Dogs and cats

Brutal cold spring weather, blizzards across the the Dakotas, ice on the guides, dogs sleeping with cats ... Where is the order in the world???

All right, I needed to get that off my chest. Spring may be here on the calendar only, but we're still out there pounding away at the water - just not for hours on end. My friend Chris Wedholm and I were down on the lower Kinni this past Sunday freezing our hands off, but the fish were cooperative, as long as you knew where to look. Take my advice: Fish the slower pools behind the riffles. The trout are feeding, but their metabolisms are still slow. A little twitch on the nymph and dropper works, but don't expect aggressive strikes. As the weather warms, this will change, but for now the fish are stacked up.

Chris and I will be back in the studio in the next few days. Getting our schedules to mesh is a bit of a challenge these days. I'm a volunteer baseball coach at the high school here, and my nights have been taken up. (Hey, I'm more than a pretty face and fly fishing guru.) If you have some suggestions to the show, let us know. If you have any complaints, direct them to Chris. I'm sensitive. This next episode I'll be talking about my trip out west, so I won't say much here, other than the blizzard was interesting.

We've scheduled spring fish camp for May 8th, so if you'd like to join us be sure to let us know. We'll even offer directions. Any friends of the show are friends of ours, especially if they bring potato salad.

Keep us posted on your fishing outings. We'd like to pass the info along on the creel section of the show. Hope to see you streamside. Be well, friends.

joe

Sucky weather

Okay, so the opener was a bomb, as far as the fishing was concerned. The rivers were raging like ... like that scene in the original Willy Wonka with the chocolate rivers, only add a raging torrent. ... Or better yet, the rivers were flowing like exploding kegs of root beer. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Thanks to all who attended the annual opener at the Silver's. It was, afetr all, about the ritual of getting out on the opener, no matter how much the weather conspired against us.

Special thanks go out tot Hal for being the "team" photographer, and for Ken and Terry for providing the pre-requisite sardonic humor. Despite the conditions, it was nice to see everyone, including Roy, who refused to be recorded for the upcoming FWJ episode. (Yes, folks, Roy does exist.)

Special thanks go out out long suffering spouse Lynn for providing the calorie laden bagels with egg, cheese, sausage and bacon. We'll think of you sweetly at our next colonoscopy.

Weather continues to be a pain in the ass. The rivers are not going to clear anytime soon, so it looks like a painful wait to wet a line.

Speaking of wetting a line, I was convinced not to go home Saturday without trying my luck, so Biff Bigsby and I tried the Eau Galle for half an hour, just to say we did. You're a good man, Biff. The bottom line is I'm convinced the melt-off is more detrimental in terms of lowering stream temps than it is for the run-off, but that's a commentary for another day.

Chris and I will be in the studio the next day or two, so check out our newest episode, coming your way soon. We'll be sure to post pictures from our opener, including yours truly playing with deer dung. (Hey, I was doing an experiment.)

I'm off to Montana and Wyoming this Saturday, so I'm looking forward to reporting on the trip. As always, it should be entertaining. Be well all, and keep listening to FWJ. We love ya!

joe

Opener

Howdy folks. This Saturday marks the Wisconsin Catch and Release opener, and man are we excited. It's been a long winter. Every attempt to get to Iowa or the year round streams has been met with either a nasty cold spell or some unforseen event. As a result, I'm feeling mighty rusty. I've kept myself busy with the show and tying flies, but there's only so much substitution a fella can do. Time to wet a line.

Speaking of flies, I've been tying orange scuds and sow bugs for my upcoming week long trip to the Big Horn and streams further west. Can't have enough of these patterns for the western tailwaters. I'll be heading west with my buddy John and his son Tom. (See the photos of past trips in the photo gallery) I'll be joined for a day or two by my political advisor Chris Wedholm, a New Jersey transplant who will be my inspiration for a new essay. Also, I'm hoping Ken Hanson can join us. He'll be out in Bozeman visiting son Ted, daughter-in-law Vanessa and grandson Linden. If you're going to be apart from your family, you can do a lot worse than having to travel to Bozeman.

Hope everybody had an opportunity to listen to the last epsidode. Fun stuff with some great music. A few people have asked about our reference to 20 inch fish in the upper Kinni, and while it would be a rare fish, I know for a fact a few big ones are in that water. It's not the first place I'd go for trophy browns, but the fish are plentiful and healthy as can be. Lots of great water to fish in this region, so there's no sense crowding one another.

In other news, a local buddy reported finding some unusually large cat tracks along the lower Kinni recently. Makes one wonder. I'll be heading down there tomorrow to check out the tracks. I'll be sure to have my tuna fish aftershave on.

If anyone is interested in joining us this Saturday, please send us a note, either through our email or from a blog response. We'll be sure to give you directions. My wonderful, long suffering spouse Lynn has agreed to make 2 dozen egg, sausage and cheese bagels for the fellas, apprpropriately wrapped in tinfoil. If that doesn't inspire you, along with a thermos of French roast, I don't know what could.

We'll be taking the recorder down to the water for a stream report and will be back in the studio early next week to record a new episode. So stay tuned. Thanks to all of you who have supported FWJ. We can't tell you how much we appreciate it.

joe