Hop Across Creek

It’s been a while. The start of a new semester has kept me busy lately and as there’s only 3 more weeks left in the 2017 WI trout season, I figured it was time for a long overdue trip. Saturday morning I took my pack and fly rod and headed 45 minutes north of the Milwaukee city limits to a small plot of public hunting and fishing land in which a trout stream runs through. This is about the closest trout opportunity available in terms of classic small stream, wild trout fishing. Milwaukee is famous for its impressive runs of salmon every spring and fall, but other than that it’s quite a dead zone for trout anglers. (This is probably the best for my grades and attendance)

This was a classic ‘shot in the dark’ scouting mission I’m well accustomed to. I’ve been on enough of these to know you shouldn’t get your hopes up, but yet I was still slightly optimistic of the prospects. Having little to no info on this stream, save for the few pics I’d seen online, I knew it was small and contained wild brookies.

I pulled into the gravel parking area as the temps pushed the mid-80s, quite uncommon for a fall day in WI. I got set-up then hit the narrow trail that I assumed led to the stream. Eventually, and without warning, the stream appeared. It was narrow enough to hop over, reminding me of the trickles of the Raft River mountains where I fished for Yellowstone cutthroat this summer. Seeing no signs of trout for the first 25 yards or so of water, I started to get discouraged. Tall grasses stretched from the shore overhanging the creek, making casting quite difficult. I resorted to a form of half dapping/half casting and was able to land a cast in a small pocket near the shoreline. To my surprise, a brook trout shot out from under the bank and rocketed at my dry! I was shocked and missed the hook set. The next few casts produced similar strikes but I wasn’t able to connect.

Switching to a smaller fly proved to be the silver bullet as I was soon hooked into a small but chunky brook trout that gave a great fight as it ran for its home in the undercut bank. No crazy fall coloration (likely was a female) but a native, wild brookie is a beautiful fish nonetheless. (Apologies for the poor photo lighting on these fish pics)

A short ways upstream I found a deep hole; somewhat of a rarity on the stream. One pass through produced an explosive strike followed by a leap into midair. The trout quickly pulled towards the shoreline, putting a serious bend in my 4 wt rod. I was surprised to pull out a 9-10″ brown from a section of water I could walk across with with a single stride!

I continued working upstream, getting hits every now and then but no other fish to hand. Eventually the stream flow opens up into a forest making it almost unrecognizable from its meadow section. I was forced to turn back at this point as the shoreline got extremely muddy and I didn’t bring my waders to school with me.

I hiked the meadow back to the gravel parking area and talked with two deer hunters that just arrived before heading back to the city. An end to a successful trip to, what I now refer to as, Hop Across Creek.