Local Water
The Driftless area of Wisconsin has a dizzying amount of fly fishable water with some of the best spring creek fishing in the world.
Class I Streams
High quality trout waters that have sufficient natural reproduction to sustain populations of wild trout, at or near carry capacity. Consequently, streams in this category require no stocking of hatchery trout. These streams or stream sections are often small and may contain small or slow-growing trout, especially in the headwaters.
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Timber Coulee (and tributaries)
General location(s): Flowing in a roughly Westerly direction from the Ski Jump near Westby along Count Road P through the town of Coon Valley and towards Chaseburg. Some major tributaries provide cold and clear water when the main branch is high, muddy, or warm.
One of the area’s more famous rivers, the Timber Coulee is formed at the junction of a couple of headwater streams including Rulland’s Coulee and flows through the town of Coon Creek. A great river to catch some major hatches including Tricos in the summer.
With its many access points, fishable tributaries, and consistent fishing it is hard to find a better river system in the area.
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West Fork of the Kickapoo (and tributaries)
General location(s): The quality water section runs in a Southerly direction along County Road S from County Road P through the towns of Bloomingdale and Avalanche to Hwy 82. Downstream of 82 you can find some decent fishing and some smaller tributary creeks.
Located just north and east of Viroqua, the West Fork is an incredible fishery with an incredible history of stewardship. Brown Trout and Brook Trout thrive in the fertile waters of the West Fork and feed on the many insects and arthropods that make their home there. It is class 1 trout water upstream of the highway 82 bridge up to its headwaters at county road P. Access and great fishing is located throughout.
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Class II Streams
Streams in this classification may have some natural reproduction, but not enough to utilize available food and space. Therefore, stocking is required to maintain a desirable sport fishery. These streams have good survival and carryover of adult trout, often producing some fish larger than average size.
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General Class 2 stream info
General location(s): North, South, East and West of the fly shop, there are literally hundreds of miles of trout water just minutes from the shop.
Class two streams are, generally, lower sections that have not seen a lot of improvements. They are usually a bit warmer than the class 1 streams which means more ’rough fish’. Less habitat means smaller populations of fish, more forage fish can mean some bigger fish. When you fish class 2 streams, be prepared to fish a lot for a lesser number of trout but with some big fish as a reward!
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Class III Streams
These waters are marginal trout habitat with no natural reproduction occurring. They require annual stocking of trout to provide trout fishing. Generally, there is no carryover of trout from one year to the next.
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General Class 3 stream info
General location(s): Usually located in the lowest reaches of our rivers that dump into the Mississippi or Wisconsin Rivers.
Class 3 streams are usually too warm in the summer to sustain trout populations. You run into many more warm water fish, and the trout are usually stocked for a put and take fishery in these waters. Due to high numbers of forage fish, when the conditions are right you can catch some really big fish in these sections. Just remember it is trophy hunting in the extreme sense. You may hook one trout all day but it could be a pretty big one! Also look for panfish and smallmouth bass in these sections of streams.
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