Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Driftless on the fly

This was my second trip to the "driftless", and since I only had 1 day to fish, I decided to revisit a good looking stream.  My first stop at the stream, I got a late start, and spooked every fish in the county.  There's a learning curve to small stream fishing and I didn't want to fumble through learning a new stream.  I had a good idea of the access and pools, and hoped, I'd be more efficient this trip.  Knowing where to cross the stream and which side to approach a pool seems to be very important in these environments.  It's been great fun learning these new techniques.

Big brown on size 18 dropper

Like I said, I had an idea of the stream.  It was early, 530 am when I arrived.  I started with a black bugger in a pool not far from the access.  I saw a few fish rising but they wouldn't eat the bugger.  I didn't spend much time in any 1 spot.  I was searching the deep pools and any woody cover I could find.  The first eat was a bow.



Not long after that I broke off in some cover.  The bugger was getting some eats so I stuck to that same "stick and move" pattern.  After 2 hours (that seems like a long time but when you're tip toeing around a creek in chest high poison sumac, ivy, oak and whatever else - it's not...my right hand blistered a day later), I had managed a couple bows and a brown.  I rounded a corner and saw about 20 browns sipping something off the surface.  My heart jumped, my hands started shaking, and it took about 10 minutes to tie on a dry.




I manged a few browns from that hole, that wasn't much bigger than a 2 car garage.  After hooking several, losing most, and landing a few...they got wise to the idiot standing behind them.  I was just happy to be fishing dry's.




Around 9 am, I switched to a hopper/dropper and the fishing was...I lost count of how many I caught.  I decided to call my realtor and put the house up for sale...unfortunately, there's no cell service in the area.  I guess that's my only complaint for the day...if that's really something to complain about!




They mostly ate the dropper but a few wanted the hopper.  A 18-20" brown came and took a look, but the sudden increase in my heart rate must have sent him back down.  I finished around 1 pm, the water started to feel warm and the fish were taking longer to revive.  I had planned on fishing the evening, but I was completely satisfied with the day, and didn't feel a need to annoy any more browns.



10 comments:

  1. Drew
    Some outstanding browns and bows landed, I hope to get into some quality trout Friday on my trip to the Elk River in Tennessee. Keep up the good work landing those colorful rainbow and browns. Thanks for sharing

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    1. Thx Bill, I'll be sure to check out the report...have a great trip.

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  2. What? No Smallies? Just kidding. Haven't heard from you in a while. Impressive. I like my black Woollies. I've never landed a trout on dries. Once I get these smallmouth bass outta my system , I'll look to chase a few Browns on LRR.

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    1. Haha, That's what I was going to say to you, long time! I've made a few SMB trips but the tube hatch is in full force, plus since it's about 4 hrs from my house camping is required...it's too hot for that! I'm pretty frustrated with the LRR, the generation schedules, and tailwaters in AR. But, hopefully, in a week or 2, we'll get some low water on the LRR and I'll start fishing it again.

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  3. Those are some wonderful fish. I've always wanted to fish the driftless.

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    1. Thx bud. Judging by the water you fish regularly, I think you'd really enjoy the driftless.

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  4. I'm aboard with wanting to fish the Driftless. You hear about so much good fishing there is. Nice going Drew.

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    1. I'm addicted to the area. I start thinking about the next trip before I leave. My wife was also impressed...very cool place. Heading back again real soon , I hope!

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  5. Hi Drew, my name is Jon. I live down by Texarkana. On fly fish forums I usually go by "jonbo". I'm the one you kindly responded to today on the Arkansas/Missouri forums Little Red sub-forum about paddling a kayak up the LR. I followed your link to your blog here. Well, what a coincidence! I'm also planning to visit Decorah and the Driftless region. My wife's a huge planner, so we're talking November after the one coming, but we're planning on it. We think we're going to stay around Bear Creek where I'll probably do most of my fishing. There's some creek or small river just to the North or West I've ceen told I need to check out as well. Can't think of the name. Waterloo?

    The pictures you posted are really attractive. They're already getting me excited and it's about 15 months away! I didn't realize how picturesque that area is. I was wondering if you found any areas that we just have to visit. We'll most likely want to sleep in the same location for most of our stay. Once we unload we hate to pack again, but we love to take day trips. Is Madison, for example, or anywhere else in Wisconsin a particularly good place for a day trip?

    BTW, thanks for the info about the LRR. I'll probably try 'yakking down to Mossy Shoals and back'
    jonbo

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    1. Jonbo, Glad I could help on the forum. As far as the driftless...I have lots of information for you. Best to email me at: looknfishy@gmail.com
      I was also there in June, http://looknfishy.blogspot.com/2015/06/road-trip-2015.html, you should check it out...but it won't make waiting 15 months any easier! Thx for checking my blog out!

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