Welcome to my 2010 Fly Catalog. You can view fly photos at www.richosthoff.com. Printed fly photos can be mailed on request. My web site also has information on my books, spring creek guiding and schools, speaking programs, and more.
2009 saw excellent fishing on many Wisconsin spring creeks, including three that have come on strong in just the last year or two. Late March was mild and fished well. April and early May brought a steady string of rainy weekends when the water was nicely off color and perfect for Soft-Hackle Buggers and Woolly Worms. May was a beautiful month with good dry fly fishing the rule. From May right into June I saw good midday mayfly hatches; the Flara Dun was my top fly for most of these hatches. July and August brought record cool temperatures for Wisconsin and pleasant summer days that fished well. September was actually warmer than most of summer, right up to the final days of the season when the valleys frosted hard at night. I guided two anglers to their first 20-inch spring creek browns in the last week of the season. A number of anglers that I’ve guided over the years hit red hot fishing on their 2009 outings, and it’s always fun to see anglers walk away with an appreciation for just how well these small creeks can fish when they’re really on.
In June I had outstanding smallmouth bass fishing on northern Wisconsin lakes. On one trip I fished with a friend from his boat, instead of by canoe, and saw my success with subsurface flies jump due to the greater stability and control of the boat; the smallies shredded a supply of white Conehead Buggers that had sat in my bass box for years. I see a small boat and a steadier diet of northwoods smallmouth fishing in my future.
From mid July into early August Dale and I fished Montana rivers. Throughout the trip daytime highs were in the seventies and low eighties, which was a nice break from the 100-degree heat we’ve hit in Montana in recent summers. Despite the pleasant days the Madison and the Ruby fished only so-so. From the Ruby we went to the Beaverhead expecting to stay a day or two, but stayed a week, loafing and swimming on Clark Canyon Reservoir where tent camping is free. From early afternoon right into darkness we’d drift PMD emergers and duns to selective browns and rainbows that ran mostly 17” to 19”. The river at dark was a riveting sight, we could have walked across the snouts, and I could have stayed another week.
With time winding down, we phoned over to the Big Horn and learned it had just dropped to 3,200 fps. It was running at 10,000 fps when we left Wisconsin, which is way too high for wade access so we’d all but crossed it off our itinerary. But we burned our last three days on the Horn and were glad we did. The black caddis hatch was on, and my Beadhead Pheasant Tail Midge in black was so productive, for the third year running, that we needed nothing else. We’d drift the PT Midge with the aid of a #8 shot until the fish really got rising, then we’d remove the shot and set our indicators about ten feet from the fly. If we dropped the indicator right at the back of a rise ring, a fish would take the drifting fly just subsurface on nearly every presentation. Dale pretty much matched me fish for fish. This year on the Bighorn rainbows comprised probably a third of our catch, compared to an overwhelming percentage of browns the previous two summers. We again wade fished a couple miles below the afterbay, so perhaps the higher river levels moved more rainbows into that stretch, which was fine by us as the rainbows average a bit bigger and run hotter.
As I write this in mid December, winter has arrived with a foot of snow and a rash of sub-zero nights, but my bird hunting is still in full swing. Fall grouse and woodcock hunting were good, I took the bulk of my birds near home in central Wisconsin. If conditions are decent January should bring some good hunts as the grouse are out there. At age four, Libby, my cocker spaniel, is crazy for pheasants. Her tracking on skulking, big-running roosters is intense. I have to do my part, hustling after her through corn, cattails, and black brush to be in position on the flush, but chasing roosters with her is so fast-paced and exhilarating that I seriously contemplated skipping my annual deer hunt in northern Minnesota. I thought we’d be back to grouse hunting by now, but we’re still pounding up plenty of late-season pheasants in the snow. Yesterday afternoon from a high hilltop, we watched six long-tailed roosters strut across a frozen pond and disappear into a marsh. Then we skirted the pond and finished our hunt in a hurry.
I passed a buck on opening day in northern Minnesota and came home empty-handed. I did see three good bucks, but all were way out and on the move, and I never quite tripped the trigger. In Wisconsin I shot an 8-pointer and filled an antlerless tag on opening day, so there’s meat in the freezer. Then it was right back to pheasants.
Good fishing and hunting to all in 2010—Rich Osthoff
