Home Water Renewed

On the way home from the cabin I stopped in at our go-to stream.  It had received an unannounced stocking, the first of the year, at some point in the past few days.  As I expected, there was somebody else in the parking lot.  I went downstream first and didn’t see whoever it was.  They must have been upstream, and when I came up they were gone.  The banks were covered with lots of different fresh footprints.  I was tired and cranky and sunburned, and my heart was only half in it.  The stream was surprisingly low, as low as I’ve ever seen it, and although you could clearly see it had been stocked, lots of normally productive pools were low and empty.

If we have a home base in Iowa troutland, this pool right now is probably it.
If we have a home base in Iowa troutland, this pool right now is probably it.

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Bloody

The day after my log adventure, I planned to fish another of the handful of streams with protected water.  It’s so heavily fished in its stocked sections that there isn’t much point in being coy.  I went up to Marquette and fished Bloody Run.  I planned to start in the lower stocked section by a county campsite, and walk upstream to the middle, relatively isolated, protected stretch.  Bloody Run has some unique things.  It’s the largest (across) of the Iowa trout streams, and it has some of the longest contiguous fishable water, at several miles.  I’d only ever crossed it on the highway.  Well, it’s nice on paper.  In practice…not so much.

The railroad weaves along beside and across the stream for the whole length. A train went past while I was fishing.
The railroad weaves along beside and across the stream for the whole length. A train went past while I was fishing.

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Logged Out

I headed up to Backbone for another solo two-night escape.  On the first day I decided to return to two obscure and in one case essentially abandoned state preserves that I visited last year.  The first was Mossy Glen (no sense not naming it, as in my opinion there’s no fishing to disrupt).  Last year I went in early August and the small stream was a tiny trickle.  I’ve had it in mind to visit in spring to see if it’s a better show, as there is internet evidence from ca. 2012 that people have actually seen fish here.  The DNR describes it as a “low density” brown trout population and it is fingerling stocked annually.  Water levels were higher on this visit, and I did see (but not catch) some small trout.  But there are exactly three viable pools on state land, no holding water in between, and the largest trout I saw was maybe 8 inches; most were in the 5-6″ range.  It’s neat in that it’s kind of a lost spot, and the “mossy glen” (the spring source, it turns out) is worth seeing.  But there just isn’t much fishing to be had here.

The non-maintained state preserve sign. The road in isn't maintained, either, and is choked with deadfalls.
The non-maintained state preserve sign. The road in isn’t maintained, either, and is choked with deadfalls.

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STSNBN Revisited

I hadn’t fished STSNBN since last August 08, though I’d stopped in a couple of times to find it either down to a trickle (last fall) or roaring (last winter).  With a lot more experience under my belt, I was curious to go back to it and see what it felt like now.  Answer: pretty much same as always.  It remains my favourite stream for getting away to (the illusion of) a different world.  The main thing that fosters this, I think, is that there is no prepared access whatsoever.  No paths down the steep valley to it, and no paths of any kind along it.  You have to wade extensively to have a hope of fishing it (not a problem, I think, in terms of stream ecology – it’s mostly a hard dolostone rock cobble bottom).  Anyway, the time seemed ripe.  Our camping plans were cancelled (as are many), this time due to some freezing night time temperatures (20F on the Friday).  Saturday was cold.  Sunday was showing rain and thunderstorms, but we figured as long as we were sensible about any lightning, it should be okay.  It was a forecast high of 57.  As it turned out, there were a few periods of rain and the odd rumble of thunder, but it was a mostly dry day, and sunny later on.

STSNBN.  They look so different before the vegetation starts.  And they're so much easier to navigate.
STSNBN. They look so different before the vegetation starts. And they’re so much easier to navigate.

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Stock

I dashed back out to the same stocker stream as last week.  This time, I hit it the day after the first stocking of the season.  It was a mixed weather day, mostly windy and cold, but with occasional brief periods of sunshine.  As I predicted last week, it had a lot of water in it, then.  A more realistic view emerged this time, but there are still a series of lovely upstream pools.  I checked out the small stocked tributary in some detail.  It’s very bushy and overhanging.  There were quite a few fish holding in the little pools, but they were extremely spooky.  More trouble than I felt like facing on this day.  I fished almost exactly the same water as last week on the main stream, except I went upstream further.  The stream rapidly got tiny, but there were little bathtub sized pools full of browns as far as I went.

Same water, more fish.
Same water, more fish.

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Egged On

After a night of pounding thunderstorms, I wasn’t optimistic I’d have anywhere to fish.  The forecast was for more rain off and on during the day.  I decided that if I couldn’t fish, I’d at least do some reconnaissance and drive to some streams I hadn’t previously visited.  But first I went to a stream up north that we fished a couple of times last year, and which offers all three species with wild browns.  Stocking doesn’t resume for the year until next week, so the stocker streams are as tapped out as they get.  I was trying to hit streams with natural reproduction of browns.  When I got there, the stream was about as blown out as blown out can be, and I resigned myself to not fishing.  Still, I headed for the next target, a pair of streams near the Mississippi.  Jene Hughes doesn’t offer a rave review in his book.  The main stream has tons of access points and is said to be fished very heavily (it’s also one of the longest contiguous catchable stream lengths in the creeks I’ve visited).  It has a smaller, also fairly long, and less accessible, tributary that is stocked less frequently and unannounced.  The latter I figured was my only hope to actually wet a line.  I came to it first and stopped on a little one lane bridge over it.  And it was running crystal clear.  Huh.  I planned to fish it, but wanted to go check out the main stream just to get the lay of the land.  It, too, was clear.  There was nobody else in sight and the stream looked beautiful.  So I decided to try to upstream portion first, then move on.  But I spent the entire day there.  There’s a lot of nice water to explore here.

A lovely, clear-running stream on a day many were blown out.
A lovely, clear-running stream on a day many were blown out.

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In Which I Cast A Dry Fly Upstream To Rising Trout

I headed back out solo to the little protected stream James and I fished a couple of weeks ago.  It was raining throughout the drive there, with a forecast of much more to come, possibly the rest of the day and for sure in the evening, with thunderstorms.  It was low and dark overcast all day, but the rain stopped as I arrived and held off until 6.30 pm, when I was about done anyway.

Game face.
Game face.

Continue reading In Which I Cast A Dry Fly Upstream To Rising Trout