Having Hit the Pike, Root and Lake Michigan, I decided to round out the weekend with a trip to the Milwaukee River, fishing around Estabrook.

No fish sighted, but as usual plenty of ducks!

Estabrook was a mess of ice; rather dangerous wading with a lot of ice flows breaking free and coming downstream.

12-29-02 - the last day of 3 days of fishing, what a blast! I hit it all!

Rivers Fished: Milwaukee River
Fish Caught: 0
Outing Date: 12-29-02
Weather: partly cloudy
Air Temp: 40's
Water Temp: cold
Water Level: low
Water Color: Murky
Fish Species: none sighted or hooked
Pattern Fished: various
Pattern Color: various
Fishing Quality: poor

12-29-02 - Having fished the Root, Pike, and Lake Michigan in the past 2 days, I decided I needed to hit the Milwaukee again, especially considering Guppy's recent success with a 1 lb steely ;)

I took it easy after a late date with a wonderful woman Sat. night (BTW guys, she fishes, I need all your help in convincing her that the January Garanaska run is worth the cold ;). Got to the river about 2:00 pm; and fished wherever I could get to. Most of my time was spent under the bridge at Capitol, where I did manage one tug. Downstream was iced over pretty thoroughly so I headed upstream into Estabrook where I knew there was some deeper water. Guppy surprised me up there and we returned to the area below Capitol; with two of us I felt a lot more comfortable going out on the ice. Neither of us "fell through" but there was significant ice flow coming down (at one point a sheet the size of a truck floated by UNDERNEATH MY FEET!). We fished all of our favorite spots, without sighting anything or hooking up.

So about 3:45 Guppy made the call and he took me to his new secret spot. Man, he found just the quintessential winter steelhead spot on the Milwaukee. Nice deeper water with a beautiful natural holding spot that's going to be killer anytime there's a run. I'm definitely NOT spilling this one EVER. We switched over to spinning tackle tossing cleo types; my spinning gear has always lost the battle to fly gear so I tangled my line in no time. I felt what may have been one fish tug on the line, but other than that we ended up empty handed on this outing, and left the river probably about 4:45 PM It never matters though, I always have a great time out with Guppy.

So that about wraps it up for a 3 day fishing extravaganza! Looking forward to next weekend. I'm seriously toying with some IN action if the weather cools off; otherwise you'll see me running around the Pike!

Fair Hooks, Tight Lines, Melted Drags and Abundant fish to all of you in the new year! And if you have tips on enticing a woman who fishes to come out on the rivers in the middle of Frozen January, let me know!

  MP