TR Grand Marais, Minnesota

Greetings from the north woods. It's a nice cool 52F as
I type this morning, quite a difference from the sauna
we left in Illinois.

I took Kipper the Hound and fished the Cascade River for
awhile yesterday afternoon. The water is very low. It's
the second consecutive year of drought up here and the
river is lower now during the last week of August than
it was when I was here last year during the second week
of September. But the thermometer registered a cool 65F
so in we go.

Fished a couple of pools upstream of the parking area,
the first fish to hand was a fat little brookie with a
brilliant orange belly. It was to be the only brookie
of the day. Kipper is 11 years old now and try as he
might he couldn't get across the stream. He finally
gave up trying and climbed to the top of the bluff where
he could keep an eye on me and laid down. I caught a few
little rainbows and then headed back to the car for a
Budweiser break.

Kipper indicated that he was ready to call it a day but
we took off downstream. There is a well traveled trail
all along that portion of the Cascade River so you can walk
as far as you wish down the trail then fish your way back
upatream to the parking area. Hidden Falls is just over a
quarter mile downstream so we jumped off the trail there.
Spent a very pleasant hour and a half catching feisty
rainbows before a much needed rain blew through. A fine
day astream with my hound dog.

Today I go canoeing in search of smallmouth bass.

--
Ken Fortenberry