Itch's Trip Report

[itchmesir]

I took the acid at 8pm... By 830... Oops wrong trip report....

Haven't been on this forum in what seems ages... Two Sundays ago... Ted and I got out for opening weekend in Wisconsin... Was a great day to be out fishing... We covered a ton of stream in the roughly 9hrs we fished that day... Took awhile to figure out what they wanted... After three times tying on a dry on different occasions I finally gave up on that notion... Though risers continued to tease me the entire day... Numbers caught weren't exceptionally high but we caught a couple...

Then that following Monday I headed out to explore more new to me waters now that I'm a Wisconsin resident...

Then this past week I've explored even more....

 

[mcnerney]

Eric: Very nice fish, congrats!

 

[ia_trouter]

Thanks for sharing the trip Itch. Look forward to fishing with you soon. Glad you're back :thumbsupu

 

[jaybo41]

Man, I miss the Driftless. I am not going to get there this year to fish, so posts like this one will have to do. Looks like you had some productive time on the water and are settling in nicely to your surroundings. Thanks for the trip report.

Welcome back.

 

[GrtLksMarlin]

Great report! Thanks for sharing it looked like a productive few days. :thumbsup:

B.E.F.

 

[cpowell]

:thumbsupu A long strange trip it was.

 

[jgentile]

Itchy,

Looks cold, but good. It's been awhile since I was there but I really miss it. That Leprechaun was a little creepy. I hope they drink Fat Cow for St. Patty's day up there.

Joe

 

[itchmesir]

Looks cold but looks are deceiving... I think it got into the mid 50s starting at the first picture and was in the high 60s by the last picture... Snow was no more. And the streams are already crystal again.

 

[jpbfly]

Looks like you had a good time Eric....your opening was better than mine

 

[pryal74]

Great work! That last brookie is very gorgeous, especially for a Spring fish!

 

[ia_trouter]

Found another PIC of Itch and Ted



The fishin car and Itch's baby sister



No way I am the first one ever said it Itch.

 

[GrtLksMarlin]

That's pretty cool that you were able to get Jase Robertson from Duck Dynasty to fish with you. Which photos show you in them? Did you guys use shotguns or dynamite to bust up the Beaver dams, and what about the fish, did you guys catch more than Willie?

B.E.F.

 

[itchmesir]

Found another PIC of Itch and Ted

Ted could never grow a beard like that.

 

[Unknownflyman]

Well it is going to be hard to pick Itch out of a crowd all Minnesotans look like that now. Beards are in, all of us cool kids have em AND

Men with beard catch more fish.

 

[GrtLksMarlin]

Men with beard catch more fish.

So that's my problem....I'm Facially Follicular Challenged.

B.E.F.

 

[ia_trouter]

Well it is going to be hard to pick Itch out of a crowd all Minnesotans look like that now. Beards are in, all of us cool kids have em AND

Men with beard catch more fish.

That's a true story. Minnesotans have always loved theirs beards. ZZ is imbedded in my early memories so that hit my mind immediately.

And I couldn't grow a good beard to save my life so I am going to have to fish harder to keep up.

Back on subject a bit. Itch, are the Brookies and Browns in your new world pretty much self sustaining?

 

[itchmesir]

One stream that the brookies came out of is a Class I the others have come out of Class II waters...

I've come to find out that some streams the widnr have marked as trout streams are no more than drainage ditches now... One such example is So. Br. Bad Axe... At least the upper stretch... Was looking for it one day... Realized I'd driven over it already so I turned around and went back to the bridge and there was no water running under it... Just rock and rubble... Maybe Wisconsin could take pointers from Minnesota and start to de-classify trout streams that are no longer trout streams... Like Minnesota just did with their southwestern streams

 

[ia_trouter]

You will probably have it figured out before they update their "trout" streams listing. I have heard from other WI fisherman that you can go on a wild goose chase for small water. In IA it can become a challenge to figure what section of the stream is public access.

 

[itchmesir]

The few times I had fished trout in Wisconsin prior to now... It was impossible for me to figure out where access was... Mainly because by beginning of summer the grass and other plant life is taller than the stiles... But as I look for resources I've found some books that have helped finding access much easier... And on the dnr site you can also find easement maps for individual streams

 

[GrtLksMarlin]

It's not just Wisconsin....

A couple years ago when my friend and I first went out to Idaho, a lot of the feeder creeks into the Salmon River were noted as having Bull Trout. Without exaggeration some of these were no greater than totally overgrown, dry-1" of water and perhaps 6" wide road side drainage ditches that a fry would have to spend 3 years to swim up to, and once it got there would be too big to swim in it.

But that is not the worst of it...

In Michigan you'll run into the same thing for hundreds of "Designated Trout Streams" if not thousands.....In the days before the internet was used by the DNR, they would gladly send you out a thick list of printed pages that listed out every trout stream from it's start to end in very clear terms (from this road to just past this landmark and up to that).......and yours truly took the time to highlight every single one in a DeLorme Atlas, there so many that the page edges were frayed once done.

Now I had discovered the folly in some being just like Idaho's Trout Survey, however when up North, and finally when out West, if my buddy saw on the map it was listed as a trout stream he was going to fish it....PERIOD.

So I have to deal with him screaming stop at every one, then rigs up and will try to fish it if he even finds a sprinkling of water that wouldn't sate a thirsty ant.....Yet he won't stop, whether pride at having argued with me or what I don't know. Yet a few dabbles later he'll come back to the truck so 15 minutes wasted...Yet come the next will do it again.

B.E.F.