Month: July 2015

Mink Creek flows in a southeasterly direction and drains into the Volga River (where von Paulus and the Sixth Army came to grief all those decades ago).  Its stockings are unannounced.  There are two stocked sections, a short one upstream accessed from Dogwood Road and a longer one directly north of Wadena accessed from a small parking area off Bighorn Road.  I fished the latter.  The fishable stretch here is entirely on private property, with a public easement.  It’s long been on my list, as it’s essentially the same distance away as Grannis and Bear.  The marked waters are mostly upstream from the parking area, comprising the whole stream section between the bridge at Bighorn Road and an upstream bridge at State Road W51.  There is a downstream marked stretch about two thirds this distance.  Apparently the downstream stretch used to be longer, as in the late Jene Hughes’s “Iowa Trout Streams” book, the entire length of the stream downstream to Bear Road is shown as fishable, and he noted that if he were in the area for some time, he would make a project of fishing from Bear Road up to Bighorn Road.  The DNR page for the stream lists all three species of trout.

I wasn’t sure whether there’d be a full day’s fishing, so I had it in the back of my mind to finish up at nearby Bear Creek if there was time.  I found the Mink Creek parking area without any trouble.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 27 – Mink Creek, Fayette County, IA

After cutting a day from my bumpy camping trip earlier in the week, I was still pining for a really hardcore day at STSNBN.  I only had one functioning rod left, my Nissin Zerosum 6:4 400 cm.  I bought it following the general advice that I should fish the longest rod that I could, with the intention of using long rod/short line techniques.  I’d only fished it once, briefly.  So if nothing else, circumstances would force me to really give it a chance and get used to it.

I looked at the NWS report on Thursday and saw sunny around home.  STSNBN was showing sunny during the day, then thunderstorms in the evening.  I didn’t think more about it.  Got up, fed the cats, got in the Jeep, and went.

So this was a mistake.  As I drove north, I couldn’t help but notice an interesting canopy of low, dark clouds.  I drove under it a bit north of Center Point.  Around Walker, the first drops of rain splattered against the windshield.  I’m sure it will pass, I thought.  After all, it’s going to be sunny.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 24 – STSNBN, Fayette County, IA

I got up at 6.30 and out of the campground at 7.40.  Irritatingly, the Jeep I’ve had for a week lit up with a low tire notice when I started it up in the morning.  I didn’t bring my tire pump, but none of them were noticeably down, so I decided to just keep an eye on it.  I found Hickory Creek without any fuss.  It was a mostly overcast day to start with, and the valley was full of planted fields.  As I geared up, I discovered my Flip Focals were missing from the front of my hat.  No idea what happened.  I was wearing the hat with them attached by the fire the night before.  Maybe they fell off when I put it in the Jeep before turning in.  It’s possible they’re lurking somewhere in the Jeep, otherwise they’re lying on the ground at Little Paint.  So I had to face a day with no knot assistance.  It was actually all right for the first half of the day.  I have a decent amount of muscle memory built up for clinch knots.  It got worse when the sun came out after a few hours.  I just couldn’t see the line.  One thing I learned is that it helps a LOT to pinch the first loop before you wrap the line – it keeps the loop large and easy to thread.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 22 – Hickory Creek, Allamakee County, IA

I planned a maximum three day, two night trip to visit some new streams, though I didn’t think I’d last the course (I didn’t).  It was on the one hand an exercise in frustration, loss, and breakage.  The fishing redeemed it a little.  The night before the trip I ruined my Rhodo by 1) somehow putting the two tip sections into the wrong end of the third section; and 2) then trying to ram them further in, instead of pulling them out, jamming them permanently.  Incredible stupidity.  So a new tip set is on the way from Tenkara USA but the rod is currently out of action.  So I fished with James’s Nissin Fine Mode Kosansui.  At the end of the second day, the tip section got stuck.  And so I broke the second section trying to free it.  The only rod that functions out of five right now is my 400 cm Nissin Zerosum.  On this same trip, I lost the tip plug for it, I assume when it caught while strapped to the pack and stepping under a log.  I also lost my Flip Focals, I guess they must have fallen out at the campground.  And to top it off there’s no sign of my iPhone charging cord.  And in the middle a low tire warning light lit up in my week old 2014 Jeep.  The idea was to relax.  Get away.  Enjoy.  Didn’t much work.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 21 – Little Turkey River, Delaware County, and Little Paint Creek, Allamakee County, IA

As somebody with only a few months of tenkara experience I’m hardly in a position to lecture anyone about how to do it.  But it’s maybe worth recording my impressions of how things work with different types of flies.  I fish most of the time with a Tenkara USA Rhodo at maximum extension (supposed to be ca. 320 cm but I haven’t directly measured mine), zooming it down only occasionally due to overhanging branches.  I also own a Nissin Zerosum 400 cm 6:4 but have really only fished with it briefly once.  And I have a Dragontail Tenkara 360 cm Shadowfire which I fished with for an entire day before stupidly breaking the tip on a cross-stream snag (replacement tip set is inexpensive, too lazy so far to order it).  I found the 400 cm rod difficult to manage on the enclosed streams I mostly fish but don’t regret picking it up – I anticipate it’ll get plenty of use in lots of circumstances going forward.  I want to pick up a 360 cm 7:3 Zerosum at some point.  I thought the Shadowfire was a nice rod, particularly at the price point, and it let me access that little extra water compared to the Rhodo.  I didn’t have any serious problems with overhang the day I fished it, and ultimately I think a 360 rod will be my mainstay.  Right now, though, the Rhodo is the workhorse.  So, fishing a 320 cm rod, usually with a number 3 line as long as the rod and a ~4 ft 5X tippet (my current favourite is Scientific Anglers), here’s my experience with various sets of flies:

Kebaris

Continue reading Techniques

So one facet of fishing obsessiveness is mapping the streams, pools, holding water, stream segments, etc.  I’d been assuming that I’d only gotten down Bear Creek partway to the confluence with Brush, and also that the huge upstream stocking pool was the upstream limit of the fishable segment.  Wrong on both counts.  It turns out the big beaver dam downstream actually receives flow from both Bear and Brush and marks the confluence of the two streams.  So the section bordering the downstream field is actually Brush Creek, after Bear flows into it.  And it’s probably private property lacking an easement.  Sorry, landowner, I didn’t mean to trespass.  Further, there is a bit more stream marked as catchable water upstream from the huge stocking pool.  A project for next time will be fishing up there to see if there is any more upstream holding water.  I don’t think there is any track access to it, so it can’t be directly stocked, but maybe some trout have made their way up.  Below is a Google Earth image of the catchable section with annotations, not that anyone asked/cares.  Click to embiggen.

The Jamesinator is off to the UK with his mother for a month.  I should do any number of things, not least some actual research.  Or work on the house.  I know myself well enough to be fairly confident that I will basically fish until my arm falls off.  Self knowledge is at least a partial salve for the stresses of life.  I think.  Anyway, this trip saw me plunge back into intense solo fishing.  I missed James badly, and I think he also acts as a major check on my more obsessive instincts.  He’s obsessive himself, but the trips are basically calibrated to safely accommodate the obsessiveness of an eight year old.  Without him, I just go and don’t stop.

There were a couple of worries.  First, there were thunderstorms across the area on Thursday, and Fayette County was forecast to get more precipitation than the Iowa City area.  So the state of the streams was a concern.  Second, while the summer continues to be wetter than normal, some serious heat has finally arrived.  Around home, Saturday was forecast as a high of 91 but with a heat index of 103.  It was a bit better in the area of the streams, high of 88 and heat index of 97, but still pretty brutal.  But I was absolutely pining to get back on the water, so I decided to take lots of fluids and hopefully make myself bail if it got too ridiculous.  I chose Bear because it has generally held up best when the water is high.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 18 – Bear Creek, Fayette County, IA

This is sort of fishing related, in that it’s about the vehicle that takes us fishing.  After 16 years of faithful service, my 1999 Chevy Malibu blew its engine two days ago.  I got the bad news this morning: even a second hand engine (installed) would cost more than the Blue Book value of the car.  And have no warranty.  It was a good run, but it’s over.  Didn’t seem sensible to pour thousands into an elderly car where something else could fall apart at any minute.  So I spent the day buying a 2014 Jeep Compass.  It’s kind of a girly Jeep (not sexism – the Compass is expressly marketed to females; its manlier counterpart is the Patriot, which is the same vehicle marketed to males).  And it’s sniffed at in real Jeep circles.  But it’s a 4WD and has some clearance, so it’ll be a huge upgrade for hiking and fishing in the mountain west (and on some level B service roads in northeastern Iowa).  And it’s what I could afford.  It already feels weird driving a vehicle where the signal lights shut off automatically after you turn and the gas gauge works.  It was a difficult moment saying goodbye to the Malibu.  It’s bound for “recycling”.

We got up around seven on Friday morning.  It had gotten down to 60 during the night, so we wore our hoodies/fleece to start with.  I made a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs over easy, mushrooms, and strawberry/rhubarb toast.  By the time we ate it and got packed up it was almost nine.  We headed for STSNBN, with the temperature set to hit 82 and a small possibility of thunderstorms late in the day.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 09-10 – Bear Creek and STSNBN, Fayette County, IA. Day Two

I finished recording lectures for a new online course offering, an activity that has devoured my life since April.  I celebrated by charging out camping with James about six hours later, on five hours sleep.  We headed directly to Bear Creek on the Thursday to see how the trout were getting on one week after the beauty day when we caught 26.  Bear Creek isn’t supposed to be stocked in July and August, so it seems like those trout were the base for any holdover fishing in the height of summer.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 09-10 – Bear Creek and STSNBN, Fayette County, IA. Day One.