White Pine Hollow is a National Natural Landmark featuring the last stand of old growth white pine forest in Iowa. It’s tiny, but as close to a patch of true wilderness as you can get in the state. It also has a protected catch and release only trout stream.
The first challenge is getting to the stream. There are no designated trails in the preserve and only two parking lots, one at the south edge and one at the east. The best stretch of trout stream is in the western part of the preserve, so you have to find your own way there through dense forest. It looked to me like you could get closer to the protected water marked on the DNR map by starting from the south parking lot. I planned to follow the preserve boundary to a corner, turn west, and go in a straight line until I hit the stream. There is one larger stream which runs east to west in the preserve, and which the DNR has labelled Point Hollow Creek aka White Pine Creek. It’s joined by a smaller stream running from the south. The DNR has a stretch of this smaller stream, then Point Hollow Creek downstream from where the smaller stream joins to the preserve boundary marked as special regulation water. The upstream part of Point Hollow Creek isn’t designated.
There had been recent thunderstorms, so the overall plan was a bit dodgy. I started from the tiny south parking lot and I at least managed to execute my strategy for getting to the stream.
I kept the marked boundary/private property line on my left and eventually reached the corner where I was to turn west.
I turned west and lost contact with the preserve boundary, which didn’t seem to be marked anyway. I went across a tiny dry streambed then through woods for what seemed like quite a long way, but eventually the ground started sloping down toward a real stream valley. Unfortunately the last drop into the valley was a heavily vegetated dolostone cliff.
I managed to get down despite falling and sliding a ways on my arse, glad nobody was watching because it wasn’t a graceful effort. The stream, despite being part of the designated stretch, was really tiny.
There wasn’t much holding water and the few pools were tiny. The water seemed clear, but it was very shallow so hard to tell. It was hard to follow the stream as sections were totally clogged with brush and vegetation. I made my way downstream, not seeing anything in the water. I finally spotted a single fish in a deeper pool downstream with an undercut dolostone block. I spooked it, natch. I couldn’t tell what it was. Eventually I reached the main stream, with one spooked fish the only contact I’d had.
The main flow of Point Hollow Creek was far larger, but still a small stream. Immediately downstream a fish hit my woolly bugger and was hooked for a little while, but escaped. Again, I couldn’t tell what it was. A short distance downstream was a very nice pool. I immediately spooked the fish holding in its main part. I dropped the woolly bugger into the fast water at the head and let it dead drift at depth beneath a large boulder shielding me from view. A fairly large non-spooked fish down there came out for a quick look. I *think* it was a trout, but I only saw a big olive back once. I had several follows in the tail of this long pool and once I yanked to set the hook too quickly on a definite strike. The fish shot forward to chase, then spooked. I believed myself to be fishing for trout, but when I started actually catching a few fish, they were all chub. I can’t say for certain I encountered a single trout in the stream.
The water, now that it was deeper, was clearly somewhat off colour. I might just have picked a dodgy day to visit. The highlight of the day was catching the first fish on a self-tied fly. It would have been better if it had been a wild 21″ brown. It was a creek chub. He bit a black woolly bugger I tied.
I caught seven creek chub, so not a banner day. The lower section of the creek was pretty nice, with decent pools. This was pretty early in my resumed career, so I’m pretty sure I could make a better showing now, and I plan to return, hopefully when the water is in better condition. Like, it has to be a special regulation stream for a reason. A better approach might be from the east lot (which I didn’t visit) – you can access the upper portion of the main stream just by going directly west from there, and it’s a shorter distance through the forest. I didn’t try that because it’s further from the designated water. But the tiny creek that is shown as designated is almost unwalkable and too tiny to hold much. Next time I’ll fish the upper portion of the main stream, even if it only has chub in it.
It was a lot of work for seven chub. On the way back I got to the signposted corner easily enough, but when I turned south toward the car I wandered east of the boundary, lost contact with it, and got pretty comprehensively lost. I was getting the first stirrings of genuine fear, because there was only a hour of daylight left and I would have been in some reasonably serious trouble if I ended up stumbling around the forest in the dark. Eventually I came to a clear steep stream valley. Consulting the map and the position of the sun, I realized I was facing east and looking at a bend in the upper portion of the main stream. So the car was to the right (south). About five minutes after that, trying to head in a straight line southwest, I spotted the car.
It’s an intriguing place, dense fecund woods. I think I caught the stream on a bad day. I’m definitely going to give it another shot.