@driftless... it's a nice steak of warm weather and the trout are loving it. I go back to work tomorrow but plan on sneaking at least an hour in before hand. Lookout shows its going to get bitter cold again.
@joe... I'm bound to have a few skunks. Last year I finished at a 110 days of fishing last year. My new years resolution is 111 days. I'm bound to have a skunk or two.
A few things I've noticed thus far... Last years flooding really changed some of the streams I've fished. 5' holes turned into shallow runs and shallow runs turned into 5' holes. Bends turned into pools. It's made for some surprises to say the least. So keep that in mind the next time you go to your special run. I suppose that's the driftless steams for you, forever changing. I can fish the same stretch year after year. Month after month. And it'll change in the blink of an eye.
Day 2: Late start to the day. Got streamside around 11. Decided to focus my attention on a brookie stream. If anything is going to rid me of my skunk its those beautiful and not-so-bright brook trout. I hook into a snag... thought it was a fish... like every other snag to this point... wait... this snag has some life to it... not much. Hey! A hookup. These trout are far from their happy go lucky enthusiastic selves... seeing as its still winter and they've just come out of a long cold snap. By the time I can realize it's not just another clump of weeds they wiggle free from my lack luster hook set. Changing gears I go to a tiny leech pattern and finally hook into a more aggressive brookie and bring him to hand... skunk avoided.
Day 3: Arrived at the stream around 10am... it was already above freezing. A lot of water has opened up now. Very little that's locked up. There is a decent amount of shelf ice but I'm sure most of that will even be gone by Thursday. I haven't noticed many anglers out and about where I've been. Maybe it's too soon to play hookie for the long distance fisherman? Maybe they're still all on their fancy vacations to warmer lands? Either way I'm not complaining. I had a whole stream to myself. Never ran into another angler. Walked past all 3 access points all the way to where the easement ended. No one. It was great. The trout were active too.
Noticed immediately were all the midge flying about. Even seen a few risers. Reports say there's been even a few baetis spotted the last two days. Fishing was good. No wondering if I was hung up on another clump of weeds. The fish were aggressive. The gin clear water still made for tough presentation. There's not much for snow and the ground is still frozen. So we'll continue to see these clear conditions. A little stain would be nice though.