A beautiful clear day at the mouth of the Pike River in Kenosha; it's flowing faster than I've seen it this fall, and has strangely twisted to the south.

First Brown Trout of the year! WHO HOO! About 9 lbs. Taken while casting in the LAKE at the mouth on a purple-tailed, black hackled wolly bugger with a purple crystal flash chenille body. Some splitshot needed to get the flies down (I was using 2).

A couple other browns and one steelhead were taken that day by fellow anglers. I believe this small Steelhead and Brown took spawn on tight-lines, while I saw another Brown (ca. 4 lbs.) taken on a black wolley bugger.

11-23-02 - My First Brown of the season!

Rivers Fished: Pike River (including the mouth on Lake Michigan)
Fish Caught: 1
Outing Date: 11-23-02
Weather: Clear
Air Temp: COLD, 30's to 40's.
Water Temp: Ice Cold, definitely cold than cold tap!
Water Level: up a bit
Water Color: clear in river, turbid in the lake
Fish Species: Browns, Coho and Steelhead
Pattern Fished: Wollies
Pattern Color: Dark
Fishing Quality: Tough

Here it is, yet another rambling report. This week I focused solely on the Pike River!

Got a very late start; arrived at the Pike at the bridge at A around 1:15 pm. Walked both above and below the bridge, only spotted one fish (looked like a brown) and I spooked him pretty bad. I ran into another angler who informed me that the Coho were all upstream in the Kenosha Country Club, he had seen 2! That's it, 2! He also told me that the mouth of the Pike was blocked which I found hard to believe as the river came up significantly, so I headed to the mouth!

As I had guessed, the mouth was indeed open and flowing, in fact much more so than I've seen previously this year. There were a couple guys fishing what looked like spawn on tight-lines; one of these guys also had a fly rod. At my arrival, no one had any fish.

Well, of course, as darkness approached the fishing picked up. The first to go was the guy tossing a black wolley bugger; he landed a nice brown (I'd guess it at 4 lbs). Next came the tight lines going, with another small brown (man, on those lines they can just reel them straight in!).

I continued casting directly into the outflow of the mouth, and rather unexpectedly the water boiled by my line. Whatever I had on was big, and wasn't moving terribly fast. The fish rolled at the surface a few times and then ran deep, and ended up taking me for a 100 yard walk to the north of the mouth. Eventually I brought the fish into the surf, where I was able to net and land a honking BIG brown. As I walked back, another one of the tightliner's had brought in a steelhead. These guys were kind enough to loan me a scale; the brown came out to be around 9 lbs!

At this point I snapped my shots, and attempted to revitalize this fish in the river flow, but without any success. So this brown went home and into the freezer; he'll make some nice steaks! Anyways, for those of you who want to know the rig, it was a 12 foot leader (Vanish, 8 or 10 lb, can't remember) with 2 splitshot about 18" up the end, tossing a size 4 purple tailed, black hackled, purple crystal flash chenille wolley bugger. A nice pattern that I had just made up and tied this last week.

Fair Hooks!

  MP