Suckered

I fished the kinnikinnick river is western Wisconsin a few weekends ago. I fish there pretty often and I have had few days as bad as this one. It was the Sunday before labor day so it was pretty crowed. I fished the section of river below the dam at river falls and saw 3 people before I got to the bend pool about a quarter mile downstream. Someone was fishing the bend pool so I moved down to my favorite (and secret) spot and, as usual, no one was there. I waded in and fished my way up the pool. No luck until I was almost to the top of the pool and I got a bite on a #16 bloody prince nymph (greygoat.com). It was just a little guy 10-11 inches but he jumped and was a kick to play with my 3 wt. I fished the rest of the pool to no avail and moved on. The best advice I can give for slow fishing is to move around and mix it up. Start with size: Normal, smaller then bigger. Then shape, maybe to a scud or something with a bigger tail than you normally use. Next, (I never get this far) change fly colors. i.e. use a pink copper john instead of regular copper etc. I fished my way down stream and no one was in my normal spots. It seemed people were trying some tougher water for some reason. No bites for a while then one in pretty fast water. Another small fish but instead of a prince he went for a size 18 pink squirrel. I went back to my “good” spot and couldn’t resist giving it another try. Nothing bit until I got to the deeper water at the head of the pool. I got a bite and something very big turned below the water. I saw a huge brown flash and the fight was on. I got him within a few feet and reached for the net when I realized it was a sucker fish. I hate sucker fish. I rarely catch them and I refuse to let even my net touch one. I grabbed my line and removed the barbless hook easily from its soft mouth. Final score: me 2 trout 0 sucker fish 2 (sucker fish count double since you have to be doing something wrong to catch the wrong species). Net score a big fat zero…