sand county streams

I previously asked for some help on the fishing reports board for trout fishing....but figured it would probably be a better place to post here....so here goes...

What in the heck does it take to catch fish in any of the sand county streams in Central WIS. I fished hard for about 10 hours the other day and had very little to show for it. landed 2 brookies....both after resorting to tossing mepps. I did have two fish briefly on while tossing a fly though both were about 4-5 inches.

I saw very very few fish in most of the creeks, the least in the Mecan ( Yea I name dropped but saying the fishing was bad can't hurt it much...lol). That is including any I saw when I was intentionaly trying to spook some from undercuts, log jams etc. I would even sneak up on holes on hands and knees peering through the foliage and saw nada where normally I would think there would be fish. So what gives...are trout in these streams that different than in Limestone spring creeks. I realize they are generally spookier with the clearer water but doing my best heron impression I still spooked very few.

I have fished the area before and rarely catch more than one or two fish.

What was I doing wrong? I tossed a pretty wide assortment in every even semi likely looking place. Any help would be more than appreciated. Techniques, flies, etc.

For the record I was using a 4 wt 8 ft rod with floating line my leader was about 11 foot tapered to 5x.

Thanks, 'Pig maybe i just needed Goh Or Trap along...they tend to bring me decent luck!

Awwww

Thanks stalker....any general fly suggestions to try?

LCH....I would generally skip those streams but they are my only option when I am up by by in-laws cabin and can only get out for a few hours or so...don't want to drive 2hrs and 45 minutes for 15 minutes of fishing. Trap can kick some trout tail...but he really excells in carp sniping on the great BD river!

That goes along with what I said, you need much more refined skills in the sand country creeks. Sadly, for some of us, that ain't gonna happen as we get shakier and shakier as we hit the wonderful age of Senior Citizenship.

Waterpig, The Sand county streams are not all that bad if you just pay attention and move slowly. Most of them are not the typical riffle, run type stream you are used to if you frequent driftless water. You will need to exercise a bit of caution in your wading and be a bit more precise in your presentation. You will also need to use flies that are closer to realistic vs impressionistic. I fish them a lot and have good success. there are some real monsters in these waters but they are not the push overs you will encounter in the driftless. There are a number of really good waters in this area, some providing outstanding trophy potential but lots of guys give up because the fishing is rather technical. Keep at it and bring your A game, you won't get by with the sloppy casting you can get by with in the driftless. you will however improve your abilities and make yourself a better angler.

Trap that very well could be me too....Of course I didn't have my lucky "dog fly" that I catch the vast majority of fish on. the gills earlier in the week tore both I had left totally apart....time to sit down at the vise again adn whip a few up.

"You're flies are ugly and your skills suck."

Oh, wait, that's me.

Umm Trap..I don't think I have an A game pouch...at best on a good day my game could be considered MAYBE a B. B+ if everything alignes with the planets and all is right with the world

Some, but not all. The rest is you're a jinx.

Those sand country streams are a female dog to fish, probably at leat 9 foot leaders to 7X, super stealthy approach, everythign must come out of the "A" game pouch or you can forget it.

Ybone...thanks...I figured about the Hex...I was hoping they would be mostly done and starting to feed on other things...that would explain some of my lack of success.

Waterpig, It's hex time on the "Central Sands" The trout are gorging at dusk and into the night. With stuffed bellies they will be hunkered down and very inactive during the light of day.

I'm finding out when I visit my old child hood streams are now dead. They are filled in or the trout are simply gone. Either because the water quality is so poor that the fish no longer can sustain spawn, or the DNR stopped stocking.

What I would suggest is to look up the DNR stock reports and find out what streams, if any in that county they stock.

Also, every county is required to put out a water quality report on the streams within the respective county. (You can find it on google) This report highlights water quality, plant life, and most importnatly: fish life.