i finally got the chance to do a little bit of wisconsin trout fishing. i didn’t have much time today but i wanted to spend a little of that time on the tomorrow river, thankfully the tomorrow is only about 15 minutes away from our home. so i went there and spent a little time looking over the river (which is gorgeous) and immediately saw a few small brookies. i love brookies. i know they aren’t ever really big but they are very pretty little fish who really pop a dry fly. therefore, i was pretty excited when i saw them. i tied on an elks hair caddis and cast to the nearest brookie. BAM. he popped it. he wasn’t very big, about 8 inches, but he was still my first wisconsin trout and that was exciting. oh brookies are so much fun. i started wading up the creek and ran into a school of HUGE brookies. huge for a brook trout is anything over a pound and several of these fish where probably pushing two pounds. i tried casting a few different nymphs to them. after a few trial and error casts (they were in a very tight spot) and several false raises, one of the large brookies rose to the nymph i was fishing with. i was ready for a huge fight. it was going to be great. so i quickly lifted my rod to set the hook and my leader broke off. snap. the fish and my leader, the only one i had with me, were out of my life. it wasn’t very exciting after all.
still, it was fun and i now know where they are.
SIDE NOTE – on a lark i decided to search for fly fishing and wisconsin fishing podcasts. i found quite a few that i went ahead and subscribed too. my favorite thus far is the fly fishing rabbi. he talks about fly fishing and faith. ironically enough he picked up fly fishing after watching a river runs through it. i say “ironically” because it was reading the book that inspired me to learn how to fly fish. i really liked the first of the rabbi’s podcasts that i have listened to. he is right on target when he describes fly fishing as a spiritual moment. for me it’s not so much a way that i connect to GOD through fly fishing, as it is that the concentration and focusing skills that are a part of fly fishing also relate well to the spiritual nature of our existence. learning how to perceive fish in a stream has truly helped me learn how to perceive the works of GOD.
my run for the day
distance – 9.0 miles
time – 1:39:56
pace – 11:07/mile
weather – 70º
God must be a fisherman because he sure made it peachful for us. The calm, the beauty, the excitement when that bobber goes under or the water stirs behind your plug as you retrieve it.