, I looked up and a second automatic was on the verge