Cheeseland Opening Day

Drove in from Michigan Friday night into beautiful suburband Dodgeville WI
and checked into motel. Drive in wasn't too bad, I had to stop some for
hitting Chicago at rush hours and otherwise slow down to 70 during some of
the heavier drizzle.

Saturday began cloudy with temps in the mid 30's , I drove over to the
Fennimore area and up hwy 61 to county T. There were a few scattered cars
but no one in the secret spot. The secret spot has never failed me. The
water looked low and it was gin clear, i dispensed with the waders intending
only to fish from the bank and not planning on crossing the stream. Make a
mental note, if your going to walk on the bank of a Wisconsin spring creek
during snow melt and wear low cut hiking shoes, make damn sure the laces
are very tight. After extracting my shoe from the mud and getting the muddy
sock back into the shoe, i began fishing. By now the sun had come out and
when the wind did not blow it felt quite toasty.

After shaking off the rust i began to get hits on my GRHE, i took four
medium sized browns from the pool at the secret spot and a few more up and
down stream. I ended up stepping into the water a few time and I guess I
should have put on waders. The wet and muddy foot was starting to bug me so
I waddled back up to the auto, changed socks and drove around. I ended up at
the Iowa/WI border for lunch and a visit into the local Cabelas outfit. Man
that store is small. If anyone is interested they had some reddington and
ross stuff on closeout.

I came back the backroads stopping to investigate some smaller spots on the
delorme not bothering to cross reference the WI trout regs for correct
names. Got into a few brookies on a robert's yellow drake.

Lastly I stopped at the scene of last year's big rainbow loss. The
thermometer in the car said it was 46 and it felt warmer. The creek was high
and cloudy from snowmetl. The DNR guy stopped to check my license and told
me the stream had been clear until the sun came out and the morning guys had
better luck. They must have because nothing showed to my fly and I gave up
after an hour or so. Driving back to dodgeville for a shower and Culver's
butter burger.

Weather tomorrow is calling for the same as today, I'm going to check the
streams of Iowa county out before heading back to Fichigan. Got to make a
note to wear the waders even if I don't plan on wading.