Aug. 19th-23rd 08′

Liz and I needed to get away from everything before she started school on the 25th of August. We stayed at a private campground outside of the State Park. We arrived Tuesday and stayed through Saturday morning. We brought the dog so trout hunting was difficult but I was afforded the opportunity to see one of the coolest places our state has to offer. 

We camped on Forestville Creek. This is spring fed from a cave in a bluff wall and the water is constantly crystal clear and extremely cold. So cold infact that at the mouth of the stream I could only stand in it barefoot for a few minutes. The stream had so many plants in it that it would have been nearly impossible to nymph fish. These are some pictures of Forestville Creek.

We spent our time stream running and playing with Lily. That dog can run forever, well she will again soon. She is doing a bit better now. Anyways, we ate well as you can see. We had one day of rain and spent it playing cards and sitting near a fire. I fished in the park for a bit one morning and hit a few on a flash caddis I tie. This was not on Forestville creek but on the South Branch of the Root. This is a great section of water and was really fun to explore.

Liz and I had an awesome time and saw one of the cleanest areas I’ve ever seen ever. I picked up only 1 piece of trash the entire weekend. I was blown away. The park had five people maintaining the grounds while we were visiting and they said that last year they almost lost the park to budget issues. Support the park system. 

Today I fished almost the entrie length of one of the branches of the Whitewater River today. I would not recommend this for most people. This is on one end rediculious bordering on insane and on my end what I call ambitious. Early on I realized I managed to forget my camera sorry about that.

Started before 7 in a wet, cold, cloudy and rainy section of stream. On the advice of the vets I started with a pheasant tail nymph. I caught several smaller Browns working runs for a few hours through the rain. I was pleased to see that my Pt’s can infact catch fish. I fished for several hours in the morning working slowly up stream.

At 1pm I stopped and ate lunch and came to the conclusion that to make it to where I needed to be to pull out (I arranged for Liz to pick me up after dark and drive me back to my truck) I needed to cover some ground. So I started hiking. Now, here is some added info. I was wearing hip waders so keep that in mind. I had one of two choices, go through the stream or land. I was in state wildlife managment area and land was an option however this when I did do it was much like what I imagined the jungle of Vietnam would have looked like. Thick. Slow going, kept going. Saw an unbelievable amount of fish, I didnt stop to fish though, I felt I needed to make up ground before dark. 

I got to see a part of this stream that probably doesnt get fished to often because of how far one must hike from the nearest put in. I got to the point on the stream where I knew where I was and had plenty of time to hit my PT for a few more Brown one that hit 15in.  I wanted to take a top water strike so I started using a variety of terrestrials. The weather cleared up and sun shined for quite a while in the afternoon through dusk so I tried a variety of beetles and hoppers producing little. I switched to something I call a zug bug. Got a large one on that and it faught hard it was only 15in though but it jumped quite a bit. Only got the one strike and switched to the PT through the end of the night picking up a few more Brown and a Rainbow too. 

At the end I stopped fishing to notice something kind of special. At 545 I started seeing larger white what I believe to be Mayflies. I caught one and noticed two very long spotted feelers in front, two sets of wings, one grey the other white. The body was light orange turning to light yellow on the end. The body was very small, less than a 1/4in. I watched them dance on the water just teasing the trout. None landed, until about 6:20pm when I noticed two come togather and spin up high in the air and then drop to the water. They laid in the water for almost two minutes and then took off. I saw this a few more times and then just watched solo ones search, I’m assuming, for another pair. I watched until the very last one left flew and flew until it flew high and then droped. And was promptly eaten. That was the best part of the day and I wish I had my camera. I apologize for the length.

To say one thing, this was not easy. I was safe and carried lots of water and food for dinner. I had a map and a flashlight. I learned something important, stay dry. I need to re-evaluate my winter fishing gear to keep warm and dry. I was soaked from sweat under my waders and I was in only one pair of light pants. I’m sore but I feel accomplished. Goodnight.

The W.F.F.

Working on tying my scuds for this coming winter season which will be my first winter trout season. From the information I’ve read and heard, winter fishing is going to be fun but difficult. No weeds to walk through but then nothing to block your shadow. No rain so the streams run crystal clear and due to no top water bugs you primarily fish with scuds. This is an orange scud I’ve tied. I tie these in sizes 14-18. They are a fairly easy tie but I’m not very quick at it yet. 

I work for a school district where I live managing the auditoriums. I met some folks up north in a city called McGregor and a while back they paid me to visit them and run a bluegrass show for there a class reunion. This provided me the opportunity to fish waters I’ve never seen and alone, an adventure if you will. This is how it went. 

I woke the morning after the show, I slept on a mattress in the back of my truck at a wayside rest in Carlton, MN which is 45 min east of McGregor. I had maps and maps. I found a few small streams but they didnt look fishable, less than three feet wide and nothing but 4-5ft tall weeds all around. So I drove.

I stopped first at a section of the Blackhoof River. This is what I saw…

I played around with a stimulator and got strike after strike with this thing but to my puzzlement it was no more than four inches long. I found this everywhere. The water was beautiful and so untouched that I was surprised to not find a fish longer than six inches. The weather was slightly cloudy but nice and warm. I was pleased to find rock rather than mud for a surface to wade in.  After hitting this river in four spots I moved on in search of a larger fish. I went to the Nemadji River.

I fished for hours and saw lots of beautiful water and such a green place it was awesome. I did it alone and was pleased that I could prepare myself to visit a place I’ve never been and managed to fish, be safe, and catch fish although very small. The Brook trout was the largest fish I caught and was beautiful. I found out later that the variety of trout tend to not live very long and so were much smaller. I don’t know if this is completely true but I didn’t see anything very big. Had alot of fun and wore myself out. It was beautiful and if I thought I could catch larger fish I would go back in a heartbeat.

Went to a favorite spot of mine this evening. Cloudy skies kept the temperature cool but still saw rising fish. Wind and crystal clear extremely slow moving water made hooking up trout difficult but thats partly why I chose to fish this spot. I like a challenge and a big trout and in the pools on this stream there is a steady supply of 12in and larger brown trout. Circling like sharks I watched them chase each other around the water. 

Started with a #20 BWO and got a good size brown off the bat. Kept some slack in my line due to the extremely slow moving water, didnt want to throw the fish off by having my fly drag its way through the water. After the first one nothing else wanted anything to do with my fly. 

Plan ‘B’ started with a variety of terrestrials including this weird yellow worm looking thing I’ve been wanting to try, lots of looks and no takes. Switched to a #12 Simulator and once again good looks and snubbed. Switched to a black spider looking thing I have and got another nice brown above 14in. Kept fishing that through the rest of the time on the water, two more takes but I managed to allow the fish to “give me the fin”

Both fish fought hard and tangled themselves in some serious weeds. Took almost five minutes to get the second one out of the mess it dug itself into trying to escape my net. It was unable to out run me. 

Although I only got two tonight it felt good to go slow, take my time and use some of the information I have been reading about to help me catch two in a place a few months ago I would have just passed up knowing the difficulty of the task. It was a good time.

From what I gather a wise man in Southwest Wisconsin made the first pink squirrel pattern for this area. I could be wrong but thats what I’ve heard. Anyway, Heath ties this pattern with dog fur from his lab. I began tying it right away with my cat Patrick’s fur. From what I gather cat/dog fur can be used as dubbing for nymphs and scuds due to the fact that they retain water inside and thus sink and get down to where the trout are. 

I tie this in 14,16,18 and have caught quite a few this summer when nothing else was really working for me. The first time I put it on my line I layed into a section of the Southbranch of the Whitewater River. I watched a trout shoot to the surface right where my fly was beginning to sink, it was awesome. Drop a line if you need the recipe or want some Patrick dubbing! Lots of guard hairs that are black that contrast with the lighter tan fur. Pull them or keep them. I like it and think it dubs far easier than the pink ice dub for the head. 

Hopefully these will help for the winter season come January.

Lily our year and a half old german short hair went for an awesome frisbee catch Sunday and put our world into a chaotic state. She landed, like a sack of potatoes. Shattered her back right leg, one bone in atleast 4 places. She went into surgery this morning for two plates, a few pins, and wire. She has an 8 week recovery with little movement. Going to be hard for a dog meant to run,play,hunt. 

If she doesnt heal well the plates cannot come out and will have constant pain in the winter cold. That can’t happen. I was hoping to try and bring her fishing this winter hoping she could resist playing in the ice cold water.

This summer I found a new appreciation for the art of fly fishing. This started with my lovely girlfriend Liz’s father taking me fly fishing in Colorado. That was last summer. I went a few times and didn’t really appreciate it at the time. Over the winter months Liz suggested to my family that I might like some fishing gear before the summer. My mom got me my first rod and reel and my dad got me some fly tying tools. I broke my ankle in April and didn’t start until early June. Since that time I have taught myself to cast fairly well, learned a fair amount about trout and the life they live and also about the area I live in. I got into it so much that I got materials together and started tying my own flies. I have much to learn but I’m excited to do so. Summer season goes Barbless Hook/Catch and Release Sept. 15th and ends Sept 30th.