Rush River 2015

[JBMasterAngler]

Celebrated my birthday on Saturday with a trip over to the Rush River. Arrived at 6:30, and the temp was only 25 degrees. The eyes on my fishing pole kept freezing. River was about normal level, but slightly cloudy. Fishing was pretty slow. When the sun finally got into the sky, and the bugs started to come out, then the trout got a little more active. Started seeing some surface activity, and had a few strikes and follows. In the end, I only caught 1 chunky little brook trout, lost 2 others, and had several strikes. I was only able to fish for a few hours though, as I had to spend the rest of my b-day fixing my rear brakes Plan on hitting it again next week, but will have the whole day

[zero]

Happy Birthday!! a little time fishing is better than no time, sorry to hear about the brakes, now thats done theres more time to fish.

good luck next week,

zero

[JBMasterAngler]

Made it out there today, 1st on the river 12 hours later and countless miles wading/hiking, only 1 little brown trout to show for my efforts I don't know what the deal was! I was all over the river, used everything I had, and didn't even see much trout activity. Suckers were running pretty heavy, do trout go into hiding or something when the suckers are out and about?

As the day progressed I was starting to think I stumbled into the sturgis biker rally. Oh my goodness! I literally saw EVERY harley that is registered in the state of Wisconsin cruising around today!

[Lunker]

That would be the yearly flood run. Lots and lots of bikes cruising this weekend.

[JBMasterAngler]

Got off to a late start, but was able to get on the river at about 6:30 this morning. Was the first time I've been to the Rush since April. Upon arrival, the river was only slightly cloudy, and maybe just a few inches high, despite all the rain just a few hours earlier. Anyone familiar with the 490th street access just outside of Martell, knows what it looks like there, and knows how and where you access the river at that spot. And more importantly, how you get back to the parking lot! I'll get back to that shortly...trout seemed fairly aggressive, was getting some good strikes. Caught 3 brook trout, the tiniest little brown trout, and my personal best Rush River brown trout, a fat and chunky 16 inch male. So this is where the story takes a turn! Literally out of nowhere the river starts to run dirty, and gets higher and faster. It turned into a mad torrent of chocolate milk in a matter of minutes. I still tried fishing for a little bit, but thought to myself, "I better head back before it gets worse". So I return to the river crossing, the same crossing that is usually only about ankle deep in normal conditions, like when I crossed it just 2 hours earlier! Not anymore! It was over my hip boots and raging through pretty good! There is a bridge upstream that is quite a hike by water, and with the water flooding, I couldn't make that trek. I ended up walking through a farmer's field...hopefully it was owned by the same farmer I talked to that morning, that gave me the green light to use his field that was adjacent to this one. Got back to the road, near the bridge, then walked back to the lot. It's not that far of a walk, but it's a lot tougher when your wearing hip boots. With all that said and done, I would totally do it all over again! Go figure though, my wife and kids are out of town, and I have the whole day to fish, and a flash flood moves through. At least I have a story to tell 

[reinhard1]

Wow!! Never had that happen before but I can see how it can happen.  I remember fishing the upper stretches of some of the rivers on the north shore when the water was muddy like you said.  We still caught fish with worms in the pools.  good luck.

[JBMasterAngler]

Ended the trout season on a positive note this morning. Fished mostly out of the park outside of El Paso. Caught 6 brook trout, including my personal best out of the rush (12 inches), 3 brown trout, and my 1st rush river creek chub. Most of the trout were small, had lot's of strikes and follows as well. Was a beautiful morning to be out. If you haven't fished the rush yet, do yourself a favor and make it happen! The brookies in this stream are the absolute prettiest you'll find anywhere! Cant wait until next spring!