Our first trip the the Brule in Northern Wisconsin brought us both our first steelhead. We fished near the Hwy 13 bridge on Saturday and after a couple hours finally hooked my first fish. It was a bright colored fish, close to twenty inches, that took a green and pink yarn pattern. We had a lot of fun keeping ice off the rods Sunday morning with temps in the low 20's and fishing was pretty slow. We couldn't find the fish and they didn't seem to like the cold weather. Once the afternoon sun warmed the water we began hooking fish. I hooked another bright steelie close to 25 inches and Matthew landed a fat one close to 23 inches.
We brought two more in and I lost a hawg close to 28 inches. We both lost a couple fish each as they fought hard to get off. These Steelhead really put up a good fight and seem to use the current to their advantage. The Brule was running pretty clear and had about 12 inches of snow during the weekend. We had the most success after switching to San Juan worms, but they also took yarn flies. I fished some black stoneflies for a while with no success.