

Steelhead Smackdown!!!!!
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


River Steelhead and Brown Trout Heating UP!
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


Jigging up a Lake Michigan Grand Slam
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


Great weekend of trolling on Lake Michigan
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


Salmon a rama 2016
These past 9 days have been possibly the longest ever for Salmon a rama. Between brutal winds and waves we still managed to put a bunch of fish in the boat with out loosing to much gear. So much happened though out the tournament that I don't even know where to start besides half way through I was about to come out of my skin from big fish either getting off while fighting them or getting knocked off by the net. But towards the end things started clicking and our batting aver


New personal boat record steelhead!
This past week I was able to get out a handful of times between days with high winds and small craft advisories. The first day, Sunday I took a run out by myself and ended up with two nice coho's but it didn't take long for the wind to pick up and before I knew it I was trying to pull lines in 4-6' waves. Monday the winds died down and i got out for a quick two hour trip with a good friend and even though we didn't set lines until 0830 we still managed some quality fish inclu


Lake Michigan Bait Tracking
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


SU Open
Saturday started early, with the smell of two stroke coming from my Mercury 150, my two tournament partners and I started heading out to the staging area for our first Salmon Unlimited Open tournament out of Racine WI. At 0430, we got the green light from tournament control to blast off. I did not expect my 8mi run to go as quick as it did and now my patients was tested to the max, having to wait 10mins to set lines. At 0500, I started setting out our spread consisting of


Steelhead, Steelhead and more Steelhead
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


What an excellent week of skating the fly
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'