Driftless Streamers - Friday the 13th - New Brook Trout Stream

The forecast was calling for rain the next 4 days, so I thought it would be a good idea and get out before it rained to much and muddied things up.  The sky's were gray and it looked like the rain could fall at any moment.  Ah the perfect time to head out I thought as the raindrops started to spatter my deck.  I had a stream in mind that I was hoping to get permission on so I headed over the hill and proceeded to start asking.  I ended up stopping at 3 different farms and was granted permission to fish the entire stretch I was hoping to.  It may have been Friday the 13th but things were looking good to me :) 

Trouts Paradise

I recently did a fly swap with John of the blog : --- Currents --- He sent some beauty streamers my way and I sent some nice fluffy dry flies his way.  When I received the package in the mail I was super pumped to get out there and send some of these flies deep.  This stream had nice dark green deep holes at every bend, what better of a place to test them out.   I tied one on and trailed it with a small bead head then proceeded to gear up.  Here are the streamers from John of Iowa's Driftless Area.  Superb!

Which One is Your Favorite ?

The Clouds Role in and SO DOES THE WIND !!

No sooner had I stepped foot onto the stream when the rain stopped and a new form of clouds rolled in and brought some hellacious winds with them.  Let's just say tossing a streamer with a trailer soon had me  wondering if my luck was about to change and I could maybe end up in the emergency room removing a fly from the back of my head :)  Well as usual  I stuck with my plan and proceeded to straight bomb the water with streamer number 1.  The first cast that hit its mark was rewarded with a nice 10 inch Brookie on the deep retrieve.  I was so excited and so was the Brookie, the next thing I know it slipped from my hand back into the stream just as quick as it came.  Oh well I was just stoked to see that Brookies inhabited the stream.  The next hole I ran the fly deep but retrieved it upstream and had a bite, then the fly was gone.  Huge trout or snapping turtle, not quite sure.  Bummer!  I quickly tied on a new streamer and it soon proved to be a good choice.

This Fly was the Bee's Knee's for sure.  Love the Olive !

Hungry Fella !! There ya Go!

Another one bites the Bugger :)

Why is the sound of water so peaceful ? :)

Even the little ones couldn't resist a meal almost half their size.

Fish of the day was a nice 17.5 inch Brown female that took me for a ride.

I moved downstream to the next stretch and it was windier than ever.  The farmer told me that back in the 80's there were more than 600 horses being pastured above his land on a state owned property.  He said the water was as brown as chocolate milk and that every last fish was killed.  It amazes me how quickly some of these streams recover with a little help from the land owners, Trout Unlimited and the states DNR projects.  The first cast in and a nice Brown came to hand on the same streamer as above.  Due to all the wind knots and the heavy fly I would end up losing that sweet bugger after all.  I ended up tying on a wild streamer that I had tied up the night before and was excited to see it produce some fish itself.  

Nicest colors of the day award.

Wild Cat Streamer did the trick.  The fish hit as soon as the fly hit the water.

The wind ended up besting me after fishing a few hours and the rain never did fall.  As I type this post the forecast for today was 70's with thunderstorms-clouds and it is 70's and sunnier than ever.  The best way to check the weather is to just get out there and do some fishing :)  The day proved to be worth the effort and I am just glad that Friday the 13th ended up luckier than unlucky :) 

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