Apologies for the long delay in getting this posted, but as you'll see, it's not as if anyone is missing a hot bite.

There have been some posts on here over the years about Story/Tipperary Creek in Dane County and even though most were discouraging, I had to see the place for myself. Plus I wanted to do it before mid to late May when it supposedly turns into a jungle. I started on the far upper reaches where it is very narrow. There were brookies around but I wouldn't make a special trip just to fish for them. There was barely any flow at all-it was more like stillwater fishing. It's a marshy area and it will be tough to navigate once vegetation really starts growing.

I finished at the 92 bridge and there is a deep pool there. Night fishing would be the way to go there to see if there are any monsters hiding in the undercut banks. All I found was small fish in the late afternoon.

In between those two spots, I parked off Alpine and walked in to the middle stretch. I was kind of disappointed in that the majority of places it was about 20 feet wide and maybe 6 inches deep. I covered a lot of ground to find just a couple of pools that were deep enough to hold fish. My 4/5 weight was way too much stick for the small fish I found. The stream has a reputation among some for holding nice fish, but I didn't see any evidence of it. Of course, I barely scratched the surface of all the water that is in the six mile stretch between bridges. Before I give up on it, maybe I'll walk bridge to bridge in January to see where the likely holding water is.

If you live in the area, it would be a good place to spend a few free hours. But for me, it's a little too far for a day trip-as good or better water closer to home-and by driving another half hour or so, I could be in the central sands or the eastern edge of the driftless; those are better options for overnight trips.

Bill,
I was going to bring back that thread after an outing on BEC this weekend. I had a few excellent outings early this year, producing wild browns and colored-up big hold over rainbows. However, since the opener (and associated rain events) BEC has slowed significantly. Granted, I have not spent as many hrs/outings on it as last year, but it seems as bad or worse. I'd be interested to hear what other folks are seeing. I have yet to fish the sections the DNR truck stops at ;) They might be producing...

Mike

this morning I got out on a few streams not too far from home in south central dane. Water was high and almost no visibility on first trib. Next trib was running nicely stained and fish were active. Some nice fish were brought to hand in the grass jungles.