The girls weren’t trout fishing with Jason Randall and I this morning.  It was raining hard and the house was too cozy.  We still had our warmth – not 70°s again, but it was 60°.  For Jay and I this weather had us expecting great hatches to start the day.

But good hatches were not the case.  Not even the fall Baetis that normally show in October.  Instead, I managed only a couple random fish on dries, but in order to really hammer fish on one of Jays favorite pools, I had to convert to dry dropper.  My set up was a size 16 nymph from Czech friend David Chlumsky’s box.  I dangled the red-tagged nymph about 2 feet below a size 12 Gray Drake pattern.

Getting this outfit rigged was one of my lesser fly fishing moments.  I have trouble seeing well to tie knots these days.  And I’m stubborn.  I’m not facing the fact that I probably need 2.5 readers for everything.  I’m still relying on my 1.5’s.  With this morning’s low light, rain drops on the lenses, wet hands, and my list of excuses could go on, it took me at least ten minutes from cutting off my straight dry system to being rigged for dry dropper!

But once I had my dropper rig in action, the fishing was great.  While I didn’t manage to catch one of Jay’s 15” pets, I brought to hand ten handsome browns ranging from 8-12”.  All these are wild from from a location that very few anglers will ever fish.

At lunch time Jason and I met the ladies in town.  During lunch the skies cleared like magic and we enjoyed a couple hours of bright sunshine.  That brought the temperatures up to the mid 60°s and although the girls didn’t fish, at least they joined us for the afternoon session.

Jason suggested one of his brook trout creeks and I can tell you he didn’t need to ask me twice.  We headed straight for it.  I watched Jay take on one of the first pools with his dry dropper rig.

We caught numerous brookies this afternoon.  There were a few bugs on the water – enough I was able to fish dry.  Rather than match the hatch, I fished a size 12 Parachute Hopper.  While there aren’t many hoppers around at this point in the fall, the fish remember them.  Plus, a bushy hopper looks like a lot of different insect as well including the big October caddis that randomly pop out and about.

It was another great day on the trout waters of Wisconsin.  It’s been refreshing to toss around my 4-weight two days in a row rather then my 9-weight musky rig.  Time for another amazing taste of Jo’s cooking.  We’ll fish a half day tomorrow before returning home.  Granny got the call from work to come in an extra day this week.  Such is life!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing