Slow Fall on the Brule

Brandon fishes the Brule

In 2011, the author and friend, Brandon McCafferty, made two attempts at fishing for steelhead on the mighty Brule in Wisconsin.  On October 9th, the men packed up their gear and set off to fish the unseasonably warm and dry fall run.  We camped at Brule river campground and woke up before sunrise each morn to make it to the river before the sun.

Brandon fishing a hole that produced the only steelie

The waters were extremely shallow as not much rain had fallen in the past month. To add to the confusion for us new steelheaders,  the temperatures rose to the 80's during our trip on the 9th of October.  After exhausting ourselves hiking to many holes, Brandon produced the only steelhead for the trip.

Brandon and his steelhead

Utilizing a dead-drift with a large strike indicator and an electric blue copper John, Brandon landed a nice chrome steelie.  This skip-jack (or one-salt for you coasties) put up a heck of a fight and exploded out of the water multiple times.  After some crafty net-work by yours truly, the fish was landed.

Chrome

A water color of the above shot I painted that winter

We fished many other holes on this trip, but failed to catch anything other than a couple of small browns.

Great back-cast

The undaunted-duo returned to the river on Halloween weekend.  There had not been any rain since their last trip, but being bull-headed and not easily discouraged they tried their luck again.

A beautiful bend on the Brule

The temps continued to drop along with the water and flow data, and we opted for a cheap hotel in place of our usual tent.

Pink salmon caught by author

Again, we woke up before the sun, and headed to some new spots.  The author managed to land one straggler humpie before noon.

A skate fly

A selection of steelhead flies

Although many more holes, and attempts were made, our casts were futile and we left empty-handed.  The waters had become too low and fish were not entering the tributaries.  No one knows if the fish were going to hold out for rain (which never came), or hold on and make a spring run.

This brown seemed dead...but came to life!

This picture of the author with a large brown is a bit misleading.  This brown was seen dead in the water, and we (being skunked for the most part) wanted to pose with the massive fish. Upon grabbing the trout, some residual life-force re-entered the fish and I grappled with it before the shot was taken.