The Driftless

Driftless 2012 from Chad Blashack on Vimeo.

Hopper dropper in coulee country

        Hopper dropper and the parachute sulpher were the hot flies in the beautiful streams of southwest wisconsin.  My friend Jeff Wenger from Jeff's Jigs and Flies and I met in Lacrosse at 6am and hit the water.  We started with Hopper dropper which is a dual fly rig with a foam hopper as the point fly and one of Jeff's bead head pheasant tail nymph size 20 as a dropper fly.  We caught multiple fish on Jeff's dropper.  Great fly.

     As the sun dropped lower in the sky and cooler temperatures arrived, rising trout were more frequent.   The parachute Sulpher dun seemed to be the hot fly.
      I don't make this trip without the help of the people at driftless angler.  This fly shop is located in  Viroqua WI and has a website with great information in that area.

sulpher mouth

Nice brown caught by Jeff

Brown Trout destruction

Brule Opener vid 2012

Bois Brule Opener 2012

     Opener was very weird.  No snow on the ground, warm water and air temperatures and got my pick of holes to fish even though I showed up at  11am.  People seemingly didn't stick around long.  After talking to a couple of guys they said fishing was slow.   Despite some unusual factors the water was great.  The flow was about 160 cfs  and just enough color to camouflage your presentation.  I managed to land 8 steelhead runnin the two fly rig.  4 on pink globug tied by Jeff at jeffsjigs.com and 4 on my stoneflies as the point fly of 2 fly rig.  The fish did run smaller then the usual opening day fishing.   Not sure what the potential reasons for smaller fish size but probably coincidental.

Sotahex

     The Sotahex, my variation of the hex nymph that imitates the Hexagenia mayfly.  This fly is very abundant in many Great Lakes rivers including Bois Brule river.  I have used other imitations like the spring's wiggler with good success to imitate the Hexagenia but I have high hopes for this more ornate imitation to be at least as productive.  This is a one hook variation of the wiggle hex I saw in Matt Supinski's book Steelhead Dreams.
  

hook- saber #6
thread - 6/0 yellow
ribbing - copper wire
gills - filoplume from from hen hackle after feather or ostrich herl
dubbing- caddis yellow
tail - three pheasant tail fibers
wingcase - pheasant tail fibers
legs - darker hen soft hackle feather

      

Monsters of the Brule

These are pics of some big fish caught by some friends of Sotafish.  Garrett Svir, Jeff Wenger of jeffsjigs.com and Tony Stifter.  This will eventually grow to five pictures of some of the biggest fish caught on the Brule.  Do you have a pic worthy.   Send me a pic at sotafish@hotmail.com.

Good Brule Morning

I managed to catch three steelhead on a bright sunny morning.   With the sun so bright and the flow at about 130 cfs I wasn't expecting to catch multiple fish.  I was preparing to be very happy with one fish with the flow so low.   Sometimes steelhead don't do what you expect.

Chrome with Attitude

Entomology

      It helps to know a little entomology when trying to decide what fly to use to catch Steelhead. Entomology is the study of aquatic insects. The life cycle and identification of these insects are the most important factors of entomology as it relates to fishing and tying flies to imitate them.  There are four stages of importance during the insect life cycle. They are larval stage (nymphs), emergent stage (emergers), Adult stage (dries), mortality stage (spinners).  Aquatic insect spends most of its life in the larval stage so most of my flies I tie are nymphs.  Dry flies (adult) are also popular flies to tie.  Many people believe catching a steelhead or trout on a dry fly is the most exciting.   I can't disagree. This is where identification of adult hatching flies is helpful. Matching the hatch. The better you know the adult insects flying around on your local river the more success you will have.  Using a seine to collect nymphs or just looking under rocks will also reveal the larval aquatic insects that inhabit your river.  So do a little research and identify the insects that inhabit your river.  Some important insects in Great lakes rivers are Hexagenia, Brown drake, Blue winged olive mayflies, caddis, stoneflies.
      Weather and water clarity are also important factors in deciding what fly to use. If it is sunny outside I tend to use flies with some sparkle. Materials like krystal flash and ice dubbing are examples of materials with sparkle.  Some believe that sparkle imitates air bubbles which makes a fly look life like. Which in turn will trigger fish into biting. Water clarity is also important. The more turbid (cloudy) the water is I tend to use flies larger and more colorful so the fish can see the fly.

Crazy Chrome

So I'm up on North Shore somewhere, fishing for chrome. On my third cast I hook this extremely hot fish. The fish went from the head of the pool to the tailout faster then any other fish that I can remember. When it wanted to rest after 4 or 5 laps it jumped the head into the fast riffle section. This fish went upstream 10 yards and sat in the fast water. I couldn't believe it. Usually when a hot fish stops to rest, it rest in slow water in the bottom of a pool. This chromer was a phenomenal athlete with an attitude. I never did land that fish. Perhaps that was inevitable because when the fish sat in the fast water I think that fish was telling me NOT TODAY Chad. Sure enough the fish made a final push to the lake and snapped me off. I literally yelled with disappointment and excitement like I was cheering for the fish. I was not disappointed at all. EJ and I just smiled. EJ said I don't know why everyone doesn't do this. I agreed.

X leg Stone

This fly is one of the most productive flies for catching steelhead on the Bois Brule River. I like to use the bead head version as a point fly on a double fly rig. This is great for getting your rig down in front of the steelheads face.

November chrome on the Brule

11-6-2010
This beautiful 28" steelhead was fooled by the chernobyl worm (pink worm) and gave me a hell of a battle . It took about 20 minutes to land this fish. A little long for my liking. I try not to fight the fish to exhaustion. Luckily someone helped me land this beast and the fish had plenty of spunk when I released him. Water temperature about 39 degrees and a bright sunny day. Flow was 205 cfs.

Fall Chrome

10-25-2010
Fishing was a little slow but did manage to hook up with this Buck. He grabbed a rubber leg stone.