TR- Blame it on Joel

Wisconsin Opener from my point of view.....

Pulled out of Indy late Friday evening setting sail for Wisconsin, after a
stop in Urbana for a few supplies and a $5 pack of smokes, set the cruise @
75 and cranked the CD player up when I was reminded my wife had taken the
car last week on some expensive shopping trip and changed the damn CD's!
What should have been Physical Graffitti, Quadrophenia, John Prine,
Aqualung, Dylan, and Rush was Celine Deon and Anne Murray. The speakers in
my car never sounded so bad. The Illinois state policeman was a little
concerned and none too pleased when I slamed the brakes and pulled over to
the side to see if she had at least left my CD's in the case. No such luck.
At least the officer had a sense of humor and appreciated my honesty when I
said I wasn't drunk - yet. After having my license and registration checked
and him satisified I did not normally park on the side of the interstate
tossing very bad CD's around the back of a car, I pulled back onto the
highway and reset the cruse. I managed to find a decent radio station at
least. Pulled into a motel north of Janesville WI about 1:30 in the morning
and hit the sack after letting Ralph do his thing.

Pulled back onto the highway in anticipation of meeting up with the boys.
Found my way into Mt. Horeb and the assigned meeting place. Saw one surly
lucking character in the back corner table with a Delorme, book, and the
mentioned Wilson Creek Hat. This had to be the Wolfgang. After sizing him up
and noticed that there was no foam coming out of his mouth I assumed that
he'd had his shots and Ralph the golden would be safe. About the time we had
finished exchanging greetings and such, Joel shows up fresh from a three
hour drive, a poker game, and short nap. After the restraunt bouncer came
back in, the server finally felt secure enough to offer us coffee and give
us menus. After admiring the various aforementioned DeLorme's and comparing
page numbers, we set about deciding where to fish. I had wanted to fish two
streams around Fennimore, and Joel had his choice. After being chased out of
the restraunt so they could like serve other people, damn fine breakfast
btw, we hit the highway.

We arrived in Fennimore without too much fanfare, only to find the The Three
B's was closed and I only had one spare leader and just 5 beers. For those
who care the Three B's stand for Beer, Bait, and Bargains. We motored on
down to Roger's Branch.

Getting out of the car, as was stated, we saw fish working and no other
fishermen, but being the smart experienced fisherman we are, and Wolfgang
and Joel probably afraid of the carnage that would happen when I sauntered
down the concrete embankment to get to the water went elsewhere only to find
a SUV hatch in process. So back to Rogers' Branch we go.

After the obligatory shot of Joel's Brandy and the obligatory minute to
admire each other's rods and reels, and watching Joel plan some scheme to
separate Wolfie from his Loop, we went on down to the stream. I reckon the
vibration from me walking near the bank scared the crap out of the fish,
cause they stopped rising. Wolfgang managed to roll a fish at his feet but
that was about it. Being the elitist I am, I started with a little michigan
parachute drake pattern I like. Joel, well Joel can work a stream faster
than a politician can work a fund raiser. One minute he's 50 yards
downstream from me and the next he's 300 yards upstream. I might be an
elitist but I'm also a whore, when my drake wasn't working I decided to go
subsurface. This is where I became reminded of something else.

Nothing, I mean nothing beats a vest. First off, when you're way overweight,
those new fangled fanny/chest fishing packs aren't very smart. You can't
bring the pack around to the front and change flies because of the gut, you
can't see the pack! Secondly they are too damn small to hold anything and as
luck would have it, I had pulled the nymph box out so it would close. After
removing the pack and finding one misplaced olive caddis pupae, I was
fishing again. And another thing, check your knots. After a couple of casts,
I felt a tug, I set the hook, felt the pull of a fish and then
nothing.........the damn knot had come undone. In the mean time Wolfgang and
Joel are now a half mile upstream and Ralph is collecting enough mud to fill
a mud wrestling pit running back and forth between us.

After meeting back at the autos and sampling some adult beverages we are off
to Fennimore for gas, and some gas producing snacks.

After being followed to Castle Rock Creek, only to find a half dozen cars in
"the secret spot", we went further down stream and parked accross from some
other folks who were leaving the stream. After getting some of Joel's brandy
they overcame their fear of us and continued to do whatever they were gonna
do before leaving.

As it has been stated, Joel and Wolfgang scampered on down to the stream
while I gave Ralph some refreshments, sipped some malt and rechecked the
fanny pack leaving my perfectly fine vest with a perfectly fine net
attached, snuggled in the bottom of my gear bag. I decided to stick to the
plan but at least time I made sure I had the appropriate flies in the pack.

I started closer to the road to them and was looking for Ralph when I
happened to see Wolfgang practice his Reid footwork. Sure hope he missed the
cow ****.

Well I managed to catch a little 6-8" brown in a small riffle and put a few
more fish down when I decided I should catch up to the boys. Funny thing
tho, everytime I would get close, they'd spy me coming and go further
upstream. Finally they got to a spot near a fence with the high waters and
us not wearing waders, they had no choice other than to wait for me to catch
up, they were trapped.

We had come to a pool where I knew some big fish used to live anyway. I had
taken the fly off of my line and was fairly undecided if I was going to keep
fishing or not. After a fish rose again and it ignored Wolfie's otherwise
fine offerings, I decided to go with Plan D.

There is an ugly Missouri fly that I just absolutely hate to use. It is
called a crackleback. But as I said earlier, I'm a whore, so on came the
crackleback, the split shot and the yarn indicator. I dredged it through the
pool a few times, but since toddlers walk better than I can toss weight on a
four weight, nothing was taking. But I'd caught a fish earlier and there was
cold beer left in the car, it was a good as time as any to leave.

But this damn fish just had to splash and I just had to fit myself on a
steep muddy bank over a steep damn hole with this ugly big assed nymph.
Second time I cast the yarn stopped I lifted the rod and the Hardy started
singing!

I have caught big bows in this stream before so I knew they were here. I
have seen fat trout, I have seen big trout, but never have I ever seen a
trout as big AND fat as this one. When I got my first brief view at it, I
really thought I had hooked a carp. Then it showed itself. We had a fairly
decent fight going on, it would run, I would reel in, it would run, etc. In
what was probably the first screw up of this fight, I tossed Wolfgang my
digital camera for the expected hero shot. Talk about bad Karma. After
cussing myself for not bringing my net, I started trying to figure an exit
strategy. There were no shallows nearby, the bank was steep and I almost
imitated Wolfgang's earlier footwork trying to get to a better spot to land
it. I knew if I bent over too far where I was standing gravity was going to
happen and my mass was going to send most of the water in the pool somewhere
else. In the mean time Wolfie's muttering some nonsense and Joel is telling
me to move right while Ralph smells dinner and wants to stand by my leg. I
move slightly over to the right and Joels slithers down to grab my fish. The
fish sees all this and I guess it decided it played with me enough and
ping....it was gone. But it was cool, I had it at my feet and if the tippet
had held another 15 seconds Joel would have been able to grab it. But as
they say, if your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle.

It was a cool end to a great day on the water with two great companions. I
can't wait to fish with both of them again.

We went our separate ways, I last saw Wolfie when I passed him on the
highway, and Joel when he passed me in Madison. I found a self serve doggie
wash and got the golden cleaned, grabbed a motel, showered and ate. The next
morning the weather was not as bad as promised but fishing at Black Earth
and some other places were slow and not even the crackleback worked so I
drove back into Chicago, stocked up on the malt, grabbed an Allman brother's
box set to fix my damn CD player, grabbed some cajun food and returned to
Indy.

Can't wait to do it again.

Wayne

"Wayne Knight" wrote...
Wisconsin Opener from my point of view.....
snip
I know I woulda liked this trip. Actually, right about now I'd probably like
*any* fishing trip. Nice TR, Wayne, thanks.
--
TL,
Tim
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

"Wayne Knight" wrote in message
...

Wisconsin Opener from my point of view.....

Well, I still think I did the mud part better, but aside from that I prefer
your version........hell, you made it sound FUN!

Wolfgang
and, yeah, again sounds like a plan.

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...


Well, I still think I did the mud part better, but aside from that I
prefer
your version........hell, you made it sound FUN!

Coming from you, I will take that as a compliment, you set the bar fairly
high.


and, yeah, again sounds like a plan.

Cool, there's this little run on the Prarie I've been longing to fish
again.........no big assed rainbows but some feisty brightly colored browns.
If only I can remeber which highway it was off of

On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 18:58:33 -0500, "Wayne Knight"
wrote:

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...


Well, I still think I did the mud part better, but aside from that I
prefer
your version........hell, you made it sound FUN!

Coming from you, I will take that as a compliment, you set the bar fairly
high.


and, yeah, again sounds like a plan.

Cool, there's this little run on the Prarie I've been longing to fish
again.........no big assed rainbows but some feisty brightly colored browns.
If only I can remeber which highway it was off of



We'll leave the light on for ya.


g.c.

Who's all most able to spit in the Prairie from his upstairs window.

(Alright, thats a blatant lie. But every morning during the spring and
early summer our screens contain resting mayflies who've fluttered the
block and a half up from the river to our house.)

"George Cleveland" wrote in message
...
We'll leave the light on for ya.
[snip]

(Alright, thats a blatant lie. But every morning during the spring and
early summer our screens contain resting mayflies who've fluttered the
block and a half up from the river to our house.)

Ah George, I'll be visiting this spring. Wanna go fishing?

"George Cleveland" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 18:58:33 -0500, "Wayne Knight"
wrote:

...there's this little run on the Prarie I've been longing to fish
again.........no big assed rainbows but some feisty brightly colored
browns.
If only I can remeber which highway it was off of



We'll leave the light on for ya.


g.c.

Who's all most able to spit in the Prairie from his upstairs window.

(Alright, thats a blatant lie. But every morning during the spring and
early summer our screens contain resting mayflies who've fluttered the
block and a half up from the river to our house.)

Well, there you have it, Wayne. There MAY be a rock or two in the Prairie
that brother George don't know........but you'll get no good odds on it
around here.

Wolfgang
and you'll have no trouble getting testimony on his worth as a smallmouth
guide neither.

"Wolfgang" wrote....

and you'll have no trouble getting testimony on his worth as a smallmouth
guide neither.

I'll vouch for that. He's goood.

Joel Axelrad
**DFD**

On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 22:00:23 -0500, "Wayne Knight"
wrote:

"George Cleveland" wrote in message
.. .
We'll leave the light on for ya.
[snip]

(Alright, thats a blatant lie. But every morning during the spring and
early summer our screens contain resting mayflies who've fluttered the
block and a half up from the river to our house.)

Ah George, I'll be visiting this spring. Wanna go fishing?


Yes.

g.c.