5-07-04 - Paradise now found!
Waters Fished: Paradise Springs, Genesee Creek,
Mukwonago River
Fish Caught: 6/26 at Paradise, 0/0 elsewhere
Outing Date: 5-07-04
Weather: Sunny in the early afternoon, spotty rain later
Air Temp: Mid 70's
Water Temp: Paradise Springs - 55F; Genesee 59F;
Water Level: Paradise - Back to Normal! Genesee normal?;
Water Color: Paradise - Clear & Blue!; Genesee CLEAR
Fish Species: Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout
Pattern Fished: Tucker
Nymph, Copper Spey,
Olive Spey, a few other
random nymphs.
Pattern Color:
Fishing Quality: Not too shabby....
Talk about a day to go fishin! I had taken off
Friday to get some work down around the Lake Como house; folks are
coming back soon and of course I have my rod-building crap strewn
all over the place. But HOW could I stay inside cleaning on this
Friday when it was GORGEOUS outside and the weekend forecast looked
downright hostile?!
By 12:00 I couldn't take it anymore, I had to go
fishing. A Rambling Reports reader had emailed me to inform me that
I should go back up to Paradise...my December post was a bit off...thank
you for the tip.
By 1:00 I had paid my $30 for this year's nonresident
parking sticker and I made my way up the path to the spring pond....HOLY
HOLY HOLY Rainbows FATMAN! Fish friggin' everywhere...
Sue Beylor (hope I got your last name spelled right)
manages the Kettle Moraine area including Paradise Springs...I missed
a meeting she hosted earlier this spring with regards to the "future
plans" for Paradise, but one thing was carried back...they
would be restocking.
If you're not familiar, a quick history lesson...last
year Paradise held wild browns & brookies, with the very rare
rainbow trout showing up. The dam that created the spring pond broke,
and for a variety of reasons, the end result was that the spring
pond was drained, leaving a 2' wide ribbon of water where a pond
easily 2 acres once was.
Well, it seems to me things were fixed just fine.
Now Paradise currently holds mostly rainbows; Sue's plan was to
skim fish from other stocking programs in order to get fish to put
into Paradise (so I'm guessing between budget cuts and various other
needs the best place she could get fish was perhaps to skim some
from the Urban Trout programs...more of a put & take kind of
thing anyway). I'd say Sue's "skimming" was rather productive...great
job Sue! Now if the brookies and browns can repopulate some and
the weeds can grow back (you NEED weeds for scuds and such) in a
couple years this could truly be THE GEM of SE WI; granted it already
IS the best SE WI trout opportunity.
I did see a few big browns...can't say that these
were the same big browns that used to be in the pond, but rather
they are probably retired broodstock. Brookies seemed rather absent,
although Sean #2 informed me that he had landed one earlier this
year.
Which brings me to the Seans....you may know them
both from Wisconsin Fly Fishing; I met Sean #1 who is also a friend
of Alex J. (who I had hoped might be able to join me on the hooky
day of fishin in his backyard!). Anyway, I had landed 6 rainbows
all on the Tucker Nymph(!) and all showing no interest in ANYTHING
ELSE!! Then Sean #1 shows up, and tells me he's meeting Sean here
too. Sean must have schizophrenia....but I'm informed that it's
obviously a different Sean!
Well, we all fished Paradise for a bit longer...I
racked up a total of 26 hits in something like 2.5 hours. But I
do need to warn you, they are just as wily as the wild trout that
were here last year....Sean #1 said it took about a WEEK for them
to get smart. Honestly that goes right along with FAT's assertion
that the stocker rainbows in IOWA go wild in about a week's time.
Well, 26 rainbows now know to avoid the Tucker Nymph!
I'd say the cool part was when Sean and I tried
to entice the 2 HUGE rainbows that were running around...I didn't
have every single box of flies with, but I did have a big Olive
Spey...tied it on and the thing got HAMMERED by the rainbows..the
two larger ones both ran over to investigate but all the same no
BIG rainbows landed today...all were 10-12".
Sean & Sean had plans to head over to Genesee
Creek, another one of the tiny area streams that is on the Trout
Map but you'd never guess it holds trout. Alex J. was the first
to check it out and claims a good day on the river...maybe even
several good days. So good to the point that originally he had asked
me not to publish about it if I fished it. When a buddy asks you
not to talk about a spot, you know I generally will agree if their
claims are justified....heck I'll sometimes be there within days
or weeks of the tip to check it out for myself.
So Sean #1, Sean #2 and his bro, and myself all
drive over to check out Genesee. I get on the phone with Alex who
gives us the directions to the "sweet spot"...but of course
we drop in at a different location (figures) and right now I'm telling
you, we found a spot that matched Alex's description and well, it
was a big disappointment. Sean #2 unfortunately found a second spot
that ALSO matched Alex's description.
I could ramble (afterall...you're reading the rambling
reports...) but I won't. Temps were 59F in the water, probably about
75F in the air. Quarters were tight; the only fish we spotted were
chubs and tiny tiny baitfish. The majority of Genesee never got
more than 6" deep. Sure, a trout *could* live in this stream,
but then again maybe Alex caught them all before! Honestly, this
was one frickin' tiny stream. In some respects it reminded me of
areas of Bluff Creek...another local "hot spot" that honestly
is probably much more worth a look than Genesee. To top it off,
I'm not entirely sure we were legal...Genesee is probably small
enough to be brought into question as a "navigable" body
of water....furthermore Carol College apparently owns some of the
property surrounding the creek...it was definitely posted in one
spot where there is a well worn & maintained trail. I went,
but I'll leave this stream to Alex, and I suggest you do the same.
So yes, it was fun to get onto this tiny water...I
put my 6'6" 2wt. to EXCELLENT use here. But trout? Na...I don't
think I'll be heading back to Genesee....honestly I can't think
of any good reason with Paradise Springs right there. My suggestion,
if you're going to look at any of the Walworth / Waukesha county
streams, go fish at Paradise Springs FIRST and after you've shrugged
off a skunk (which will be really tough to do at Paradise by the
end of this year), then go scouting. At the very least you will
have SEEN some trout in your day on the water.
So..what now. Sean #2 was going to head out with
us but ended up deciding the 2.5 hour drive he had ahead of him
needed to start, so we parted paths. Sean #1 was going to show me
his home waters.
Mukwonago. Interesting stream. Bigger water. Definitely
public access. HOWEVER, not exactly a trout stream at first glance.
So here's the deal, but the evening Thunderclouds
were overhead, but there wasn't much lightning coming down and no
rain. We stuck close to our access point, concentrating most of
our time in a deep hole. Sean got a tap....but no fish came up.
Things cleared up for a bit and we worked our way
a bit further downstream...Sean says "Ya know, I've NEVER been
skunked here..." To be fair, I get skunked on my home waters
ALL THE TIME, so for someone to say that about their home waters,
the waters either must be phenomenal or Sean really knows what it
takes to get fish here.
Lemme' tell ya, he proved it. One little brown
is all it takes to keep the skunk away. Now he DID fill me in on
his Mukwonago secret fly, but I'll keep that between him and I.
As we continued downstream Sean suggested hopping
out, but I suggested staying in at least to the next bend...turns
out I found a NICE deep bend that had the potential to hold some
trout....what do I get for my efforts? A CHUB that SLAMS a #4 Copper
Spey!
I honestly would've liked to stay out longer and
explore a little more, but that's when the lightning started showing
up. Besides, I had housework to do, so I got off the Mukwonago around
7:00 PM. Would I go back? Probably not, EXCEPT if I was going to
fish with Sean again...maybe someday I could eek out the 1 fish
save on the Mukwonago?
I do need to throw in as well that this is the
FIRST trout I've ever seen landed on ANY of the SOUTHEASTERN Wisconsin
Trout Streams besides Paradise. Overall these streams pretty much
suck as "inland trout streams" when compared to the other
waters I often fish, but when it's your home water I guess it's
really not that bad!
MP

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