After a few weeks of watching and pleading with the weather, a trip was finally in the works. But don't get excited as many trips have been in the works this year only to get victimized by the weather. But as the days got closer the weather actually improved. I started to feel like it might really happen.
As I packed for a few days in Grand Isle, LA I called my buddy Scott who lives in New Orleans and writes the blog Bayou Chronicles. Aside from being an accomplished angler, Scott is a professional photographer so I always look forward to talking fish and photography with him.
I left the house at 2am with a 6 hour drive. The promise of an all day falling tide to stalk crawling redfish kept me awake as I drove through the night. If the tide charts were correct, I would have a chance to sight fish reds during the lowest point of the tide, during the middle of the day. As luck would have it, that's how the entire trip went and the fishing was insane.
I met Scott on the 2nd day and we visited an area that in his words, "could be crazy good or dead." We didn't even pack a lunch because we figured if it wasn't happening, we'd leave and try another area. The day ended up being one of the best I have ever experienced in Southeast Louisiana. We covered about 10 miles of water and caught fish until our hands blistered.
The next day, I went back to the same spot and started where I left off. Again, the redfish were stacked in the shallow marsh. The water was really stained but that didn't matter as redfish aren't hard to see when they are crawling across the flat half way out of the water. The most frustrating part was, at times the flats were not accessible, even from a kayak. You could see a redfish chasing shrimp 50 yards away but pushing through the mud wasn't happening. The tide was still falling and I had no interest in getting stuck in the marsh. But I know where they live and I'll be back to check on those belly crawlers soon.
You guys have been asking for this for a while. I've written a post or two (Click to read) describing what I look for and some of the mistakes I made when I started but I felt like a video would actually show what I'm talking about. So here you go, this is part 1 of a 2 part series. In part 2, I'll go over the flies I use and when I use them. Hope this helps some of you put a few in the net.
As always, this will play better if you open it in the YouTube viewer.
It was three miles to the lake.A trail along the creek led to and from our
goal of catching native Rio Grande Cutthroat trout.All we had to do was follow the trail.We didn’t follow the trail.We did what guys do and improvised.I like to call it “blazing our own path.” It wasn’t long before we knew we needed to
find the trail.If we continued on our
journey, it would have been off a cliff, which concluded with a 50-foot fall.If we went any further there would be blood, pain,
and absolutely a broken fly rod.
We found the lake and it indeed held plenty of natives.It was a great afternoon that ended too
quickly.Suddenly, a rumble grabbed our
attention.In the mountains, such
rumbles echo for a few seconds longer as they bounce off the cliffs.This allows the situation to really sink
in.The clouds were getting darker and
building but the mountains masked them until they were on top of us.
We had been in Colorado three days and each afternoon were
greeted with Thunderstorms.It was these
storms that made our trip possible.A
few weeks prior the Rio Grande National Forest was closed due to the Spring
Creek fire, the 3rd largest wildfire in Colorado history.Our wives reminded us of this as we left because
they had no clue where we would be over the next week. In honesty, I had no
clue either.I had just gotten back from
the Wisconsin Driftless area.I was just
happy to be on another fly fishing road trip.
Now I was wondering how long it would take us to get back to
the vehicle.We all had the same though,
fish the creek leading to the lake on the way out and catch a few more cutty's.Yeah that was probably a bad idea. The first
thing I ran into was, what we all considered bear scat.I had never seen any in person but every door
in the area had signs warning of black bears so we just assumed that’s what it
was. Whatever left this gift did it while
we were at the lake.It wasn’t on the
trail that morning.
The cliff that almost broke our fly rods
Then the sky started to flash and you could feel the buzz of
lightening in the air.At 10,000 feet
you are actually in it!The booming
thunder shook the trees.Thankfully the
vehicle was in sight.We threw our stuff
in and got moving down the mountain just when the hail started to fall.Then Brad said, “you’re not going to believe
this, we’re about to have a flat.”The
tire sensor was saying, “the mountain ate your tire bro.”
In reality, the sensor was misinformed.As Brad opened the door, the hiss of air was
immediate, which was expected.What none
of us expected was, “we’re going to have two flats.”Both tires on the driver side had been eaten by
the mountain. No worries we have a spare
and some fix-a-flat.We sprang to action
like a NASCAR pit crew. Then the fix-a-flat
lost its mind.Rather than spraying its magic
solution into the tire it just oozed all over itself. It was 7 years old…dude replace the can every
few years.The only thing left was to
break out the air pump and fill the tire up every 15 minutes as we limped back
to camp.
River down below - required a hike in
26 days later we arrived back at the dispersed camping area
along the Conejos river.For the first
time in a few days, I was thankful to see people walking near our camp.We all jumped up and flash mobbed them as
they passed our camp.It went like this
and I have no idea who said what or in what order.“how was the, did you sit through the, been
down there long, we got caught on the, fix-a-flat.”We waited for their response.They offered us the broken net they found on
the trail.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early expecting to
spend the day hobbling to Antonito to get the tires fixed. We hadn’t even made it out of camp before the
psi started dropping quickly. It was going
to be a long day.Then the two guys from
the night before were standing in the road waving us down.With big smiles on their faces and something
that looked like a can of “you just saved our vacation” in their hands.Score, you guys rock, lets go fish!
The Video from the trip...
Photo Dump from the rest of the trip. Read the captions!
When one guy forgets to purchase his fishing license.
We threw attractor and dry with droppers all week.
Dispersed camping along Conejos River
Low water in some areas meant hiking to find pools
Brad and Tom getting dinner ready
We ate well
Saddle Creek
Saddle Creek near headwaters...this was nearly a 7 mile RT hike...we might have blazed our own path
This was one of those trips that was literally planned two weeks ago. My family and I were driving to Russellville, AR for our daughters 8U softball tournament when we realized, it's almost the middle of summer and we haven't planned a family vacation. The last few weeks have been really hectic with practices and camps. I didn't think my wife would actually find my idea attractive but I presented her the possibility of road tripping to Wisconsin, where her and the girls would fly home. Leaving me to explore the "Driftless" area in Wisconsin. It doesn't happened very often but she actually liked one of my ideas and the plane tickets were purchased in the next 30 minutes. The plan was to start driving on June 30th and make our way to Minneapolis, MN for their flight on July 3rd.
There were no more plans from that point. We decided on our route each morning and just went where it felt right. The first stop was at Mammoth Springs State Park in Northeast Arkansas. I couldn't remember if I had ever seen Arkansas' largest spring but I knew my girls had not. We arrived just in time for lunch out of the minivan and then walked around the park for an hour.
My wife asked our oldest daughter if she liked the waterfall, to which she replied, "it was a mill, waterfalls are natural." In spite of her informative Webster 's awareness we could tell she was having a good time. We loaded up and started driving, destination unknown, only that we would be taking the scenic route. We made a quick stop in Jefferson City, MO but decided to push on the Columbia, MO for the night. We ended the evening letting the kids swim for an hour or more.
We made it to Dubuque, IA and spent the afternoon touring the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. After some ice cream in the historic area we loaded up and continued to Madison, WI. We ended the 2nd day of our road trip eating dinner near the Capital and more swimming at the hotel.
Tuesday we kept to our "no plan" is our plan and left Madison in a general direction of Minneapolis, MN. My wife insists on navigating with an old Rand McNally road atlas we purchased in 1998 on our very first road trip from Little Rock, AR to San Diego, CA. It's only slightly embarrassing because it's the size of a pizza box and her windows aren't tinted. However, no kidding it's still more accurate than our Garmin "recalculating" GPS unit.
Full disclosure, I had no idea what route we were taking but as we drove in to Viroqua, WI around lunch I knew where we'd stop next, the Driftless Angler. I had every intention of visiting the fly shop after they flew home but couldn't drive past without stopping. I picked up a sticker and some flies in exchange for fishing intel. We were in and out of the shop in under 15 minutes! Not far from the shop was a shaded park that was perfect for lunch. After an hour we continued on our way to Minneapolis, MN, where we ended our family road trip. Their flights left at 10:30 am the following morning. I get to stay behind and fish the "Driftless".
This would be my first trip to the Wisconsin Driftless. I have made three trips to the Iowa side, Click here for Iowa Trip, and find it stunning. After three days I can tell you the Wisconsin side doesn't disappoint. I brought camping gear and planned to camp but with severe weather in the forecast the next day I opted for the cheap accommodations suggested while I was at the fly shop. I figured I'd camp after the storm but was almost killed by black flies (watch the video and you'll see) and decided to keep the room.
After securing my room, I ventured out to my first spring feed stream in Wisconsin. I drove past it twice before I located the small public parking area. If it weren't for the bridge that crossed the water, I would have never believed it existed. The fun begins...
In truth, the more I explored the easier it became to locate the public areas. Some of the water, like the Coon and West Fork of the Kickapoo were not difficult and they fished well. A dry-dropper rig took many fish. The browns would readily rise to the dry when the clouds were out and eat the dropper when the sun was high.
However, my favorite creek was a no-name that I stumbled across while looking for another access. I'm not 100% certain I wasn't trespassing but there was a sign and boot cleaning station beside the bridge which leads be to believe I wasn't. This stream was tiny and the only way to fish it was to stand in the cold water. The browns were everywhere and I saw several that might have been over 20". It would be a real treat to visit it again with a better approach and more options. The dry flies I had were just slightly too large. Those mature browns spooked so easily. It was super cool seeing those large predators in such a tiny creek. You know they are the real property owners and impose their will on all that trespass. They were just too intelligent for me on this trip.
And here is the video from the trip. Now time to prep for Colorado...
