Things have been heating up for the boys in the Midwest. Lake Superior’s tributaries are starting to warm up and the spring steelhead are in the rivers! With the off and on rain through the spring, finding a good day with fishable CFS is hard but becoming more frequent as we start to approach summer.
Trolling the big water has been very productive this spring. The rising water temps have the smelt schooled up which brings in feeding cohos. Everything seems to be feeding in the top 20ft of the water column. Working the edges of bait balls and mud lines seemed to be the golden ticket for us this time of year. Limits of coho with a few nice steelhead mixed in here and there. Looking forward to a healthy class of ciscos this summer and some monster fish!!!
Fishing on the Namekagon River and others in upper Wisconsin has been challenging recently. The water levels have been high, but they are starting to recede. The water clarity is decent, not too murky. Although fishing has been slow, browns can still be caught if you’re willing to put in the time and are able to walk and find fish that are hungry. Fishing should be getting better by the week as the flood waters calm down and we go into more normal river conditions.
Fishing the Missouri River has been great in the mornings and even better as the evening comes on. The dry fly bite has been lights out with big rainbows being caught as they are out of the spawning phase and are moving into the feeding phase as the water temps rise into the upper 40’s. We are seeing caddis in the lower river which means the bite should be getting hotter as the caddis move up the river and make top water fishing more regular.
TOP FLIES AROUND THE BOARD: wire worm, woolly bugger, scud patterns, and the classic parachute Adams.
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