Each year Spring arrives just in time as cabin fever becomes unbearable. I managed to get out to the Driftless after the opener but the fishing was really slow and the water was cold.
Now that the SW tribs are ice free my attention has shifted to swinging with my switch rod for Steelhead. I’ve been meaning to share the fun with my Dad for a few awhile now. This was the first time we attempted to fish for lake run trout together. He’s not big on fishing but I’m trying to change that, and the success of our trip was a step in the right direction. After about an hour of fishing I changed my Dad’s lure to a white Mepps and on his second cast he landed a brown and starred admiringly at it. It was a great feeling and best of all he thinks I actually know what I’m doing. It also meant that there are some fish willing to move for a lure so I felt confident I could swing a fly instead of drift for a fish.
After my Dad had some success, I got to swinging and caught a 20″ Walleye with an egg sucking leech. Early Spring can often result in some nice Walleye fishing in a lot of rivers. I then changed to a green butt skunk to swing some medium-slow water with a slow sinking fly to fish the lower portion of the water column. With water temps still in the 30’s fish won’t really move much for a fly. It wasn’t long before a little steelhead ate a swung fly and the day was officially a complete success. We celebrated with some March Madness and a few beers before leaving town. If you fish the SW tribs, go get some.
