Posted by Gary on April 15, 2003 at 10:46:50:
Fished the Milwaukee at Bender Road on the 10th and 11th. Not many fish around on the 10th, water temp started at 38 and came all the way up to 50 by late afternoon. Fish became more active as the temp went up. Most of the fish we caught were on simple light orange egg patterns. Ended up with a half dozen landed several more hooked and lost, two were foul hooked. All released! On the 11th the water temp started at 42 and warmed slower throughout the day. Saw few more fish moving to the redds on the 11th. Egg sucking leeches and eggs produced the best. Ended up with 10 fish landed problem was five were foul hooked, sucks. All released! I feel at least a few more fish moved in on the 11th. They were more charged up and put on great fights as the water warmed above 48. In fact one of the last fish of the day caused a slight injury to my thumb, I got him on the reel on the first run and as I reached to palm the reel for the second run he took off. The handle whacked my thumb twice drawing blood. That was a first for me and even though it smarted like you know what it was great having a fish on with that much power. Regarding the crowds, Thursday was bad, Friday was crazy, combat fishing at it’s finest, shoulder-to-shoulder we stood. Glad most do not have a clue how to fish or there would be no fish left in the river. Many of the folks were keeping fish, even saw a guide keeping fish. Also saw some guy both days KICKING fish he released. He would land the fish and then repeatedly kick the fish up the bank as it tried to flop back into the river. The purpose of the kicking treatment was so he could take a picture. He did it to every fish I saw him land and he knew how to fish. While I did not see every fish he landed I bet it was around 10 for the two days and from the treatment he gave them my bet is at least half are now dead. The highlight of the trip was meeting Ken Z. I know most of you have told me otherwise but he really is a nice guy. Sorry Ken could not resist giving you a bad time. I really did enjoy meeting you in person and look forward to meeting many more of the club members. Thanks for taking time to look us up. Tight Lines to all and if any club member needs MN trout fishing info let me know, will do my best to answer your questions.
Tight Lines,
Gary