The beauty and awe of the Driftless area is in part due to the numerous springs that are the primary source of our coldwater, without it we would not have the wonderful place I call home and my back yard. I am possibly one of the most fortunate people on the planet and this video will hopefully put you in my boots for a minute. My creek comes from the ground, in the world of trout streams there are very few that originate this way. Driftless Love.

-the w.f.f.

Music by Winona native Mike Munson, I ran sound for his set at the Midwest Music Festival this year and this song really caught my ear, it just felt right for this video.

I don’t see my family all that often and truth be told (oh man am I gonna get it for this) I live in the boonies for a reason, I like solitude and doing my own thing. Maybe I’m selfish…maybe I’m smart, all depends on how you look at it I guess. I wake up a bit sore (you know, from the prior entire day of fishing) to hear the sound of a Yamaha crotch-rocket squeal past my house. Yep, I knew it was my brother immediately. We are very different people but I’ve really grown to appreciate him and he drove down from the cities on his bike at 5am to go fishing with me, that’s pretty cool. He was basically frozen so a bit of breakfast and some coffee got both of us straightened out. He doesn’t have gear of his own so I put him in my stuff and we got going close to 10am. I couldn’t decide on where to go, I wanted my brother to catch a few fish despite his inexperience with a fly rod or trout and given the lack of bugs the day before I was in a quandary. I knew the creeks could be a zoo considering the fact that most anglers would be out getting some sun on the first nice Saturday this season and so picking a spot to go was really giving me a hard time. Finally I just decided to start driving and in the end I pulled up to the exact same spot I had fished the day before. Why? Because I knew what to expect and that meant I had an edge which might allow me to get my brother a few fish. I knew other places might put off more bugs but I also figured they might be more crowded than the spot I drove to.

So we pull up to find no one, I was almost shocked. I figured the hike downstream we would have hiked past someone but we lucked out. My brother hadn’t touched a fly rod in a year, almost exactly a year and prior to that it had been a year before that. The creek was clear the same as the day before and despite the slightly later arrival at the creek things were pretty much a repeat of the day prior. Minimal bugs in the air, minimal rising but the trout were aggressively crushing a streamer, after a bit of coaching my brother was casting decently enough to nab a few brown trout on a streamer, he lost many due to poor line management but he was enjoying himself as the clear water afforded him the ability to see the trout dart from below up at his fly. Around 1:30pm we sat down on a most excellent run and started tossing a #16 BWO, the wind wasn’t helping again but the trout wanted that fly and even though it took quite a while and a bit of frustration he landed close to a dozen brown trout from that run over the course of an hour and a half. We finished with the dry fly and moved upstream where he missed a beast just before we had to call it a day. The trip ended a bit early due to the bonfire and food that was going to occur at my place in a few hours, by 5pm we had hiked out and split calling it a successful day getting my brother into a bunch of brown trout despite his inexperience with a fly rod felt pretty good, he does well every year picking it up quickly and paying attention to my suggestions without becoming too frustrated. Check out this grin on his face, that’s a guy who lives in the concrete jungle of the twin cities and who for one afternoon got to appreciate what I try not to take advantage of….my back yard.

• BWO’s at 1pm

• Dark Hendrickson’s at 2:30pm

• Gray Caddis at 3pm

• Sunshine, Green grass, No wind. Enough said. GO FISHING!

I was asked to perhaps spread the word a bit regarding a little known information treasure trove. With my hiatus I’ve had time to think about the reasons I started this blog and why I want to see it continue into the future. A central reason I created this site was to document my experiences in the hopes that I might learn from them and become a better angler. I quickly realized that I also had the ability to help others along the way. This forum in particular helped me quite a bit, so in the efforts of seeing it thrive, helping others and tipping my hat to the fellas who helped me with so many of my questions I’ve decided to drop a link to http://mntroutforums.com/ . These forums are free and if your in need of good information or just a good group of guys to talk trout with this is the place for you. Thanks to Randy for his work in keeping this resource going.

Started the morning under cloudy skies, I opted to skip the day before knowing the nicer weather would draw other anglers out. I left the snowshoes behind and hiked to larger water. Airtemp was 17 degrees on arrival and predicted to climb to 25 by early afternoon. I opted for a smaller streamer sent to me by John Jensen a few weeks prior, I love getting his flies in the mail and his streamers rock. I’m guessing it was a #8, I liked the whiggly legs alot. It was light and I knew it wouldn’t make a large impact on trout and given the low water levels that was going to be important. I picked a riffle and let loose, several darted out from the fast moving water chasing Jensen’s fly to my feet. I was surprised to see the number of trout holding in the riffles, all day long the aggressive strikes and subsequent trout coming to hand came from the shallow riffles. The deeper pools held trout, lots of them as one would expect for this time of year but they were spooky and I didn’t feel like spending an hour attempting to get a #20 down four feet resulting in hundreds of spooked trout chansing away from my fly each time I put it in the drink. I was content to hike through the snow, pick of a fish here or there when the ideal riffle presented itself. Everyone of those riffles held trout, they all wanted that bigger meal and were willing to chase after it. It was a good day.

p.s. John, thanks for the flies. I’m working on the return package, it’s just taking me a while to get to everything on my plate. You are not forgotten, I appreciate the gesture. Super cool flies that went into my boxes immediatly. Thanks again.

I fished for some portion of each day following the opener on the first. Fished different water and saw Grey Caddis and Baetis coming off regularly. The Grey Caddis kicked in most days around the 12-1pm range and continued to bring trout up through the early evening hours. The larger #14-16 flies showed up first and as the days progressed the smaller #18-20 flies arrived later. I spent one afternoon fishing the SMB and a #18 Grey Caddis imitation back to back. I’d approach a spot and knock the handful of smaller trout willing to take the dry fly then proceed to target the larger trout with the streamer. I remember sitting on a boulder in the middle of the creek with my feet in the creek thinking how excellent things can get. With my abundance of free time I plan to spend as many hours out of cell phone range as possible, the fishing will continue and continue to get better. When I wasn’t fishing the Grey Caddis hatch I was targeting some new non-designated water for larger trout. I rolled a couple nicer trout but missed them, my concolation prize… a couple Northern Pike with one pushing the 24inch mark, not bad for the 3wt.

Winter season in Minnesota opened this morning, a friend and I proceeded to follow a ritual seen this day for the last four years. Wake, prep gear, drink coffee and drive to the spot. This spot is particular in that no matter the conditions the bugs are active and thus the fish follow suit. Some years this has worked better, some not as well but today was awesome. Windy as all hell on arrival but we found pockets of the valley void of wind and when we did get wind came in bursts allowing us to fish between gusts and see many fish come to hand. Interesting notes off the bat: the fish were very active on arrival and the fish activity tapered off around 1pm then proceeded to drop off a cliff after 2pm. Also, the creek was a bit stained, certainly not gin clear as I was expecting which perhaps benefited us. Finally, the bug activity on arrival was good, very good. My attempt with a #20 Griffiths Gnat saw many fish move for and even aggressively chase downstream leaving a wake as they came after my fly. Arrival airtemp was ~30degrees with a 26-30mph sustained wind from the WNW.

Several fish were nymphed up with a #20 Miracle nymph and a #18 Beadhead PT, those were the hot nymphs for the day and Sershen did quite well landing many right after I put all the rising fish down with a couple bad hooksets on the Griffiths Gnat. I swapped to the #20 Miracle nymph with a Hot Blue Wire rib rather than the traditional copper and it got crushed. The fish were hungry and active, so much so that fishing a no indicator rig was generally easy as they tugged line rather than slowly sipping the flies. As the morning wore on we moved to a spot that has in the past given up few fish but looks so damn good that it’s hard not to spend a short period of time with. Due to the depth and potential for larger fish I opted to try a new streamer pattern that is still in the proto-type phase and is not fully ready to be unveiled but I can tell you this much… the fish certainly enjoyed it. I’m calling this fly the “Jungle Boogie” and it’s for a couple reasons but I’ll get into that perhaps down the road a bit. All you need to know is that it brought trout after trout out from dark hiding places all the way to the surface of the creek to be smacked time and time again as I watched. I like fishing a dry fly as much as the next but watching a trout come from the depths of blackness following your fly to then open wide and hit it hard is a beautiful thing and I watched it happen several times this day. White mouth then hooked trout, brilliant.

At one point fishing the same hole we saw a double as I hooked a 15 3/4inch rainbow on the Jungle Boogie with Sershen hooking into a 16inch rainbow on his #18 PT nymph, because the net was closest to me I scooped my fish up then moved upstream ten feet to land the second trout, this was the first winter double I’ve been a part of. Shortly after this occurred I hooked another rainbow and pulled a rookie move shaking my glove off with my back to the creek only to find it floating in cold creek water. Note: always have a spare set of gloves, I’m glad I did. After landing a few more rainbows bringing the count to close to twenty apeice we decided to leave the comfort of rising rainbows and aggressive stockers for less pressured water containing browns and brookies. I continued to fish the Jungle Boogie as it was still producing trout after trout and I saw no reason to argue with its effectiveness. I managed a handful of browns that exhibited the same aggressive charge on my fly throughout the early afternoon. The last brown of the day was seen but not hooked as I made a short cast stripped my fly in and watched as a ~16+inch brown darted out from a rock that I was practically standing on to smack my fly startling me thus hampering my hookset, this was another highlight of the day. I don’t mind missing a fish when I get to see things like that.

After the couple mile hike upstream we headed back to where we started to find the wind picking up, the airtemp dropping and with it the fish activity. It doesn’t take much of a change in water temp (+/-1 degree often) to drastically alter feeding behaviour. At ~2pm the trout that had been previously so aggressive and willing to chase my streamer down were now looking and if presented properly were willing to hit it but not nearly as hard. Often it was sipped and not hit with the fervor of the earlier morning. I landed three or four more rainbows then opted to hike out, the wind was continuing to pick up and I had enjoyed the opening day of the winter season thoroughly. I saw no reason to sit in the wind struggling to force feed a handful of smaller trout. It should also be noted that the fish that were willing to strike in the afternoon were consistently smaller than the morning trout, an interesting note if you ask me. Despite the lack of snow it was a good day, very glad to be fishing the Minnesota water I love so much. To the 2012 trout season, it’s here and I plan to take full advantage of the time I have. Hope some of you got out and braved the wind to touch a trout on the 1st, I love the smell of trout stink on my hands.

Post Script: My 8’6 3wt Sage Flight was sent in on Dec. 4th, I shipped it regular mail to the factory in Oregon. After discussing my need to have the guides looked at and possibly replaced I was told upon inspection that several of my ferrules had cracks in them. Sage built me a brand new rod, cork handle, reel seat, guides and all. It was shipped overnight back to me on Friday Dec. 30th, just in time for the opener. Thank you Sage.

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I don’t think I’ve been this anxious about anything regarding fishing, I want the winter season so damn bad I can practically feel my toes going numb from sitting in the same spot for hours trying to take tiny brown trout on a #20 Midge.  Everyone has their favorite time of the year to fish, mine just happens to be during the coldest part of the year. Fishing the four best hours of the day, going home to tie flies and sit infront of the fire. Someone cryogenically freeze me until  Dec. 31st, then thaw me out just enough so I can go fishing, right Carl?

Hiking through miles of snow covered bank, snowshoes, frozen guides, frozen fingers, crystal clear water, tiny bugs…I want it all and I want it now. I sound like a whiny girl, yea I can hit the road, be in Iowa shortly and no-doubt my boots will cross that border again before the winter season begins but not without a bad taste forming in my mouth. I like the fix that Iowa can give me but in the same respect, it’s not my water, it’s not my home and therefore I need to remember that the pause, the build up to the winter season is one of the reasons why I love it so much. Spending the three months prior tying flies, cleaning my gear, spying maps for new places to fish, all of it gets me so excited to see it that it turns the 5°F airtemp into a heatwave (that and I know what to wear). Below are the video’s I made last winter season, damn I am looking forward to the snow. Until then the list is long and I’ve got boxes and boxes to fill, things to scrub, places to dream about.

Things work out in interesting ways sometimes, had I not gone out with Carl two days prior I might have not fished the last day of the season which would have broken a three year tradition. Being busy with work and other obligations saw me missing hours of trout fishing until I got home. I tried to get ahold of Carl but he was busy catching trout in another valley void of cell reception and not wanting to miss out I took what I learned from Carl a couple days before and decided to go it alone. I took note of the type of water we fished, racked my brain for another location that I knew and took off as soon as I got home. The drive to the creek saw the sun setting in my rearview mirror, as the light grew dim my foot grew heavy and the car flew to the stream. My goal was to arrive with enough time to hike into the remote section I wanted to fish with plenty of sun to get a handle on the situation before the lights went out. I was fortunate and my lead foot got me to the creek with more than enough sunlight to accomplish my goals. Rigged at the car I was hiking by 7pm, the first section I wanted to fish required a decent hike through a very thickly wooded section of forest. My only thought at the time was of the hike back through in the dead of night, part of me wanted the daylight to get in so I was forced to deal with the forest in the night, sort of a trial by fire, do or die, go or sit at home on your fat ass kind of deal.

I made it to my location with enough sunlight to sit and enjoy the scenery, eat a sandwich and drink a beer, things I rarely get to do while out fishing but I wasn’t fishing yet. I could have tied on a streamer and hit something near by but opted to sit and wait for the light to fade. Hunkered low with my eyes set on the first location I waited, waited and waited some more. Silent, my ears started picking up rustling in the distance as the light dimmed the noises got louder and closer yet I sat low in the tall weeds waiting until I couldn’t see my hands held in front of my face. When the time was right and I couldn’t wait any longer I made a series of casts to a smaller pool, afterwards I believe the current was too fast and my fly just couldn’t produce the wake followed by the pause to illicit a strike. I moved up and out to the next stretch, the bats were coming out in droves by this point. I could feel them running into my flyline while I was stripping my fly slowly back in. The second location turned out to be the best of the evening and I took over a dozen trout between 12-15inches in length over the course of the first hour fishing in the dark. The sky was clear and the stars were out illuminating the rock wall I was casting to, this made the casting a bit easier but thinking to what Carl had said regarding the presence of light I was pleased to see so many trout attempt to take the mouse pattern.

By the time I had fished to the head of the pool I had moved into an area where the clear sky was no match for the valley walls, it was pitch black. I made two casts to what I thought was a downed tree trying not to get my fly hung up. On the second cast, the third pause I got what I came for… an explosion. The fish didn’t stay on long but it proved that this is going to be an effective way to find the larger trout. I wasn’t dissapointed that I missed the trout, it was the heart pounding strike that I was excited to get. I’ve read that big trout don’t eat the mice straight away, rather they grab their prey and play with it under the surface before eating it, some texts and articles say you should pause and not set the hook for a bit. Try getting your brain to not signal your hands to do what they are trained to do when that big boy hits… it’s going to be damn hard to overcome that instant response.

After losing the big strike I decided it was time to make the trek back through the forest. I turned on my headlamp and looked to where I had to go, staring back at me were 8-10 sets of eyes clearly visible less than fifty yards in front of me. I had only one way I could go and that was through the forest, towards whatever it was that was out there with me. I grabbed another flashlight and made a bit of noise stumbling through the woods and never saw what was staring at me in the dark, I did however kick up a skunk who was not pleased to see me, thankfully he chose to spare me his wrath and I escaped without having to ride home to explain to Liz why I couldn’t step inside the house.

After trudging through the forest I fished two more locations that gave up a handful of trout each, by this point the airtemp was dropping quickly and I almost had to keep moving to keep the cold away. I planned the entire evening around the last section of creek, I felt it offered the best potential to produce larger fish in larger numbers. Hiking out of the woods and rounding the bluff I saw the potential for disaster. I had not anticipated a security light illuminating the creek and specifically the stretch I wanted to finish on. At 10:30pm I began fishing the last section up, it wasn’t until I was in the only spot that wasn’t directly illuminated by the light that I was able to bring trout to surface. I landed the last fish of the season at ~10:50pm and fished until the 11pm cut off. Not a bad way to end my third full season, trying something new, learning a bit about myself and a new take on fly fishing the Driftless Area.

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