4-29-06 - Randy lands the first Rainbow for the day.

Randy hooks up again.

Not too shabby for 15 minutes of fishing.

They're not records, and they're not wild, but they sure are pretty and fun.

Bluegill? This is NOT what I came for!

There it is - my first inland trout for 2006.

Quickly followed up with #2.

This tiny "steelhead" fight just as well as the big boys of spring!

Randy chose to wear shorts today...

Yup, they just keep on coming. (Copyright Randy Cochran 2006)

And another...

Randy with a quick release on probably the smallest trout for the day.

They just keep on coming.

4-29-06 - First Inland Trout Landed in 2006

Waters Fished: Ceylon Lagoon
Fish Caught: Several
Outing Date: 4-29-06
Weather: Drizzle and Overcast
Air Temp: low 60's at best
Water Temp: N/A
Water Level: "high"
Water Color: Slightly Blue, visibility 2 feet
Fish Species: Rainbow Trout, Bluegill
Pattern Fished: Chicago Leech (brown), Olive Phesant Tail, Olive Damselfly Nymph
Pattern Color: See above

Well, I can some this trip up pretty quickly...Randy had come up to the North Side Friday night to check out our new digs. I convinced him that he needed to come to our WI house to help me change the arsenal over in the Bitchin' Camaro for the Summer setup. After that, we had been invited to fly tyin' over at FAT's house, and somewhere in there we'd have to chase a great limited springtime local opportunity for inland trout.

The Camaro's windshield wipers are out of comission, so after packing up we started to drive over to FAT's but the rain made driving nearly impossible. I quickly decided that maybe we'd be better off fishin in the rain and waiting for it to clear, so shortly after 1:00 PM we arrived at Ceylon Lagoon. Opening Day for the urban pond fishery in WI...this should be good.

It WAS good. Randy and I never moved from roughly 50 yards of shoreline. My experiences here prior suggested that larger, buggy streamers and nymphs would do the trick and that held true. I had also suggested to Randy that the best way to hook up was to "target the rise"...as soon as a fish rises in casting distance, recast and plunk your flies within the rings or at least as close as you can. This advice paid off in minutes for Randy who landed our first rainbow trout for the afternoon.

Randy had 2 landed and I had a bluegill...it took a bit before my first rainbow came to shore. The wind was admittedly rough on our 4 weights, but we pushed through it and each landed a few more trout.

It got to the point around 3:00 that the drizzle had subsided and we really should be getting on over to Rich's house to hang out and tie some flies. Randy agreed to what would hopefully be a quick end for our day, a runthrough of "10 Casts". Rich introduced this to me a year or two back while fishing with his kids...the rules are simple. You have 10 casts. Each time you hook a fish but don't land it, you get 5 additional casts to bring you back to your maximum of 10 casts. If you land a fish, you get 10 more casts (again, bringing you up to a maximum of 10 casts).

Well, by 3:30 or so Randy and I had conservatively gone through at least 40 casts each...I finally made it down to "last cast" while Randy still had around 3 or 4 to go...we literally could have kept going if we really tried ;) Yes, the action was good for a rainy Saturday afternoon and we had the place almost to ourselves. Knowing how this area gets come summer, this truly is a small window of time during the year where easy local trout fishing can be had, so if you want it, get out there and do it!

I'll wrap it up by saying that Randy and I had a great time over with Jim and Gerry...fly tying with these guys seems to be the only way we all get together lately with work and life sometimes keeping our fishing schedules from coming together! Of course, some of these guys are lucky enough to be going on an ALASKA trip this year (I had to decline...but trust me we'll get there some day too). Man, these guys have tied probably THOUSANDS of flies...I've never seen so many shades of "flourescent" and "HOT"! For those of us NOT lucky enough to go to Alaska, at least get out there and fish for something. Next weekend finds me in Iowa, but hey, PIKE season opens up again too and after last year's success, I'm NOT going to miss it this year!

  MP