OH THIEVING MISTRESS OF THE STREAM - WHY!

Today was one of those days where I had a hard time deciding whether or not  to head out fishing early morning.  I decided to go for it since I woke up early and had fishing on the brain.  I ended up going to a stream about 45 minutes from my home.  I really hoped the fish would be biting since I was making such a long hull to get there.  I was hoping to catch a big brown out of this stream.  There have been some huge fish caught out of this stream, so my hopes were high.  So after making my decision I set off.  The fog on the way was so thick that I was forced to drive extra slow.  Just what you would expect on an early morning adventure in the Driftless.

 When I arrived I noticed a few campers at the camping area.  Oh well hopefully no one went downstream fishing yet.  I scanned the area and only saw heads poking out upstream from my location.  With my gear on and the sun starting to really come out, I booked it to the stream.  I headed downstream and soon discovered the grass was extra tall here as well as a lot of others streams lately.  Followed the deer trail to avoid getting sopping wet right away.  Didn't work really well.  My pants were soaked instantly and my new water shoes I bought that same morning were wet as well.  It is a good thing they are water shoes.  :)

While I was walking along the bank I noticed this Mother duck go squawking up ahead of her youngsters pretending to be hurt.  Then all of the sudden the little youngsters came swimming out from the tall grass in a hurry.  In the picture you can see the Mother duck really raising a ruckus.  Great motherly protection instincts.   Quite the show.

  

  

    

  I noticed that the water was running high, fast and cloudy.  The water was kind of like a grayish green chalk color.  I could see leaves and debris floating in and on top of the water.  After fishing for about 20 minutes without a single bite, I was starting to wonder if the fish were to full of floating by food to get rowdy about any of my flies.  

  

 I kept fishing and hoping that a change of fly was in order.  Changed the fly, still no bites.  Now this is quite unusual for this stream.  By now you would at least have had a bite by now.  Whatever.  I tried not to get discouraged.  My chances of catching a big trout were starting to fade the faster the sun came up.  It was starting to get hot and if they weren't active yet, I wasn't sure when they would be.  I hadn't even seen so much as a rise up to this point.  Alright that's it, time to change to the trusty ole Castle Rock Killer with trailer fly.  First cast in and a fish finally attacked it.  Then a couple more decided to follow suit.

  

   I continued to fish for a couple more hours with only a little luck and a lot of sweat.  It was really getting warm and I was getting really tired.  Lack of sleep as usual was starting to make me regret my hour long drive.  Its not because the fish weren't being very cooperative, but more because of the fact that the water just seemed off.  To fast and full of snags that I couldn't see was definitely getting old.  So I decided to just sit down and take a load off my feet.  Maybe some time is all the fish needed.  Here is a picture of some water shoes I scored from Wal-Mart because I forgot my footwear at home.  I really liked the way they felt and was pretty excited about my $7.oo purchase.  Excited until I noticed all the gaping holes that had opened up since I started hiking along the stream.  It's a good thing the except returns. 

    

  I finally reached the end of the public land and decided to head to another stream instead of going after any more fish in this particular creek.  I knew of another creek over the hill that I have been wanting to check out.  It is a beautiful area full of rock croppings that make you fell like your in small mountain country.  When I arrived the hawk was high in the sky.  This could be a good sign.  Right?:)

   

  This creek was a little smaller but it to had some weird gray look to the water.  Usually these creeks are crystal clear and perfect water level.  Maybe it had been raining over in this area and I just didn't know about it.  I decided to just check out how the holes were and went for a hike along the stream.  I look forward to coming back to this last creek when the conditions are more suitable.  I hiked and fished for about an hour before I decided to call it quits.  I made it back to the Subaru and quickly realized something was missing.  Crap.  Lost my Joby tripod.  Went back and looked for it until the heat was to much.  Damn you thieving mistress of the stream.  Damn YOu!! 

    

  

Well thats a quick summary of my day.  The fish were few, but the beauty was everywhere.  I hopped into my ride feeling sort of defeated by the stream today.  It might not have seemed so bad if I would have found my tripod, but that wasn't meant to be.  Maybe I will find it next time I head over to that stream.

Until Next Time..............Tight Lines to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!