The second day of fishing from the cabin, I decided to try some new water. Otter Creek and Glovers Creek are very well known and very popular stockers in Fayette County. I’d avoided them, mostly because they are known for the fishing pressure they receive. I’m trying to fish everywhere at least once, though, so I decided to see what was up. What was up was an extremely pleasant surprise, a beautiful stream in unique surroundings. I saw only one other angler on the water all day, though there’s probably serious pressure on the weekends.
There was a truck in the little parking lot when I arrived, which I sort of expected. I geared up anyway and set off up the track marked “Stream Access”. I was expecting this to be the standard DNR thing, where it would lead to the stream itself, with mowed banks and stocking pools. But after a while it became clear that the track wasn’t actually going to intersect the stream. It was a very different setup – the stream was off over to the side of the track and ran parallel to it. For most of its length, however, it was separated by brush, sometimes by a fair distance. There were just some small paths heading off now and then to connect the track to the stream. Once I figured this out, I retreated back to the first place I could get down. Soon a couple of spin fishermen came tromping back down the track. I heard them get in the truck and leave, so I had the stream mostly to myself. The first pool was fairly deep and fast. I flailed around a bit, getting follows from two separate trout with a woolly bugger but no hits. I finally settled on a tandem rig of a #14 Frenchie high and the debut of the beadhead hotspot killer bug as the trailing fly, #14 sand with an orange hotspot. I fished this on the GM 39 for the rest of the day.
The second place I dropped down led to a beauty pool, and from that point on I stayed on the creek. The first cast with the killer bug yielded a rainbow, and I was off and running. The stream has self-sustaining browns, and is stocked twice weekly with the normal rainbows and brookies. It also turned out to have a good population of larger than usual shiners and a few creek chub.
The big event of the day was the revelation of the beadhead hotspot killer bug. Basically, I raised fish in every single likely holding position on the stream. I didn’t hook them all, but it was constant action. The fly is just killer.
It was a strange but excellent setup. It felt like you were isolated in the middle of nowhere, yet there was a track, often running elevated and invisible right beside the stream. At one stage I felt like I was off alone in the woods, when a pickup truck appeared across the stream 20 feet from me and an older gent asked me how I was getting on. He was the landowner and maintainer of what turned out to be a groomed “nature trail”. Later on I heard singing and looked up to see two teenaged girls passing by on bicycles. It was sort of strange.
Eventually I fished all the way upstream to where Glovers runs into Otter. Glovers is very popular in its own right, but I’d spent most of the day on Otter and didn’t have time to head up Glovers. I ran into a spin fisherman just upstream from the confluence. He watched me for a while from upstream, during which (admittedly somewhat satisfyingly) I caught three or four fish. Then he disappeared and I didn’t see him again.
At this point the day was getting long and I decided to call it. It was awesome to pop up onto the nature trail, which led directly back to my car.
Part of the way back, I ran into an unusual sight. There was a mowed, tended clearing with a bulletin board and a sort of mini-domestic zoo.
Among the critters were little donkeys. I pictured myself stroking their noses, but they gave me the evil eye and wanted no part of me.
I met some people walking and a man riding a bike who stopped and filled me in on the history of the trail. It was very pleasant, with little bird feeders and boxes in the trees all the way along. I don’t want to harsh too badly on rural Iowa, but a lot of the time you’re having to look past the garbage thoughtlessly strewn around (while picking up as much of it as possible), and in state parks (and the parking lot at STSNBN, lately) on weekdays you have to look past the hollow eyed young people sloping around doing meth activities. It can get you down a bit, sometimes. It’s kind of affirming to find something nice, looked after and tended to and actually used by people just to walk and ride bikes. I enjoyed the stroll back to the car an awful lot.
So a big thumbs up to Otter Creek and to beadhead hotspot killer bugs. I ended up landing 14 rainbow and 3 brown, plus a pile of shiners and a few chub. Most hit the killer bug, but a few took the Frenchie.