TR: Adrift in the Driftless...

Back a couple weeks ago, I found myself in SE
Minnesota with an afternoon to kill (beats sitting
in a motel room! :-). Long story, not germane to
the topic at hand. At any rate, had my 8' 4 wt.
Stowaway behind the seat, along with my gear (had
intended to fish with my brother down there, but
his schedule and other events made it impossible).
At the time, I was in Rochester, and knew there
were some good streams not terribly far away.
Consulting my references, I decided to head down
US 52, just past Chatfield, and head over to
Trout Run, a fine spring creek with a good mix of
open and wooded sections.

Got to where I needed to turn, past Chatfield,
but the road was closed for construction. :-(
Proceeded down US 52 to a rest area to get out
the maps and formulate an alternate route. This
rest area was right on the banks of the Root river,
which is also reputed to be fine trout water, and
indeed was serving dual duty as a boat/canoe launch
area. Bigger water than I was looking for though,
as I was much more in an "intimate" stream frame
of mind.

Looped up around the construction, and found
the road I needed to find, and soon found myself
at a crossing over Trout Run. Pasture upstream,
more wooded down. About four vehicles parked
there, which kinda put me off, and I proceeded
to the next crossing, about 1/4 mile upstream.

Had been raining most of the time in the
days before I got there, and the water was a fair
bit off colour. Looked fishable though, and there
were a couple anglers there, one upstream, and one
below the bridge. The one below the bridge was
just coming off the water, and reported the action
as "slow". Hmmm... Oh well, I'm here, and it's
a nice day, so I'm going fishing! :-) Strung up,
geared up, and headed for the upstream section.
Met the other angler on his way out, and his report
was more dismal than the first. Oh, but it looked
*so* inviting upstream... :-)

I worked my way about a half mile upstream, and
at the furthest point of the expedition started seeing
the odd rise along the banks and under overhanging
cover. My luck on streams has *not* been terribly
good, and I was looking to break the "stream jinx".
The rises made me thing "terrestrials", so I changed
to a black fur ant, and started casting to likely
looking spots. Missed a rise, and then, several
minutes later, hooked into an ~10" brown. He LDR'd
himself after about 10 sec. A few minutes later, I
got a repeat performance. But, at least I was pricking
them! :-)

Decided it was about time to start working back
downstream, and since the two that did take hit more
or less sunk ants (I left the floatant in the car), I
thought maybe a change to something subsurface was
in order. With the water a bit dirty, maybe something
easier to see as well. Tied on a local pattern called
a "Black Wet Fly", #14, which is supposed to be a
general drowned terrestrial pattern, but also, to my
eye, looks like a fair caddis pupa imitation as well.

Started working downstream, doing the "wet fly swing",
probing likely looking spots. No real success, *until*
I got to a riffle that had quite a clump of overhanging
trees. A riffle with *cover*? How could there *not*
be fish in there? :-)

Walked out onto a little spit of land, where there
was a slot in the trees directly across from me. Good
place to set a cast and let it swing... Didn't take
me long to see if my theory had been right. About
the third cast, I get *nailed* by a 10" brown, who
rockets upstream (good thing, as the downstream overhang
was actually *touching* the water, and it could have
got *real* interesting if he'd gone the other way! :-),
and gave me a couple jumps before coming to hand.

The curse is lifted! Given the situation,
circumstance, and past experience on spring creeks,
it would have been hard to find a more beautiful fish
than the one in my hand at that moment. And, he wasn't
clipped -- first wild brown on a spring creek! Too
cool!

Could have left then and there, and been *more*
than happy, but I still had some time to kill, and
figured there *had* to be at least one or two more
fish in there. Worked the fly back under the cover
again, and in a couple casts, hooked another wild
brown. :-) Pretty much a twin of the first. Decided
to tempt the fates yet again, and kept working the
spot. Missed one, and then finally got hung in the
cover and had to bust the fly off.

Still, all was right with the world, I had the
stream to myself, and I *didn't* want to call it
a day just yet. Fished my way back downstream, losing
the rest of the Black Wet flies I had in the process.
Guess the fish gods were telling me it was time to go.
Lost the last one in a tree on the far bank, trying to
get at a big brown (maybe 17") I saw rise under a rock
overhang. Never could get the fly to drift over him
from the bank (maybe wading, but I didn't have waders
with me). Looked like the locals had educated him
nicely, judging from the amount of hardware up in that
tree (now including one of my flies...). :-)

Once the last fly was gone, I noticed it clouding
up, and with storms in the forecast, pretty well knew
it was time to get out of there. Had not made it back
to Rochester before it started to storm. Seemed like
everything worked out... :-)

I put some pictures and commentary he

http://buran.cc.misu.nodak.edu/fishing/tr05_04.html

Very probably couldn't make a Driftless clave
this year (if one comes off), but maybe some of you
can take a look and see what one of the area streams
looks like. I couldn't argue with the beauty of the
section of Trout Run I fished, and things like wild
irises, whitetail fawns, and such were quite distracting
at times. :-) Hoped to run into some morels for the
pot, as it was the season, but never did find any (not
that I looked as hard as I might have -- was more
compelled to probe the water and generally explore :-).
Would be hard to beat the experience, all the way
around! :-)

Todd