The weather all over the US has been especially unpredictable in 2026. Granny and I suffered through all the cold fronts and snowstorms when working on the East coast shows back in January. Then in February, the Boise, Denver and Iowa shows produced freaky warm weather. Today, here in the most northern part of Wisconsin it was 22 degrees above the average for late March making it an unseasonable 65°.
I don’t need to tell you what freaky warm calls for, Granny and I had to get out and maybe wet a line. Not only that, but it also seemed like a great time to break out our Outcast Striker Raft for its earliest float ever since we moved here to Hayward, WI. Off we went!
Technically, fishing seasons aren’t open yet. The seasons are for the most part closed for northern pike, walleye and musky. Our trout season is also closed, however WI does allow catch and release fishing for trout. Being that’s all we do with stream trout anyhow, today was business as usual. Business as usual other than the fact that we did a float that we’ve never done before.
We kept things simple and packed only one rod. I brought my 9’ 6-weight Winston Air 2 Max, a spool of 0X Fluoro and six streamers. Honestly, with spring in the air, this jaunt was all about a scenic float through new water with hopes of spotting some birds returning for spring and some fresh air. We got all the above including lots of white-tails on the move crisscrossing the river ahead of us several times today.
Despite not being serious about our fishing today, Granny filled the day with competitive casts. She had her streamer in all the right places. Unfortunately the larger brown trout we’ve heard about on this stretch weren’t cooperating. We did however land several of these cute little guys.
I very well may have screwed up on our fishing. Bringing only a streamer rod was a mistake. At around 2 pm a fantastic tiny black stonefly hatch began. A half hour later the fish were on them and rising aggressively at all the best pools we came to. There were two fish in particular I remember that were quite good size. Neither would take our streamer.
It was a wonderful first float of 2026. You can’t beat a beautiful warm spring day. Stay tuned for many more this year to come!