Mount Horeb area nymph

My dad gave me a copy of Dave Hughes' Taking Trout (2002) Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.

Among other nuggets, Hughes shares a pattern that worked wonders on our beloved Western Wisconsin spring creeks:

"I would never be without a supply of a certain beadhead nymph that, as far as I know, doesn't even own a name. I first tied a dozen of them on a picnic table beneath the spreading leaves of a shade tree in the back yard of Andy and Marie Davidson's home in the rolling limestone hills near Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. The whimsical size 12 tie has a brass beadhead, olive dubbed body, and yellow thread rib. That's it.

It took an enjoyable hour to tie those dozen on the Davidsons' picnic table, listening to the birds sing. Later in the week, I met Ted Leeson, author of Habit of Rivers, and we fished the spring streams rising from those limestone hills. It took just two days to lose those dozen beadhead nymphs to fat trout."

I'm off to tie a few myself. But what to call it? How about Hughes' Whimsical?

Skinner Creek, Green County part two

Skinner runs north of Highway 11 in the south central part of Green County. It can be found on page 27 of the Delorme Map. The State of Wisconsin has in years past listed it as a legitimate trout stream in their yearly guides. It has fallen on hard times. The Green County tourism folks don't list it in their trout streams to visit in the county, although, they don't list the fine Hefty Creek either. For an expert opinion, see below.

A Baseline Survey of Skinner Creek in Green County, WI was done in August 2004 by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The results weren‘t encouraging.

They surveyed three sections of Skinner Creek: “upstream from Klondike Road; upstream from Hiawatha Road, and upstream from Skinner Hollow Road.”

Shockings revealed that the upstream from Klondike Road section was the best of the three, with two brown trout (10.7” and 11.9”) among the bluegill and large amount of rough fish. Hiawatha yielded one brownie of 13.7” along with a pile of rough fish, and surprise, Skinner Hollow produced a rainbow of 14” with an assortment of undesirable fish. Water temp at all three stations was 58 degrees, warmer than what trout typically like.

The report concluded that the DNR consider “adding Skinner Creek to the state’s list of impaired waters.

Thank you to Jim Amrhein, Watershed Specialist for the South Central Region.

For the full report, visit:

http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/pages/reports/final/green_skinner_creek.pdf