5-07-04 - Paradise now found! Waters Fished: Paradise Springs, Genesee Creek,
Mukwonago River 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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