Fall Fishing

The Peshtigo River State Forest offers 25 miles of river, including a five-mile free-flowing fly-fishing stretch considered the gem of the forest.

Peshtigo River State Forest
 
 

Five Great Trout Fishing Spots

by Brenda K. Bredahl

Trout fishing on Namekagon River, Wisconsin
Trout fishing in Wisconsin shares a bit of the mystique spawned by Richard Brautigan’s infamous novel Trout Fishing In America. The state’s more than 10,000 miles of trout streams, creeks, and rivers are famous for cold, clean waters thick with trout and other fish caught on the fly.

Brautigan was likely influenced by the peculiar customs long associated with the sport. First off, you must kiss the first trout you catch and then release it. Then there are the curious accessories—a vest with a plethora of pockets, pit-high waders, and the creel, a wearable basket to stash your catch—and strange lexicon: hackles, presentation, dead drift, floater, midge, Woolly Bugger. It all creates a sense of, well, mystery.

Bill Hinton, a certified fly casting instructor and expert at demystifying the sport for beginners, says that fly fishery is an art, not a sport, as it combines hunting, hiking, wading, wildlife watching, reading the water, and mastering the aerodynamic cast. It can also involve the design and tying of intricate flies that resemble insects and the crafting of stunning rods that have no place near the water.

Perhaps the real mystique is created by the fact that less than a hundredth of 1 percent of the world’s water is cold and pure enough to harbor trout, says John Weinberg, a National Park Service ranger and president of the Lew Jewett Chapter of the Federation of Fly Fishers. The prey insects that inhabit cold waters are most vulnerable to environmental changes, so the health of predator trout serves as a kind of canary in the coal mine when it comes to water quality.

Wisconsin is a haven for both novice and hard-core fly fishers and a testament to outstanding water quality. Here are five of Hinton and Weinberg’s favorite spots to cast off:

1. Maybe the most famous trout stream in the state is the Kinnickinnic River, a Class I trout stream that stays vibrant through the work of Trout Unlimited, the Kinnickinnic River Land Trust, and the Western Wisconsin Land Trust. With between 6,000 and 8,000 trout per mile, many access points including in the River Falls area, and a prime location about a half hour east of the Twin Cities, the “Kinni” is a favorite of fly fishers of all levels.

Trout fishing, Pike River, Wisconsin
2. The Namekagon River, with its beginnings near Cable, is known for its wild brown and brook trout fishing. It’s been the inspiration for writers like Ernest Schwiebert and Gordon MacQuarrie. Nearby, at the St. Croix headwaters, the Bois Brule flows north to Lake Superior and is world famous because five sitting presidents (Coolidge, Grant, Cleveland, Hoover, and Eisenhower) have fished its waters (and, legend has it, Rosalynn Carter without Jimmy!).

3. In the southwest, the Kickapoo River West Fork is a 24-mile spring-fed waterway in Wisconsin’s unglaciated Coulee Country near La Crosse. The Kickapoo Valley’s other trout streams and tributaries are surrounded by hilly countryside, Amish farms, orchards, and produce stands.

4. To the northeast, the Pike River is one of three designated Wisconsin Wild Rivers. The Pike is deep and cold, with stretches of whitewater rapids, waterfalls, and forests, and is home to brown, rainbow, and brook trout.

5. At one time Trout magazine named Black Earth Creek one of the nation’s top 100 trout streams. West of Madison along Highway 14, the 27-mile creek, like others near urban areas, has been threatened by growth. Conservation groups, including the Black Earth Creek Watershed Association, have joined forces to protect and restore the stream’s quality.