My Trip Up North

[mreed81]

A couple of weeks ago I headed up to Wisconsin to meet with some of my amateur road racing racing friends to watch the professional MotoAmerica races at Road America for the weekend. I figured I would get up there a day early, hire a guide with a drift boat and go after some of their Smallmouth waters that I have read about. I arrived Thursday night, woke up early Friday morning for an hour drive further North to meet the guide at the takeout. It was pretty neat showing up with only an out of state fishing license, the guide supplying lunch, and all the gear. I didn't even have to take my own fly rod, tippet or anything of that sort. We started on the water at 9:00 am sharp. My guide rigged the 6 weight with a top water frog, and the 7 weight with an intermediate line with a streamer. I used the streamer set up for the first hour with plenty of success right away, and then switched to the top water 6 weight for the remainder of the day because, let's be honest, the top water bite is second to none!

The scenery of this river was beautiful. You will see from the pics that the banks are lined with trees, and there were no signs of any type of erosion or blown out banks, even where there were no trees. The people that own the land up and down the river have done a wonderful job managing their properties and river banks. The river was quite different from the typical Ozark stream I am accustomed to. There was plenty of bulky, chunk rock in the water which is ideal Smallmouth habitat, but the river was not gravel choked like our streams. Instead of the green tinted water we always see, the water almost had a bit of a blackish tint to it when I was looking at it while in the boat, although visibility was probably around 1.5 to 2 feet.

The fishing action never slowed down until about 4:30 pm when we were within 10 minutes from the takeout. Certain holes only produced one fish that we had to work hard for, and then others produced multiple fish within several minutes of each other. I was actually quite surprised because there was another guide boat that started before we did in the morning with two guys fishing soft plastics, which can be quite effective after they pound the banks cast after cast with two people. While numbers were great and fun, I have to say I was most impressed with the size and quality of the fish that were caught, and of course released. The smallest fish I caught was 12". Most were 15" to 16", and I had more than a handful of 17" fish pushing the 18" mark. The kicker with this is that the creel limit for this river is 5 bass, 14" or more, and yet it seemed as if fish were never in short supply, despite the regulations and also the pressure that was in front of us.

All in all it was a great trip and I look forward to making it back up there sometime in the future. I love fishing here in my own state, but it was a lot of fun to fish somewhere different, and it was also the first time I had a hired guide to manage the boat, line snaps, tying on other flies, etc. Well worth the money for the overall experience, and the pain in my arm and shoulder the next few days reminded me of the great time I had. And yes, I wear a goofy hat, but you would too if you had the pale skin I do that only gets burned!

 

[BilletHead]

    Outstanding report! Thank you for sharing,

BilletHead

[bkbying89]

Nice fish Matt, Good to hear from you.The report was great and the fish pictures show you had a g99d time. What river were you fishing? 

[Greasy B]

Great report, nice fish. I think the dark water makes the bass more comfortable chasing a top water bait. 

[Gavin]

Good for you! Thanks for the report. The smallmouth fishing up there will spoil you!

 

 

[Pat Magee]

I am leaving for Door County, WI in a couple of weeks.  Cannot wait  to feel a good size Northern Smallmouth on the end of my line!  Looks like a blast!   

[Mitch f]

1 hour ago, Pat Magee said:

I am leaving for Door County, WI in a couple of weeks.  Cannot wait  to feel a good size Northern Smallmouth on the end of my line!  Looks like a blast!   

You'll never forget it

[Coosa]

Nice Pigs!