Hippos Fest 2011

Trout fishing in the snow - you don't see that very often. Earlier in the early season I was seeing snow on the banks, but to actually be putting on the waders in a medium blizzard? That's nuts. It's what me and the boys found ourselves in on Saturday, April 16. This place was 'Hippo Water' with crazy animals around every deep bend in the river. The 16-incher above was my best of the trip, and our group finished with 16 trout total, including 4 other 15" or better. I had so many flashes (hits) in one stretch of the stream I just couldn't believe it. You get a couple, give them a minute. Then throw the same lure back and another one would fly out of the depths. Just wild.

That is def one of the coolest aspects of early season lure troutin' - seeing the strikes. They're like lightening flashes, contained in a 6-inch box of moving water. You see just about all of them you catch and, if you are really paying attention (and wearing some decent polarized shades), twice as many that miss the hooks or were just chasing the lure for fun. After a while you get the sense that there are so many trout in the stream that you never see.

I don't know if I'll get out after any more Wisconsin trout this season, as I'm heading north for the BWCA soon, but I'm guessing I'll hit up some home waters one or two more times. Optimism.

Here's my Wild Almanac logbook for the weekend, with many more pics and a video of a foot-long with a weird dent in it's gill-plate. If you click on the event page itself, you can see some of the Warden's pics and videos as well. Logbook bonus: Picture of a mystery skull and a picture of Catfish Man Who Uses Shrimp for Bait.