While many wait for the hard water to come, the trout mafia is out putting hits on many trout that swim the waters of Lake Michigan, its harbors, and connecting tributaries. Few venture out during this transitional period, and even fewer will put in the necessary time needed to capture these fish.

I’ve had the pleasure of bringing along a few “newer” peeps to this game, but patience is virtue, and some are learning that time will either pay off, or will simply hang the towel.

This is also a time where my infamous plad shorts are stored away for next spring, in exchange for a more suitable, plad pajama pants. Once you go plad, you never go back.

Black Friday was the first day of fishing. I was joined by fellow mafia member, Keith, and a possible recruit many of you know as Andrew R. Andrew R had the honor of joining a tight lipped group of the trout whisperers. We took him to a quiet creek (or as Andrew called “a ditch”), where the only inhabitants where those of monster Lake Michigan steelhead and browns. Not another human soul in sight; well, until Dyers and crew showed up .

It was only in the matter of 15 minutes where Andrew declared, “There are no fish here.” Andrew, being an expert in fishing for smallmouth bass in north central Wisconsin, obviously had the credentials to make such of claim. Keith, thought otherwise, proving the counselor of the parliament very wrong…

Guiding one with a limited attention span coerced me to switch gears, and try harbor fishing. So much of the creek was left untouched by the mafia. Not normal… Dyers and his group showed up, and I pointed them to a nice run and a deeper pool. I believe they pulled out some nice fish from there. I’ll wait for their report…

Off to the harbors we went, and fishing was utterly slow. Even for mafia standards, it was slow. So slow that Andrew started to pass out (literally). His time with the mafia had expired, and he had to leave the great state of Wisconsin.

Keith and I decided to get back to the creek asap and pick up where we left off. Unfortunately, we only had about 45 minutes left of legal fishing time. Keith managed to pluck out a juvenile arlee, which was very round from feeding on brown eggs from this creek that was full of spawning trout.

We had also run into a couple of fellas who were float fishing a deeper run on the creek. They had caught 8 browns for the day. I envied their success. I really wish we would’ve stuck it out in the morning with Andrew. I am absolutely convinced we would’ve mirrored the success of the two we spoke with! The rains from the previous two days brought in a lot of fresh fish from the Lake, but we simply didn’t give it the full effort!

Keith and I ended up working our way all the way to the mouth of the creek, just as the sun was setting and the moon made its appearance.

On our ride back, Keith and I decided to hit up the harbor once again and try to see if we could pick off some of those nocturnal feeding browns. One fell victim to a tube jig…

Keith and I soon declared it a day, and made our ways back home.

Saturday

Keith and I decided to both sleep in. We decided we would give trout fishing another stab, but the time would need to wait until after the sun went down.

We arrived at a new area of the harbor for us. This night would be focuses on exploring more trout possibilities, with hopes of landing some nice fish. We fished for about 4 hours that night, and landed some nice fish. All on either tube jigs or spawn sacs. A couple of the hens were gracious enough to spit out some caviar we will need for our ice adventures. I also managed to catch probably one of the ugliest buck browns I have in my life.

Here are the pics. They tell a good story.

The moral of the story is that with all sorts of fishing, you need PATIENCE! Never give up, especially if you’re fishing with someone who knows the waters and knows what can come out of them!!

See ya next time (well, prolly not the counselor. He declared he is 99.9% sure he is done with fishing until hard water!).

Twas an exhausting effort of trout fishing this past weekend. I don’t think I have ever put in this much effort over a couple day span, but in the end had a great time, shared some laughs, and caught some nice fish.

11/21

Dyers and myself left Chicago around 515 and shot north on 94. We met up with Andrew at the Lake Forest oasis, and hit our first stretch of skinny waters around 7 am. Andrew questioned my decision to fish such a small stretch of water, and doubted the existence of any salmonoids in such a shallow and short stretch of water. Dyers was a keen observer, and never questioned my decisions…

So much to learn…

We walked the banks and I pointed out the seams and holes that could possibly hold fish to the river newbs. It didn’t take too long before I spotted a nice hole and watched as a pair of fins surface. I told Andrew to hush (yes, trout CAN hear you!) and I made a couple of drifts. I got the male to take the bait!

We covered about 10% of the water I originally wanted to hit on that trib. I am absolutely convinced we would’ve found some more fish, possibly some steelies too, and gotten a few more photos…

After that short lived trip, we made our way over to the Root. Found the water to be very low and clear. The action was almost non existent for us. We were able to spot a few fish, but most seemed extremely fatigued and/or beat up.

I watched Andrew sight out a brown, and make a few drifts past it. It didn’t want to take his egg pattern, so I made a drift and managed to hook the stupid thing (accidentally, but in true Root form) in the fin. No pics of foul hooked fish!

After deciding that the Root stunk, we hit Kenosha harbor. The bite there too was all but dead. We had a few missed take downs before I finally stuck a fish. I got a decent 7 lb steelie to hit a tube jig suspended 4′ below a float.

Andrew wanted to show us his underwater camera, so he took a neat release shot. Nice markings on the cheek -

And that would be that for Day 1. 3 fish. 1 of which that didn’t count. A very slow day!

11/22

Andrew decided to opt out of trout fishing for Day 2, but his vacant spot was taken by none other but the legendary Tom Harris. Tom had managed to catch a beautiful female brown trout that was approximately 4 lbs before Dyers and I showed up. Great looking fish Tom!

Dyers and I decided to hit the harbor at first light. We saw a lot of fish jumping around, but couldn’t get any takers. We decided to move to a new spot within the harbor, and it wasn’t long before Tom hooked into a seeforellen brown!

Soon after John saw something he hadn’t seen all trip – his float go under! He hooked up and fought a fish for about 5 minutes before it ran him into some wooden plank and come unbuttoned. So close John!

About 15 or so minutes later I watched my float go under and I gave it a set. To my amazement, I saw the biggest brown trout of my life hooked on the other end of my line! I had my number 1 net man with me so I was confident we would land this toad on 6 lb test flouro. After tiring the fish down, and with Tom’s net job, a 20.28 oz brown trout was on the board!

This beast was a whopping 38″ long! Here is a pic of it next to my 9′ rod -

And how could you have a fishing post from Milwaukee with an Eric Haataja pose???

After another hour of so of harbor fishing, we decided to pack it and hit some of the Milwaukee River.

Not a whole lot going on there, so we decided for one last shot in Kenosha. After an hour of minimal activity, we decided to call it a weekend, and head back home to Illinois.

The fishing was slow, but we all had a great time. I can’t wait to get back out there.

MAFIA!