[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.]
Weather: quite warm and sunny in the morning, ~65, hazy cloud starting around midday, thin overcast all afternoon
I tried out my new camp toaster (worked pretty well) and had three rounds of toast with butter and strawberry/rhubarb jam plus two packets of peaches and cream oatmeal with some milk and one cup of coffee for breakfast. Once again I considered bailing after packing up my camp. Two nights on the ground and a fair amount of walking in waders left me feeling tired and old and creaky. Again, once I got into the car I perked up, so I decided to at least do recon on Grannis and Bear.
So…there was a truck in the upper Grannis lot. I couldn’t see anyone. I walked down it a little. Tiny, but with nice pools. A concrete sidewalk built along the creek, with much wear around the edge of the pools. Uh huh. I thought about fishing, but was looking for solitude. So I went to find the lower parking lot. On the way, there is an isolated stretch of very upper Grannis that is also publically fishable and also marked as stocked. It’s a little separate orange blob on the trout map. I made note of a small parking lot by a bridge on that stretch. Lower Grannis also had a truck, and looked very similar to upper Grannis. The first pool definitely had trout in it, but it had just been stocked the day before. Again, I though Bear might be less crowded (book says so) so I decided to press on.
On the way back through upper Grannis to get to Bear, I stopped at the tiny upper stretch of Grannis where there were no cars. It turns out there is a lovely pool beneath the one lane road bridge:
It had a good number of decent sized trout. I caught a rainbow from the rear on a woolly bugger. Then I switched to the TenkaraBum Utah killer bug and got a hit right away. Didn’t set but on the second or third cast I hooked and landed another rainbow. Despite the immediate response, the fly got no further interest. I tried an elk hair caddis but nothing was rising and there was no interest. I switched back to the woolly bugger and caught a third rainbow.
After that, I went across to the Bear parking lot, but it had 3-4 trucks in it and some fat guys (standard disclaimer: I am not presently in the running to be mistaken for a gazelle) exchanging viewpoints. I just turned the car around and drove away. I’ll try both creeks at some point, but a Friday might not be the best day.
That left…the stream whose name I must not utter, which I was more hopeful for given that it’s marked as not stocked, or rather fingerling stocked and naturally reproducing, and browns only.
It was easy enough to find. The road and little parking lot seem to see a lot of use, but there was nobody there. There’s a lovely little CCC limestone block toilet structure right there, and a path leading off to a shelter. It looks like an excellent picnic spot, all overlooking the densely wooded valley. There was no mention of a stream, and no obvious path to one. I started down the wooded side of the valley and spotted it, quite a ways down and fairly large. I got all the way down in my runners and it was clear I needed my waders to fish it, so had to huff back up and put them on.
It was exactly what I’ve been looking for: beautiful stream in a lovely limestone valley, huge blocks of dolomite fallen down and forming structures in the stream, running up against cliffs to form deep pools, woods. Just bliss. And complete solitude. I knew it wasn’t going to be like Richmond, no stocked rainbows or brookies, just wild brown. So I fished a lot of beautiful water with no hint of trout. I first started catching what I was calling “silly fish” and which turned out to be creek chub. Like I said in the previous entry, they’re pretty much just as much fun to catch as small trout. They eat insects and aquatic invertebrates just like trout. And they hit the black woolly bugger hard. I started fishing upstream and caught two chub in the first substantial pool. Above it was an upper deep pool by a dolomite cliff. I cast the woolly bugger upstream over a big submerged rock. On the second cast there was a big flash of yellow and a hit which didn’t set. Wayy too big for a chub, I figured it had to be a brownie. On the third cast it aggressively took the fly. First real fight from a decent sized fish I’ve had with tenkara. I’m amazed I didn’t lose it. Used the flex of the rod and kept trying to steer him into the current. He tried to run downstream hard, was the only really panicky time. In the end I got him landed fine. I need to learn to accurately measure them. He might have been only around 11” but I think I’m guessing low because you’re supposed to measure to the end of the pressed together tail fins. But not much bigger than 12” based on measuring my hand in that orientation and then the fish from the photograph. Anyway, biggest fish to that point of my short resumed career and the first nice big wild brown I’ve ever caught:
After that I continued up for a way, lots of nice pools, but no more sign of trout. I continued to catch creek chub. I came back and started downstream. Again lots of beautiful pools but no more signs of trout. I ended up wading into one of the really nice cliff pools up to my thighs (really, really cold) and more or less hiding behind a big log. I was catching chub and enjoying myself, so I parked there for a while, practicing tenkara casting if nothing else. By this point I had switched to try the Badger Tenkara Lite floating line. It was different, a bit longer than the level line I’d been using and obviously it floats. I thought it would be easier to cast as it should have more weight, but I didn’t really notice much difference. But I could cast it fine. It’s not supposed to make a difference as in theory you’re supposed to have your line out of the water, but I’m not sure it was the best to fish a streamer with a floating line.
Almost immediately after that I thought I had a snag on an upstream cast. Then I felt two heavy tugs and it came free. Holy s-word. Had to be a big trout. On the next cast there was a big golden flash as he tried again for it. On the third, he nailed it. This was even harder and longer than the first go-round, lasted at least a couple of minutes. I didn’t want to tire him out, but he just wasn’t having any of coming in. He tried to run upstream, he tried to dive beneath the cliff overhang, he tried to dive into submerged logs. It was very gratifying to land him. A bit bigger than the first. I guess I’ll go with 12” but it may have been a shade bigger:
So…two biggish and heavyish wild(ish) browns. Works for me. I continued down after that and got one more definite strike from a large brown at another pool, but couldn’t see any more of him after the initial strike. He was hooked for a little while, so might have gotten put off. That was it for trout, but boy howdy that’s just fine.
Rounding out the picture, I caught 22 creek chub. Like I say, fun crazy fish and caught on a fly rod, they count as far as I’m concerned.
So I’ll have to see how it goes on subsequent visits, but initially it seems like My Creek: no stocking of adult fish so no bait guys, no path to it and a difficult downhill (and hard uphill) scramble to access it. Absolutely beautiful and absolute solitude. Tons of little agressive chub and some difficult big wild brown trout. I’m sold. The hours of the preserve are 4 am to 10.30 pm so you’re not allowed to stay overnight. Otherwise I would be in heaven if I could bring my ultralight stuff down and camp down in the valley in the woods by the stream. I mean, that shouldn’t be allowed as it would wreck it quickly if lots of people did it. But it would be nice. I’ll be back as soon as possible. It’s a place I can see myself really getting to know. And needless to say, I’m very, very pleased to have landed two beauty big wild browns on my first foray to a natural stream containing them.
I didn’t see any hatches. The first brown might have been rising a bit but otherwise the few rises I saw were pretty obviously chub. I sort of wanted to stay nearly until dark to see if any rising got started. But I was really tired, windburned, creaky, and still had a bit of a walk back to the car.
I hope the shine doesn’t come off in subsequent visits. Right now I feel like I found a personal oasis in Iowa. I felt like I was in a different world down in that little valley.