I cherish the longest days of the year and don’t waste a minute of them. I was checking my email at 4:20 AM as the birds were going off and daylight was bringing northern Wisconsin to life. I love it.
My main fishing buddy Bob Butler likes to get up early too. After I finished my twilight hour office work I headed for Bob’s and soon we were on the way to the river. The unusual thing however was that Granny was with too. When she ended up sick a couple weeks back she missed out on a few of these precious mornings. Not today.
It’s about an hour drive to this river and this was our first visit since last fall. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the forecast was for a light breeze and comfortable in the low 70°s. Everything was nearly perfect. Nearly.
What is not perfect are the water conditions of the North Woods. Wisconsin has experienced above normal rains all of June and our rivers are presently too high to provide great fishing. Though we gave it our best, we experienced a very slow day.
Slow is different than skunked however. I was the lucky angler to pluck out three smallies and move a small musky. I’m happy to say while all three bass were chunks, this one was a true hawg. Only a spec under 18” but fat. And best of all, he posed with his dorsal raised high. I think it really adds to a photo of any fish.
We were off the river by 1 PM and back to Hayward before 3. That’s when I got a text from Tim Nolde to see if I wanted to try and hit the Hexagenia Hatch tonight on our nearby trout river. Only a nut would say no to that so I went. Long story short however, despite being a beautiful night with once again, “nearly perfect conditions”, we saw three smaller mayflies and not a single trout. Water is high everywhere.
It was an 18 hour day. I’m a little tired and that’s going to be it for fishing for a few days. Granny and I are building a berm in the back yard with trees and flowers. Friday I see the Dermatologist. A precautionary check up due to the mass amounts of sunshine I experience. And then it’s the weekend and I generally work at home and listen to baseball. We’ll see. Regardless, I’ll be up before the crack of dawn every day till the 4th of July and there will be some fish on this blog soon!
That is an awesome full day of wisconsin fishing!