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I went trout fishing in Wisconsin in May right after graduating from Purdue. Right after my last final I and two of my friends who also just graduated when up to Eclair Wisconsin. Mark, one of my classmates, and Mike both were wildlife Biology majors and had just earned their BS degrees so we were ready to have some fun. We left the books back at the apartments and headed up north.
I was given some chest waders and a fly rod and everything I needed to fish with by Mark's Grandfather. We fished some small streams and well all caught some trout. They were small fish but man even in that cold water they put on an aerial show for me. Tail walking and jumping multiple times. We fished with live worms and a spit shot and small hook. Just cast out across the 20ft wide stream and let the worm bounce along the bottom. The trout went for those worms in early May. Now later on the insects will be hatching and you may want to try more artificial flies like mayfly nymphs or caddisfly nymphs. Dry flies may work in July or August but I am just guessing on that. Match the hatch is what they say.
In early May of 1976 the worms did the trick. I am not sure when they had ICE or when the ICE melted up there that year. But right after ice out there should be a lot of water draining off the land and the creeks should be filling up. And all that melt water washed a lot of worms into the creek. So worms were what the trout wanted that day. I caught about 4 of them little brown trout. I must admit that was one of my best fishing trips. I wish I could do that again someday.
Good luck when you go. Wisconsin was good to us that week.
We also went out on one of the lakes near Eclair but we could not find the walleyes that day. We fished near the lake where the river emptied into the lake. But the walleye's didn't cooperate that day for us. But we still have a nice day out on the lake in the boat with the four of us. They like LUND boats up North.
When I fished for Walleye up on Eagle lake in Ontario Canada we would back troll. We used minnows and steel leaders. They told us to use these rigs that had a single silver type blade on the wire leader and a few red colored plastic bead. Not sure where you can get them. I was only 18 when I fished up there last time and didn't pay much attention to the brand names of the gear we used. But the trick was to drag the hook with a live minnow on it right along the rocky bottom near areas where there was a drop off. By going backwards and using a LUND boat with high transom to prevent water from coming over the back of the boat we were able to troll super slowly. Today I would be using an 24 Volt Electric Trolling motor system to get that slow in my bass boat. BTW we trolled with a 20 HP mercury motor on that LUND rental Boat. Try to get a boat that doesn't have leaky rivets or take your own up there with you. LOL Cold wet feet make for a very uncomfortable day. We didn't have many bugs to contend with in Wisconsin in early May. But in Canada in August watch out for the Mosquitoes and the NO SEE EMS. Those NO SEE EMS are tiny but man do they bite hard. We didn't see any of the no see em or we didn't get bit by them. We were up in Canada right after I got out of HS in 1969 and that was in Early June that year. And we went back up for another trip a few summers later. Stayed three weeks and I think it was in early June again. If you fish up north later in the summer the bugs get worse. I guess all the wild moose, deer and other fury animals keep the mosquito populations high in later summer.