Looks like I’m on a schedule of fishing only once a week for a while. This is the time of year where I begin preparing for show season. The 2026 season is shaping up to be a big one and I’m feeling the pressure already to update my programs, add some new ones and get all my travel in line. Booking plane tickets for ten different gigs isn’t that fun. I also have a permit painting to finish and I’m receiving Cliff Fly Box art orders at a record-breaking pace. I’m thrilled about the artwork and aiming to buckle down and get these tasks done by the end of August.
All that being said, at the same time, due to my schedule taking me away from home much of this summer with and early season Belize trip, July in Wyoming and early this month in Labrador (of course no complaints), I’m feeling the weight to accomplish some of Granny’s and my summer plans around here in Wisconsin. One big goal was to get our new Clacka that we were gifted back in June on the water before it collects dust. Well, the last two days we took our new craft on an overnight float trip to Granny’s favorite river.
We’ve done this particular float the last three Augusts. Rather than chase the game fish around, we give them a break in this summer heat and dedicate the float to redhorse suckers on the fly. Redhorse aren’t easy to catch even with nymphs.
In fact, this is our hardest trip as far as fishing goes of the entire summer. Catching any sort of bottom feeding fish on the fly is challenging. It’s darn easy to go out and catch a smallmouth bass in our area or a trout on my old stomping grounds out west. But redhorse, they’re tough. Number one, you have to find them. There’s no blind casting. Granny stands on the bow and searches while I row. Second, they’re finicky eaters. Third, you must fish nymphs and the fly must be tight to the bottom. If its not dragging in the sand they don’t want it. Last, it’s all sight fishing and I don’t mean you need to see the fish. That’s half of it. You also need to be able to see your nymph not only to keep it from snagging but also in order to actually feed it to the redhorse.
Here in Wisconsin we have at least six species of redhorse. I’ve managed to catch three species, the river, silver and today, the golden. Due to the difficulty in catching, it’s very rewarding when you succeed. Furthermore, regardless of what some anglers claim (most have never held one), these fish are extremely beautiful. This is the river redhorse which I caught in August of 2023. Big and beautiful!
We pushed off at noon yesterday. The forecast was for hot and sunny. The sunny part eluded us but it was warm. Rather than fish right away, we pushed downstream an hour to a place we’ve redhorse nymphed before. They were there and to my disbelief I caught the first one I tried for! I know I’ve caught this type before but I didn’t document it well enough to confirm it so it didn’t make the list. But this is the golden redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurm). I’ll officially add him to my list tonight.
I’m not sure if it was this fly with the brightly colored bead or if the redhorse were just plain hungry today. Perhaps it was a weather or a barometric pressure thing, but we landed four redhorse yesterday. Three goldens and one silver. This is the silver easily identified by his slightly convex dorsal fin. Considering we only fished about three hours, this was an amazingly successful day of redhorse on the fly.
We have a favorite camp on this river and lucky for us it was available. Sites are first come first serve here. We drifted in at exactly 5 pm and that’s when the sun came out. You can see why this campsite is a favorite for us.
Granny fixed us up one of her usual camper delights. Tonight we had shrimp tortillas and listened to the Cubs game on my phone. The Cubs have been sucking for a month now but still hold the top Wild Card spot. I’m happy to say they won the game.
We weren’t on the water this morning as early as normal. Not sure what it is or why but I bounce from bed at the first glimmer of daylight most of the year, but in August, I do a lot of rolling over. I guess the body is tired by now and the darker mornings have changed my circadian rhythm. I pressed our coffee around 6:30 and rather than pack up quick and push off and drink our coffee from the boat, we sat in our Yeti chairs and took our time while overlooking the river.
Our fishing would be interesting. First of all, the redhorse weren’t cooperating like they were yesterday. Both of us got turned down many times over the first hour with the same fly that was working yesterday. When I finally connected it was a good one and the redhorse put up a great fight. But all his fighting sent stress signals in the water and along came a 35” or so long musky that thought hard about eating him off my line. While I got him in before the carnage took place, I’m not so sure he wasn’t eaten seconds after I released him. It was hard to see but I thought I saw him get t-boned down below the boat.
It’s frowned upon to fish seriously for musky in the heat of summer but seeing that one created temptation. All in all over the two day float we saw eight. We didn’t have to worry though as the biggest rod I packed was a 6-weight. We got right back to work sight nymphing for redhorse. Granny got a golden that was small but stunningly bright and yellowish.
Though the fishing started slow, as the morning progressed the redhorse began to cooperate. We landed another four today that included one more silver that you see me holding here. We couldn’t catch any river redhorse however despite seeing some huge ones. (Picture 5 in this blog is the river redhorse from 2023). The rivers and two other species have colorful red tails. Next time.
We called it around 2 pm today but not without ending with a bang. The bang however wasn’t fishing but rather lunch. We christen our new Clacka by cooking up some tasty WI brats. The bow was the perfect platform for the Coleman and Granny smothered them with onions. And funny thing, the Cubs game was at 1:20 pm today. Brats and Cubs in the new boat on the river – we’ll call that a good two days off!