Kenosha 12/5 – Personal Best Steelhead

The original plan for today was to get up very early and arrive at Kenosha Harbor about a half hour before sunrise.  My plans were quickly changed when I had to wake up three times last night with a teething 10-month old.  My wife had her plans for the day set out, so once she was on her way, I headed up to Kenosha, still seeking my first brown trout.

I did not arrive to the Kenosha area until close to 2:30 pm.  I made a quick stop at Gander Mountain to pick up some spikes and was fishing shortly after.  There were a lot of guys fishing in the “little boat” harbor, so I made my way over to the bridge, which happened to be empty.  After talking to a few guys, my hopes were not high as it seemed the shore guys only accounted for a few meager fish throughout the day.  I quickly rigged one rod with a white tube jig, tipped with spikes, and another with some old nasty spawn that I did not expect much from.

The first few hours were rather boring.  There was hardly any fish activity to indicate that they wanted to do battle.  It was not until the sun dropped just below the horizon, that a little bit of action made my day.

Kenosha Harbor under the famous fishing bridge at night.

I am new to fishing with tubes under a bobber and am still learning a lot about them.  For hours I was trying different patterns of “popping” the jig.  I worked it fast and slow, but to no avail.  It was not until my uncle called me, and I set down the rod, that my first hit occurred.  As I was staring at my glowing bobber, I noticed it was moving kind of funny.  It was not a typical fish take down, but I could tell something was playing with it.  After getting burned last week by delaying my hook-set, I roared back with the rod to ensure this fish would be mine.  The fish gave a quick jump, immediately after hook set.  I knew right away I had a decent size steel head.  The battle was pretty uneventful as the fish didn’t even take drag on my light rod spooled with 6 pound test.  It did make my day, however, when at 25 inches and 7 lbs (according to a crappy old scale) it was my personal best.

A 7lb steelhead would be my new personal best.

As the evening went on, I did have my bobber go down a few more times.  I was very slow to pull the switch as it was well below freezing with a 15mph wind.  The guides on my rod began to ice up pretty bad as the evening progressed, so around 7:00 pm, I decided to call it a night.