OUTDOORS EDITOR
Racine — The late December sky hung over Racine like a gray, woolen blanket.
Even at high noon the sun was blocked out, a grand star reduced to bystander status by the thick cloud deck.
The dim light even lent a dullness to the snow-covered banks along the Root River.
But the world was not without color.
For that, Tim Hyvonen of Oak Creek and I just had to plumb through the 6 inches of opaque river ice.
Winter had locked most of Wisconsin in its cold embrace at mid-week.
Beneath the crystal coatings of many Lake Michigan tributaries, however, pulsed a multi-hued life force: trout.
Appropriate to the season, the fish wore coats of chrome, gold and silver and were highlighted with red dots and crimson sashes.
“Always one of my favorite times of the year,” said Hyvonen, 30.
Such sentiments are echoed by millions of children as they anticipate gifts at the holidays.
Consider us grown-up kids whose presents were hidden in the watery highway beneath our feet.
We fished a couple lines on tip-ups, dead sticks or Automatic Fishermen (an ice fishing rig designed to set the hook when a fish strikes) and jigged with another line as we waited for bites.
For bait, we used spawn sacs, pieces of shrimp or wax worms on a tube jig.
The fish — brown trout and steelhead (rainbow trout) — were cooperative.
As a native of Racine, the holiday season fishing outing felt like a homecoming for me. Hyvonen, too, felt a touch of nostalgia as he recalled catching the first fish of his life on the Root.
“Brown trout, 25 years ago, just a couple miles upstream,” Hyvonen said.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the fish hooked him. Hyvonen became an avid angler and now owns and operates WiFinlander Guide Service.
To be done safely, ice fishing always requires a strong dose of common sense and good judgment. That goes double when it applies to rivers or other moving waters.
Hyvonen and I were satisfied the Root’s ice was sound enough for a couple of midweek outings.
“This time of year, you take what the conditions give you,” Hyvonen said. “If the rivers are open, you drift fish with the long rods. If they are mostly locked up, you look for spots you can ice fish.”
The single-digit temperatures of a week ago settled the matter for us. We set up on ice in downtown Racine, less than a mile from the river’s mouth. We fished most of our baits near bottom in about 7 to 8 feet of water.
The steelhead and brown trout stocked in Lake Michigan make spawning runs up tributaries. The timing varies depending on the strain, but from November through April some trout are available in the Root and many other rivers that flow into the Big Pond.
The trout live after spawning so catch-and-release helps sustain the fishery.
In 2014, the Department of Natural Resources stocked 588,629 brown trout and 409,121 steelhead in Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan.
The agency has not released reports of its 2015 or 2016 Lake Michigan stocking.
Due to cuts planned in response to record-low forage levels in the lake, the DNR plans to stock 50% fewer brown trout in 2017 while retaining the level of chinook salmon.
The decision is not popular with the thousands of shore, small boat and tributary anglers up and down the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. Brown trout, which stay close to shore and are available 12 months of the year, are arguably the most valuable species for the “little guy.”
But this is Christmas. Such debates are better saved for another time.
Hyvonen and I had lots of action from brown trout, all of which were quickly released.
The biggest fish we hooked didn’t make it all the way onto the ice.
It hit Wednesday about 1 p.m. as Hyvonen and I were resetting a dead stick rig. The 3-foot rod had bounced a few times and I reeled in the line to check the condition of the spawn sac.
Seconds after Hyvonen dropped the bait back into the water, the rod doubled over to a lively force.
As is typical for big fish caught through the ice, the fight lasted at least nine innings.
Hyvonen was able to see the fish clearly on several occasions.
“Big buck steelhead,” Hyvonen said before the fish took off on a run.
About five minutes later, Hyvonen had gained line on the trout and its head poked up the hole. The girthy fish did a pretty good job of filling the 8-inch circle.
But as the steelhead did the backstroke and muscled away on another run, the leader caught on a shard of ice.
A faint “snap” signaled the end of the affair.
Hyvonen estimated the fish weighed more than 10 pounds.
The separation was easy to take. Like all of the finned gems we were privileged to see, the trout already had brightened our world.
Here’s wishing you and yours a happy holiday season and a New Year filled with colorful outdoor adventures.