Woke to windy conditions, a good predicted air temp and the possibility of BWO’s. Met up with my friend Heath and we hit a creek I’ve been visiting for four years now. We pulled up to the water with no idea what the day was to hold. When I began fly fishing for trout in the Driftless Area ~4 years ago now I fished a creek that was off the beaten path, ignorant I fished it in the height of the summer fighting the weeds, the forest, the heat and the bugs, all of it. I hiked up the creek fishing a #16 BWO dry fly not really knowing what I was doing. I came to a hole, I made a long cast and out came a trout that perpetuated a four year search that was concluded on the 10th. At the time he hit my dry fly so hard it startled me and I missed the hookset. Moments later after I had collected myself I was preparing to make another cast to that fish when a dog comes out of nowhere and swims right through the hole spooking the trout and killing any chance I had of catching that trout.

I first wrote about George in March of the next year, when a 20+inch brown nails your dry fly you tend not to forget it. I never forgot about that trout. I went back several times to attempt catching him, same hole, same feeding lane, same fish. I brought my friend and fishing partner Heath with me and we spent hours attempting to catch this trout, we studied his hole, his habits and the creek where he lives. I detailed this in the post where I outlined the difficulties associated with catching this brown, small creek, tight deep hole with a log running directly across the main seam making an upstream cast and a long deep drift virtually impossible. A year goes by and I still go the creek looking for this trout, another year goes by and I still hadn’t been able to catch him. ~2 years ago he disappeared. We went back time and time again to see no signs of the monster we knew lived there. We figured he moved on, died or was caught and was hanging on someone wall. Last year a rain event opened the hole up by moving the log that crossed the hole, by this time I’d been referring to trout over 20inches as a George. I had accepted that he was gone but everytime I visited that creek I referred to that hole as George’s hole.

Forward to March 10th, 2012. We pull up to a normal day with normal expectations, hoping to run into a few bugs, hoping to land a couple trout and avoid the wind that the rest of the angling population would be struggling with. The wind was avoided for the most part and we hiked the creek spying brown trout in large numbers everywhere, we both fished a small #18 PT that Heath had tied and which had been crushing trout on every other outing we’d been on in the last couple months. Just another typically day until we got upstream closer to George’s hole. Believing that George was long gone I offered the hole to Heath as I wanted to fish the hole directly downstream first. I pulled a couple small trout out and we moved upstream, with no log to hamper a drift Heath got in position and began casting line topped with his #18 PT. We heard a crash in the distance, we both stopped. It sounded like a tree had just fallen over. Heath on the opposite bank closest to the noise looked up to see a Cougar leaving the scene, fleeing up the bluff. We both stood a bit stunned, glad he ran up the bluff and away from us. Heath proceeded to look back at the hole when he stopped dead in his tracks, George was sitting in the belly of the hole. I chased to the other side of the creek, looked down and there was the trout that I had stalked for two years, believed was gone and had become a legend in my mind sitting there with no log to hamper the needed drift. We were both shaking, we had to stop for a minute. We evaluated the situation and got comfortable, we wern’t going anywhere until this trout spooked out or came to hand.

He was holding far up in the head over 4 feet deep, maybe 5. The fast current combined with the needed angle on the cast was going to be a challenge. Do you cast a super heavy fly to get it to him and risk spooking him out? We started with a small nymph but it quickly became apparent that more weight was needed to get the fly in front of this trouts face in the allotted distance/time the fly had to drift. We eventually settled on a #8 Hairball with an additional splitshot and Heath began casting, each time attempting to get the best possible drift without spooking him out or the rest of the trout in the hole. Heath proceeded to make cast after cast but each time his fly would either get stuck on a rock and we were forced to risk spooking him by breaking the line or it would go over his head and end up in the tail of the pool. We lost a handful of flies snagging them on the bottom and yet he didn’t spook. At one point during this hour long ordeal the tippet of Heath’s leader must have brushed against his backside as he moved from his feeding lane to another location, our anxiety grew with each cast. When would he spook, would he eat? Both of us were content to sit until he came to hand or disappeared, yet he continued to sit on the bottom looking like a shark amongst minnows. After 45 minutes I was beginning to lose hope, I was considering putting on a huge meaty streamer to see if we could get him to chase it down but if that failed he would spook out for sure. We stopped periodically and waited, he moved back up to the head of the run where the more difficult cast was required. Heath continued to cast and I continued to watch this trout’s every move for any sign that he ate the fly we were putting on him. Finally, close to an hour in he moved, the hook was set and what I thought looked big on the bottom was enormous near the surface. I was in the creek with the net almost immediately, a botched net job on my part almost lost the fish (something I still have to work on), a four minute battle saw him drive for cover rocks, hold tight to the bottom and eventually chase up a riffle. George, we finally had George.

We took great care to handle this trout with respect, photo’s were taken then a large amount of time was spent holding him in the riffles, making sure he was ready to go back to his hole before we left him. We each got to hold that massive trout, the colors, the spots, the jaw, the most spectacular Driftless specimen I have ever seen. Notch one off the bucket list. We sat amazed, we had just completed a journey, just concluded a legend. It may be my legend but it’s true, every word of it. Every trout I touch over 20inches will be known as a George for as long as I live because of the massive brown in a tiny creek that I ran into one August day in 2008 only two months after picking up a fly rod for the first time. I am thankful that we were both able to see this trout, I don’t mind not being the one to physically hook this fish, that means very little to me. It was more important that I was present to see this fish, that the one to catch it had put in the time and stalked it with me and that it went back to it’s hole un-harmed. I have plans to go check up on him soon but I don’t know that I’ll ever cast to him again. I’ll be content knowing we got to see the monster in the tiny creek and that he lived to see another day.

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Took a friend fishing the other day, woke early and drove for more than an hour to get streamside. That’s an hour for me… and over three for Paul. Coming from St. Paul this guy woke at 3:30am to get to my place at a good hour for the drive to the stream. Boots hit the creek at 8:05am with a water temp of ~52 degrees. The creek had very minimal stain bordering on clear but the deeper holes were a bit off providing good conditions to pull trout out with heavy streamers. I stuck on the fly of the month, a #6 Black Kiss My Leech and put Paul on the first hole we came to. A couple missed strikes and we moved on, I put my leech on the tail end of a pool allowing it to sink a couple feet before picking my line up. Again I can’t stress enough how many fish I have taken recently  just by simply raising my rod to bring my streamer up and out slowly, often an aggressive fish is following close behind. This morning my leech was trailed to the surface to be crushed by a nicer 15+inch brown. Shortly after Paul landed his first fish of many for the day and we busted ass to cover as much creek as possible in a single day.

By noon we covered a good mile of creek pounding each spot with streamers only lingering if fish were caught with any regularity. The trout were on and aggressively hitting a streamer all morning. I wanted to get Paul a bit further from his usual fishing haunts and cover as much of this water as possible. Rainbow bridge (a spot known for it’s stocked rainbows), gave up nothing and we moved upstream. I was a bit disappointed, I was hoping Paul would get a Brown, Rainbow and Brook all on the same creek but after striking out at Rainbow bridge I was pretty sure we’d only see a Brook and Brown. Turns out I was way off. Upstream just a bit and the rainbows were out numbering the browns which is very unusual, typically I notice Rainbows in a very specific spot on this creek but today they were everywhere, more than a mile from where I would have guess I’d find them. Paul nailed his fair share of rainbows stripping his version of an SMB back to his feet but as the day would have it the Brookie would not be seen, a goal for next time. We worked alot on roll-casting and getting a weighted fly up and out of the water with a smooth motion, this keeps your weighted fly as close to the surface of the water as possible when you go to start your roll cast. The result: less tension from the water on your fly allowing it to roll out nicely despite it’s weight. On a side note: I landed the first fish I’ve ever caught with someone elses fly stuck in it’s mouth… I promptly removed both flies and let the fish go about it’s way. Not the brightest trout…

Further upstream we busted out of the woods and found ourselves in a trimmed cow pasture, a beautiful dark dogger was seen but not caught, it moved on my fly and despite my best efforts refused every presentation. The bluff walls around us were sporting the beautiful colors of fall, many leaves were hampering drifts but the weather couldn’t have been nicer. At ~1pm we made a choice to travel into the unknown, unknown water for the both of us. A much smaller creek giving up brown trout and creek chubs as we moved upstream. My opinion of creek chubs is grim as where there is one there are usually many and they will often hit your fly before a trout can. The flipside to that coin is that where there are brown trout and a ready food source like the Rosey Cheeked Creek Chub you will find larger trout. The second creek had a few interesting attributes, the first and most notable was the swarms of #20-22 Trico’s that I was spotting at each riffle we came to, at 1pm in late September… that’s quite interesting but few trout were rising. The second notable item would be the stain on the creek that was clearly not mud but something else all together.

The final note would be that as we fished upstream we caught fewer browns and more creek chubs. I ended up loosing the one KML that had taken every fish up to that point in the day. I decided to swap to a heavy as hell #8 Hairball with a tungsten bead and nymph some deep water, then something spectacular occurred… I caught a Carp on a trout stream, on a designated freakin trout stream. It was awesome! Trout and Carp love the Hairball, my 3wt looked like I had 6lbs of Brown trout giving me hell and all from a tiny carp. This thing was so small I bet the ones on the Columbia are born bigger! This fish totally made my day and I wanted to stay and tempt more but time was running out and another hour long drive was in order so we split, and that’s how Paul and I spent the last Saturday of the season, catching many trout and one awesome carp. Crazy.

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I know of a spot where the fish can be seen. They readily take a fly because they are stockers and in all likely hood very hungry. This provides an opportunity for anyone young or old to get into trout fishing. I don’t care if it’s on the fly or gear, opportunities like this are for those who want to learn and need a bit of encouragement (that and those looking for an easy meal). Take someone fishing, do it for the fish, for trout stamp sales, to get them outside, to spend an afternoon together, to avoid the television, to breathe fresh air, to see them smile. I posed a question to Liz… You wanna go get dinner?

To my sha-grin she nodded and shortly we were out the door. I was hoping the fish would cooperate and give me an opportunity to get her a handful of fish on the fly before she became frustrated with any complications. I should preface this by reminding you that Liz has been fly fishing longer than me and it was her father who turned me on to something that controls a good portion of my brain, time and resources. Liz just never got that into it, maybe it was the plethora of grasses, weeds and other items that cause skin irritation (she is very allergic to specific plants,bees/bugs, ect.), maybe it was getting her flies all tangled up and having to spend time getting things sorted out, either way she just never took to it the way I did. So by taking the two factors that I know she dislikes the most about fly angling and eliminating them completely I was hoping to encourage her interest. Someday she may be willing to consider going out with me during the winter months when the plants are all dead and buried. All I know is that if I could, I’d fish never fish with anyone else.

Streamside, minimal hike, minimal weeds and a nice roll cast. I got her situated in the creek, put the fly on and showed her how to roll cast a couple times. Then I basically sat back, unhooked fish and took pictures for the next three hours. I did bring a second rod in case she was having a good time but I didn’t feel the urge to fish. I was enjoying myself well enough just watching my girl get into fish after fish, seeing the urge to hook another build in her face. These rainbows would hit the same fly twice if you put it on them right. For some reason they take to a down and across swing presentation well, something about the fly sinking a bit and then rising as your line opens up and when it does… smack. Fish on! I gave basic verbal instructions when I knew a fish was on but she hadn’t seen it hit or how to play a fish in without getting it caught up in the weeds. I prompted her to keep the line tight and the rod up when she would slip a bit but other than that Liz and the fish were cooperating quite well. Over two hours in and Liz had landed thirty rainbows easy, she did have me catch one or two here and there but I was very content to let her take the reigns and get her fill of fishing. We left the creek with a heavy creel and some good photos. Not once did she get her line tangled, only wrapped around the rod when she left too much line out before casting. Consider that the next time you lift your rod up and back, the roll cast. I’m officially the biggest advocate for the roll cast.

Two days later… we did it all over again. Awesome.

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Fished a creek with Sershen yesterday, we’ve been able to get out a handful of times lately and it’s been good. I’ve advocated creek dueling with a friend before. I dig talking trout, tactics and everything else while fishing with a good friend. Everyone has that person who matches their style well and things just work, simple. Simple is good. Once onstream we hit the creek hard and hiked close to a mile downstream without stopping or checking the creek out much. We moved far from the banks and took in the forest around us. Cooler air temps have created excellent afternoon fishing this August with hoppers hopping and BWO’s popping.

I fished a #8 Yellow Hopper first hoping that the pasture we found ourselves in had seen its share of these creatures and the fish would readily rise for a big meal opportunity. My instincts were right on, shortly after dressing my fly to ride high I was into wild brown trout. We fished a larger creek offering with it the opportunity to spend an afternoon in knee deep water tossing flies, I typically avoid standing in the creek but if done properly one can take quite a few fish from a single run even standing next to your prey. A bruiser took a swipe at my fly as I drifted it through a small piece of pocket water, it came riding by quickly and I think he simply missed the mark. I enjoyed seeing his backside flashing me before he dove for the depths.

We took a handful of trout with Hoppers and Stimulators as we worked the pasture up, splitting runs apart back and forth was common place, we also randomly drifted apart at times to get entire riffle/run/pool sections alone. The depth of the water was pushing me to see what a streamer might produce but the lure of the rise had me and it took a while to put the SMB on. Eventually working through a forested section I switched flies and roll casted my streamer to the opposite bank as we moved upstream. A handful of BWO’s ranging from #18-22 were seen and netted in my hat but few fish were surfacing. Working a deep hole a couple brookies chose to give up a picture with the Sprinkle Me Baby, I love catching brookies and I love seeing it go down even more. I watched as my fly drifted deeper and deeper until a white mouth opened wide and with that a tight line.

We pushed on but the setting sun forced us off the creek and to water closer to home before the day would be done. The first stop gave up a brown and two rainbows in ten minutes while a swarm of mosquitoes took their toll on exposed flesh. These super skeeters cut through shirts, pants and even my buff. Normally bugs don’t bother me but this was the exception. Ten minutes was all I could handle and we were off to the last spot of the evening. On location we peered through the weeds to see a scant few stocker rainbows, my dinner stop. I knew a few were around and with previous experience at this spot I slapped on a #8 Hairball and a single splitshot. A nice roll cast to sink the fly as close to the weed line as possible follwed by a short dead drift into a swing resulted in a handful of rainbows for dinner. Bows take the Hairball all day long. I found a smaller 8inch fish that took my fly as I dapped it on its face to get hooked and off only to get right back in line for another round with the Hairball. I figured this fish would only give it up twice but a decent drift with a twitch at the end put him right back on my Hairball for a third and final time. With dinner in one hand, my rod in the other and the sun setting behind me we took off for home. Brown, Brook and Rainbow, damn Southeast Minnesota has been good to me.

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Wendy Berrell has managed to describe perfectly the situation I found myself in yesterday, the doldrums of summer. Hot and humid, taking perhaps fewer fish due to a handful of botched casts and hooksets. I’ll blame the casts on the weeds, the hooksets are all my problem. I managed roughly a dozen on Bitch Creek, a favorite spot of mine that I’m giving this name because it has truly gone downhill in the last two years and it’s dis-heartening bordering on disgusting. Holes that once contained large 16-18inch Browns have been silted in, I walked over one with less than a foot of water covering what was once five feet deep easy. Instream vegetation slows the water down allowing it to warm and put the trout in a state of lethargy. Not good, for me or them. Everything in moderation, lots of good comes from the instream veg. but when it gets to the point of backing things up and nary a seam to drift a fly can be found it has become an issue. Weeds crowding the handful of approachable lies complicated the matter of hooking a trout during the lull of the summer months. Flies that worked: #8 Hairball, #10 Tan/Brown Hopper and the #16 Free Range S.H. The best moment of the day came on a hopper rise. I love landing a long cast to be rewarded with a shadow charging from the depths.

Wendy has it right, January is much more productive and frankly enjoyable than July or August. I’m not at the point where I’m praying for snow or anything but I do love the winter season. AM Tricos should be on your list, they are at the top of mine. Water conditions around here are decent, water levels are about par with this time of the year if not a bit higher than normal due to frequent rain. I fished in gin clear water but drove past some that was chocolate. With the rain being semi-constant and random you may have to drive a bit to find what your looking for but be assured… it is out there. Fall is fast approaching, just two more months then I’ll be making the trip to Iowa. Looking forward to Iowa. Thinking a camping trip is in order.

Also, two relatively lame videos for you to enjoy. 1st: Trying to get close to a pod of Brown’s. Not gonna happen man. 2nd, chasing a swarm of grasshoppers after they scared the crap out of me when the weeds behind me kept moving for no apparent reason.

Started another day in the heart of the Driftless Area of Southeast Minnesota onstream at ~7:30am. The creek was at normal flow and gin clear. I picked a challenge this May morning, a long hundred yard stretch of very slow moving trout water slightly weeded up and about 4-5ft at its deepest along the far bank across from me. Over forty feet wide with a fair amount of obstacles behind me I chose my backcasts well and relied on a rollcast the rest of the time. In my first two years fishing the Driftless Area I spent many hours here landing few fish and getting snagged on high brush and trees quite often. Now, a bit wiser I got hung up only a handful of times and spent two hours figuring out what the trout wanted and how they wanted to see it. Upon arrival I noticed the wall of Alliaria petiolata (Garlic Mustard) moving out of the forest and into the field adjacent. It’s moving fast and is borderline unstoppable, note the pictures below that illustrate its progression through this field. Soon it will take over and the diversity of this forest will be at serious risk to this invasive specie.

A #14 CDC and Elk was trailed by a #16 Sparkle Larva about 12inches down and after that a #16 Hot Yellow P&P. With the low light in the early morning hours I contemplated tossing a streamer but the slow moving gin clear creek made me think twice about tossing anything heavy. I didn’t want to start the morning sending trout fleeing upstream only to disturb the fish I would eventually be casting to. I also witnessed a handful of slow rises, I thought midge and damn small too. This made me confident that the fish were active and near the surface, thus the choice of a dry/dropper rig. I wasn’t expecting the dry to get much action and it didn’t but it makes for a good indicator and with this slow moving weedy water I didn’t want my flies to sink to the bottom and get hung up fishing a no indicator rig. I make my choice to fish an indicator or not based on the situation and the water, here it was important to keep the flies where I wanted them 12-18inches below the surface of the water. Interestingly enough it took a couple long, almost two-three minute drifts before my #14 CDC and Elk slowly sank, I set the hook on a 6inch Brown sporting some beautifullycolored fins. The #16 Hot Yellow P&P was the only one of the three to take fish but it did and I’m confident that it would have continued to catch more but slowly and with the fish all likely to be small.

The next twenty minutes saw two more smaller Browns come to hand but the action was slow and I knew they would take something else more readily. I also knew there were a handful of nice 18-22inch fish cruising this area and with that I swapped to a Black #8 Kiss My Leech. I chose the KML because I tied them much lighter than the SMBs I’ve been fishing which I was hoping would help keep the fish calm with less of a surface impact. A couple casts in and fish were following but few were striking, I missed two and landed one a bit larger at 12inches. I kept at it moving slowly upstream making long casts across the slow pool working my flies back to my feet but the fish remained hesitant and time was running out. I decided to swap to a less flashy #8 Hairball with a tungsten bead, on the second cast I felt a strong tug. The first of over a dozen lay at my feet just over 12inches. I doubled back and sat for a couple minutes sipping my coffee before proceeding to work the entire stretch up again with the #8 Hairball. The sun that greeted me at 7:30am was now hidden behind a thick layer of clouds.

Working up-stream going slow and staying as low as possible I began picking off trout ofter trout. The #8 Hairball was the fly they wanted and would take readily. When fishing streamers I typically try any number of retrieves and this morning the fish wanted a very slowly stripped in fly, almost dragging it across the bottom. A number of strikes were missed but a nice 19inch female Brown rolled and showed me her colors jumping a few times attempting to shake my hook to no avail. She came to my net and we hung out for a minute before I sent her back to the creek. I continued at it until my hourglass was almost empty, I landed a bunch of fish in the 12-14inch range and lost one that was pushing 20inches for sure. I watched it roll as I was stripping my line in, it tasted enough hook for me to know it wouldn’t be striking my fly again. With that I took off for work as the sun came back out and turned up the heat on the creek.

Post Note: Invasive species are here and our presence affects their movements. Learn what you can about them and know how they are spread and move. That knowledge can help you keep your effect on the environment around you to a minimum. Garlic mustard seeds in its second full year after the plant dies for the season and the long thin stems filled with seeds catch on clothing or fur. Deer spread this stuff quite rapidly and the seeds stay viable in the soil for up to 10 years. When I’m out during the time of year when the plant dies I wash my boots off afterwards to try to get any tiny seeds off, waders too. It should be noted that just being in a forest infested with Garlic Mustard you run the risk of picking up seeds from prior years and spreading them say clung to your boots in mud. I’m not sure how much of a potential risk that would present but something to think about year round. I’m hoping this helps me from spreading it to other areas I love. Forest diversity is important.

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After my recent Sunday outing that saw a massive caddis hatch, a discussion with other knowledgeable anglers in our area has lead me to believe that what I have referred to as the “Gray Caddis” hatch was incorrect. I’ve been fishing a different hatch. That’s not to say I was completely wrong, the Gray Caddis hatches during this same period and perhaps some of the hatches in the past included the Gray Caddis (i.e. two or more hatches were overlapping). There is some debate as to what specie I was witnessing come off but what is not debatable is that it’s the same specie I’ve been running into for the last couple years. I didn’t stop to pick up adults when they were hatching in force on Sunday, that was a rookie mistake I won’t make again. With that said my curiosity had to be satisfied so I went searching for more of those same caddis hoping I could find a few hatching to gather more information for the weeks to come. Along the way I managed a handful of Browns on a #8 Black Hairball and in between I did toss a #16 EHC for fun…I love rising trout and rise they did, even with minimal hatching adults the EHC took fish after fish, crushed upon subtle impact.

General Notes/Observations:

• Two Sizes of Caddis Adults found: #16 and a #18 (Referring to Body Length).
• The #16 Showed a Lighter Colored Wing w/Olive & Black Abdomen/Body.
• The #18 Showed a Darker Colored Wing w/a Mostly Black body with a spot of Olive.
• The #16 and #18 were found mating so I’ve got to think they are the male/female of the specie.
• Legs on Both were Black changing to Cream or Tan at the end of the legs.
• There were more of the #16′s around than the #18′s by 2:1 easy.
• A Search of the substrate and riffles showed a majority of the tubular cased shells were sealed for the beginning of the pupating process. I am not sure if this is the larval form for this adult or not but it was the only larval form pupating that I found in quantities that would support this hatch.
• Catching Caddisflies and documenting them with a camera even under good lighting conditions is difficult, especially when your searching for the few that are around. Also, remember that a photo taken doesn’t necessarily represent the colors of the natural 100% all of the time, lighting plays a huge role in what you take home with you and reference later.
• Note the width of the body on the #16, something to think about, maybe break out of that perfectly Mayfly tapered body mold for a change, after all isn’t it size, shape, then color? Size and shape of these bodies are not consistent with the standard Mayfly.

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I was informed last evening that a friend of mine and fellow trout angler was injured while working and had to have surgery on his leg involving a bone plate. It’s the beginning of the trout season, beginning of the summer and he will be sidelined for a good portion of the next few months. This one’s for him and his family, to a quick recovery man we’ll be on the water soon.

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