Month: July 2015

Brook Trout: 17

Rainbow Trout: 27

Brown Trout: 8

Creek Chub: 297

Common Shiner: 321

Smallmouth Bass: 6

Rock Bass: 2

Dunno (Unidentified): 1

[Note: this is the final “retro trip report” and gets me up to date with a log of all of our fishing trips since resuming fly fishing.]

Weather was supposed to be high 70s but felt hotter.  Humidity was really high and nasty. We both got uncomfortably hot and tired.

There’s not a lot to report about this trip.  It was similar to the previous one four days earlier but with no landed trout.  James caught 3 creek chub and 6 common shiner.  I caught 52 creek chub and 72 common shiner, on a mix of killer bug, copper john, and amano kebaris, including a self-tied one.  About the only real development was that we discovered a way to wade into the head of “deep pool” that got us in casting range of the nice deep portion of the far bank.  Here I hooked two trout, one on a killer bug, the other a copper john (first time I hooked a trout on a nymph).  Both were on the line for a good while and the net was deployed in each case, but they both got off.  I briefly hooked one more trout downstream, again on a copper john, but it was only on the line for a few seconds.  Other than that, nada.  The normally productive lower section didn’t yield any hint of trout this time.

Continue reading (Retro Trip Report) 2015 June 10 STSNBN, Fayette County, IA

Weather: around 80 and humid.

This trip marked the point where James seemed to cross the line into a little kid version of parallel fishing obsession.  He went like a machine all day, didn’t want to stop, didn’t want to turn around, just wanted to keep fishing.  The most fish he’d caught prior to this was four.  He caught 20 on this trip.  It was the first time he wore his new vest given to him for his birthday by my sister.  It was the first time he released most of his fish himself.

Continue reading (Retro Trip Report) 2015 June 06 STSNBN, Fayette County, IA

For what it’s worth, a current gear list.

Clothing: Columbia convertible pants I bought for ultralight hiking, very lightweight and comfortable; a TenkaraBum camo t shirt; a Lamson LED hat in camo; a trout buff worn as a neck wrap; Patagonia Gunnison Gorge wading pants, Patagonia felt ultralight wading boots.

Vest: Patagonia convertible vest.

Continue reading Gear

This was the single most perfect day of fishing I’ve had since resuming.  I knew it was going to be good.  I’d looked in the previous Wednesday and STSNBN was blown out, but there had been five days of no rain since then.  I figured it would be clear but with the water level replenished a bit.  This was exactly the case.  The only downside was I didn’t drag my arse out of bed early enough, so didn’t get on the stream until late morning.  As it turned out, this was a major waste of a nearly perfect day.  Nevertheless I fished the entire length of the preserve, upstream and down.  I didn’t start downstream until around 3 pm.

Continue reading (Retro Trip Report) 2015 June 01 STSNBN, Fayette County, IA

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.

Continue reading (Retro Trip Report) 2015 May 29 – White Pine Hollow State Forest Preserve

Weather: 73, sunny, increasingly hazy in afternoon and evening

Some days you just hit it right.  One of the things I remember from my first career in fly fishing is that there are grim days and there are amazing days and you can’t really ever predict what you’re going to get.  But if you keep at it, the amazing days come.  I’ve already had one that I’d count – my solo day on STSNBN when I caught 180 and tapped back into the stream-raised browns.  Now we got another, a virtually perfect day full of hefty planted trout.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 July 02 – Bear Creek, Fayette County, IA

Weather – Sunny, 78

James and I headed out for another full day on STSNBN.  It’s a comfortable length for a full day’s fishing, a bit over a mile downstream from the start.  We end up in the trouty lower portion when the browns are feeding in early evening.

The water was in decent shape, but for whatever reason it was a more subdued day than some.  We tried to emphasize keeping moving so that we had more time in the lower stretches later in the day.  That might have depressed the catch count a bit.

Continue reading Trip Report 2015 June 27 – STSNBN, Fayette County, IA