[Note: I’m posting my fishing journal from 2015 as “retro trip reports” in chronological order and plan to write up future trips directly on the blog. This is the second fishing trip I did in Iowa, this time solo.]
Weather: warm and sunny with very little breeze, probably around 75
Drove solo to Yellow River State Forest after faculty meeting on Wednesday which concluded ~4.40. The route was the same as to Backbone, but continued north past the road to the western Backbone entrance. It was still Iowa until just past Strawberry Point, when the topography changed dramatically to hilly and more woodsy. The road leading to Mississippi was the River Bluffs Scenic Byway. It was a pleasant drive, though I was worried about getting there and selecting a campsite before dark. Got to the Mississippi at Marquette, driving across Bloody Run on the way, then turned north for a bit right along the banks of the Mississippi, then went inland to the forest. Forest was lovely, steep and hilly with lots of evergreens. Tried Big Paint campground first. It was a bit of an open field by the creek, would probably have stayed there but there was a large multi-vehicle group installed and there was little privacy. Pressed on to Little Paint campground which is much larger and on paper I was guessing wasn’t as nice. Wrong. Utterly lovely, strung along the sharp Little Paint valley, with some campsites set right on the creek. There were only three other campers in the entire campground. Selected a campsite in the small middle portion, 106, literally right on the creek and under a big evergreen. Smelled of evergreens and stream, very pleasant. Had a hamburger on the Coleman seasoned with new salt and pepper built-in grinders and new Lawry’s standard seasoning salt. Couldn’t find Montreal steak seasoning. Forgot cheese slices, otherwise nice. Had a canned Heineken by the fire as it got dark, lovely.
Made bacon, mushrooms, fried eggs over easy. Really a very heavy breakfast, probably shouldn’t make it the standard camping morning fare. Didn’t get rolling on creek until about 8.45 but just for some reason stormed off in maiden voyage of new waders and wading shoes. Simply didn’t take bug spray, sunscreen, lunch, or anything to drink. Then went into obsessive mode. Despite my hopes that I’d have more water to myself on a weekday, there were still too many bait anglers for it to be completely enjoyable. In total there were around 7 or 8, more arriving as I stopped. Like Jene Hughes’s book says, the stream is very similar to Richmond Springs. So it might not have been the wisest choice in attempting to find something more lonely. Still, working around the bait people I managed to fish most of the length of the creek, to the point where it was becoming very small. Most of the trout were in the big slow deep holes. All of these had been worked over by bait anglers before I tried them, and the fish were totally uninterested in anything I did in any of them (to be fair, it probably was less to do with bait anglers and more to do with my incompetence). It’s also really hard not to spook them, as the tenkara range is short and it was bright sunshine and the water was very clear. I had some luck on exactly one pool, a fairly fast narrow run with a significant cutbank on the far side. Again using an Amano Kebari I first caught a small (~7”) brown:
Not long after I got a larger one on the line (not sure what species), took the fly beautifully when feeding in the current. I played him for a while, but he got the line caught in a floating stick and escaped before I could land him.
I didn’t get a sniff anywhere else on the stream. It was last stocked six days earlier. Stocking day was the following day, the Friday.
I looked up at about 1.45 and realized I was quite badly sunburned on the back of my neck and arms, had a pounding headache (dehydration, probably), and had nothing to drink. So I started plodding back toward camp on the prepared trail that follows the stream. It was a surprisingly long walk and not comfortable. The stream had hordes of huge dead dry sticker bushes along it. The line and tippet got caught in them a lot and the back of my vest and t shirt just got covered in them. I had fully planned to stay a second night (and paid for it) but more people were coming into the campground. I was hot, tired, fished out, not that fussed on the extra company. And I realized I had forgotten to bring extra t shirts, so only had the scratchy one full of stickers. So I bailed.
So the only fly that has worked so far is the Amano Kebari. I bought three. Two have been used for multiple fish, though they’re not totally wrecked yet, but pretty far gone. I lost the third in a tree. I had to tie blood knots twice for snapped tippet. First went not too bad. Second took around 20 minutes and I was almost ready to cry by the time I finally managed it. Partly lack of experience and practice, but a good part is that I have major trouble seeing the 5X tippet with my close eyesight gone. I needed it to be against a dark background which wasn’t possible the second place I did it. Still, I got it done. Tying the improved clinch knots to put the flies on the tippet went much faster.
I briefly tried a Ishigaki Kebari from Tenkara USA and a killer bug supplied by TenkaraBum. They got no interest, but neither did anything except at the one run. I’d like to try some western patterns and some dry flies.
Need to think about a fly supply. If I’m going to tie flies, and it seems inevitable, I should get on with it right away.
Not sure about tenkara. I still can’t cast effectively, it feels like no weight at all. And I like the complexity of western fly fishing. Have a strong hankering to do both but I can’t afford decent western gear right now, particularly if I’m going to buy fly tying equipment, books, supplies, etc. Badger Tenkara advocates using actual western lines with tenkara and make and sell their own. They aren’t expensive for a 12’ so I think I’ll give that a try.
Don’t like the crowds, but have possibly picked the worst stream for them and then its twin. Have to keep trying different things on weekdays.