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

The last few weeks have been just shy of outstanding for steelhead. Despite high waters and having to buy my time in between river blow outs, the few days I have been on rivers have been action packed. Last week was a week of firsts with a client from MN who got his first Wisconsin Steelhead on the fly. Also another beginner came out and tied into her first two steelhead and got to fight one with the Raven 14' IM8. With the cold weather hanging around, I foresee the steel

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'

The last few days have been nothing short of a waiting game. We received a bunch of rain earlier last week causing all the rivers to flood out. The 17th, the smallest of the rivers I fish became fishable for a whopping one day but there was a nice batch of steelhead that moved in. I spent the first part of the day drifting spawn and creek candy beads. The first fish to strike was a healthy 7-8lb buck steelhead. After loosing a few other fish I finally stuck a chrome dime

During February I ran a contest at The Beef Jerky Outlet Store for one lucky winner to win a half day guide trip for spring steelhead. Out of the over 100 entries Jarred was the lucky winner. He asked if he could bring his buddy with and sure why not. We met up on the root this morning and of course there were two guys in the first spot I wanted to fish with 3 steelhead on the stringer. We hit two other spots before ending up in a spot on the lower section of the river.

Today I met up with a buddy and his two friends on the river for a few hours of hunting chrome. It didn't take long to get a first timer into his first steelhead (3 drifts actually). Soon after he landed his chrome bullet, it was my turn. After getting a few pictures and putting her back in the water my buddy ended up falling on a few big rocks and splitting his thumb wide open. Even though he got some river first aid he decided to call it a day. I continued down the river pi

With the recent warm snap, I was able to take a day off of the ice and sneak off to the rivers in search of a female brown for spawn. It was refreshing to tie into some nice steelhead on my Raven 12'9 Matrix but unfortunately after landing three steelhead and one stocker brown, I was unsuccessful in finding that brown with spawn. Later Sunday afternoon I met up with a previous client and hit one more spot where he ended up breaking off two of the largest steelhead I've seen

This past week has been outstanding on the rivers with a ton of steelhead a few brown trout being caught. Depending on the day, the fish were sitting on the edge of the water one day but then in current the next. I ran a half day trip today and my client and his son got into a real nice female brown and two steelhead. Despite a lot of slush on the river and everything freezing between the rod guides and line, they did a great job! It's looking like this will be the last w

This week has been shaping up to be a week for the record books. I spent Saturday and Sunday on the same river and while the river was a hair high and dirty Saturday I ended up going 3 for 5 and my buddy went 2 for 4. Sunday was a completely different story, after trying out some new hooks (which failed horribly) I ended up going 6 for 10 by 11am which included a run to the gas station for coffee. This fishing is going to continue to be hot until ice up (if it ever does.)