Paul Trybul

It was a nice day to be out on the river. Mild temps, a little cloud cover and the water levels and clarity were about as good as it gets for spring conditions. By the time I got done helping everyone with shuttles it was just me and Kevin and the 4 in Terry's group heading down river. I decided to head to the south branch instead of having 6 guys pound the same section of river. I picked a section that required a little portage to get to the water. I figured the remoteness of this section would put us on some unpressured fish. This section has a particular spot that has been good to me in the spring as some quality fish will stack up there. Things started out pretty good as I caught one at the put in spot before we even launched. Shortly after that Kevin got a solid fish on a spinnerbait. Then I had some quality bites but was having some trouble making the hooksetting adjustments of fishing out of a kayak so unfortunately those were missed opportunities. Then we come around the bend to my money spot on this stretch and there are 2 guys with kayaks camped out there. Literally camped out there with a fire and cooking lunch. I had a chat with them and they said the fishing was so good through this section the day before that they had to try it again. Said they had already caught about a dozen each and one that must have went 4 or 5 pounds. We ended up leap frogging each other the rest of the way to the take out bridge. So much for my theory of finding a remote section with difficult access to find some unpressured fish. It is a beautiful section of river with almost no houses or development. We ended up catching around 10 smallmouth with the one Kevin got being the biggest. If we combine our numbers with the 2 new anglers we met, I would say it was a very productive day with some quality mixed in.

Jake B from Rochelle contacted me and he said he was interested. I can call him tonight to confirm and that would make 8. It looks like the water levels will be safe for floating. The water temps are going to be chilly. Hopefully everyone sticks with the floating and not the swimming.

I'm in if weather and water levels cooperate

I've tried it. Not as effective as the original but it does work. It's a little bigger and I do like it while fishing for essox. It either attracts attention or spooks them depending on the mood of the fish that day.

The long winter season is coming. At some point I'll be spending more fishing related time surfing youtube videos than actually out fishing. Anyone have any new channels that they can recommend? The NDyakangler stuff is pretty good.

Welcome, there are some great fly fisherman in this club that you could learn a lot from. Be active, engage and the information will come.

Does this help? It looks like a decent portage any way you look at it.

That's unfortunate about the rear window. Fishing has been tough but we care catching some nice ones. Most of the bigger fish are coming on topwaters. The water is higher than I'm used to and we have been fighting the wind. My best fish have been (3) 18" ers and I got a 20.5". Of coarse Tom Loo show up and starts catching a bunch of bass and a really nice walleye. This place is pretty special.

Good point on the $5 park fee. I'll be saving my $5 bills this week as you need exact change for the fee boxes. 8155407775 is my number if anyone in the first group needs to coordinate shuttles, talk fishing strategies, or meal planning prior to the trip. As a kayaker/wade fisherman, I do have some concerns about the water levels to start this trip.

Good info Scott, when can the very first group check in? This will be my 3rd consecutive year. 2 years ago the gauges were at 1500-1600CSF. Wading and kayaking was very easy at that level. Last year it was 2400-2600 CFS. That was a little tougher for wading but good for kayaking. At 1500 I consider the river to be pretty low, 2500 seemed about normal, but now it is at 4400CFS. I remember 3 years ago fishing was very tough for anyone without a boat in the high water. Hopefully the water continues to drop by the time we get there. When the water was low, I did best fishing the middle 1/3 of the river. We might have to work the banks if the level is in the 4000CFS range.

So their solution to the manure problem is to spread it in the fields in the fall and give it all Fall, Winter and early spring to run off into the rivers?

Terry Dodge & I are in provided we are in good health leading up to the trip. We will take our temperatures prior to leaving and would not go if showing any symptoms.

You are welcome Gordon. Over the years you have been very generous with me on your knowledge of rivers and access points throughout Wisconsin. I'm glad I finally had the opportunity to pay it back with a gem of a section I discovered on my own while vacationing up there. Something that was relatively close to your home that offered trophy potential. Good luck on your guiding efforts. I've always enjoyed my float outings with you. You are very knowledgeable and have a lot to offer as a guide. The best advice I could give you is to try to outfit your float rig to cater to the fly fisherman. Maybe some type of stand up platform. From what I've seen the fly fisherman tend to invest more into this type of guiding services.

I like the KVD squarebill cranks. Crawfish or shad patterns are my favorite colors. I like suspending jerkbaits over cranks early in the spring and late fall. The jerkbait bite has not been good this spring for some reason.

Google Earth in combination with a Gazetteer is a great way to scout out river access. Sounds like a fun little adventure.

Thank you for all who attended, donated, and volunteered. It was another successful night for the conservation of our rivers and smallmouth bass.

I think the dream is your subconscious telling you to move out of the big city and take up permanent residence in the Northwoods.

I go with texposed as snagging = higher costs, more pollution, and less time with your lure in the zone. That elastech plastic is pretty soft so getting the hook through and into a fish is pretty easy. That does look like a good hook system. For my money I still like the value and effectiveness of the Charlie brewer slider heads.

We should probably add that 90% of it is wadeable at regular to lower than average water levels.

You can always go to Wisconsin to fish where the access laws are simple. Stay within the high water line and you are legal on any stream or river. I'm not sure why our state is different and confusing.

It was nice to run into you and chatting for a while Joe. I did pick up 6 more on Christmas day so the fishing is picking up as the water temps rise. Perhaps we can get out together in our kayaks sometime in 2020. It's a lot easier with 2 cars at 2 bridges versus riding a bike or paddling upstream.

This event is cancelled. The decision is easy as every branch is unsafe for floating not even close to fishable. This won't be able to be rescheduled for 2 weeks at least. That's too bad because September can be a great month to fish the Kish for smallmouth

I understand. We did get some heavy rain last night and more on the way tonight. All branches came up significantly except the deep south branch. I could end up rescheduling if we get pounded by rain tonight.

Ok ,I will move this float outing up to Saturday. The time and meeting place stay the same. There is an outfitter if you need to rent any equipment. I have a extra stuff also.

At this point no one has jumped on expressing interest in going out on Sunday. I did have someone reach out to me and said that they could do it on Saturday. Would this trip garner more interest of we moved it up to Saturday? Feel free to call me if you have any questions about this outing. Paul T 815-540-7775.