2 Trout You’re Probably Missing
A few seasons ago I had an eye-opening moment. It was the last morning of a last-minute early spring camping trip along one of our favorite trout rivers. The creek was a popular spot, and the trout in those campground pools saw all kinds of poorly presented flies and spinners and worms throughout the course of a weekend. I hit the water early in the morning and worked my way upstream from camp, fishing the pools and obvious spots, and catching a few trout here and there on a nymph. I had just finished drifting a gorgeous, deep pool without much luck and decided to cross the creek and hit a section of faster, shallow water. It didn’t look like much. In fact, most of the water was only about a foot or two deep, flowing swiftly over small rocks and boulders for about thirty yards before emptying into another breathtaking hole.…
Bass Opener 2014
I don’t think there’s a more highly anticipated day in our fishing season than the bass Opener, though this year it nearly didn’t happen. The plan was to hit the North Shore in hopes of catching the early stages of the steelhead run, but, like any event in nature, it’s a fickle phenomena that depends on a dizzying number of variables that even the best of anglers still don’t quite understand. The fish hadn’t yet entered the rivers, so we ended up calling off the trip with no small amount of anguish. It was a bittersweet decision, but it meant that we got to hit the lake for bass Opener, which isn’t exactly a horrible consequence if you ask me. I learned long ago to not form any serious expectations around fishing trips. Having a well-formed plan and high expectations (not to be confused with optimism, which is an entirely different…
Top Flies for Driftless Area Trout: Guides, Fly Shop Owners, and Trout Bums Pick Their Favorite Patterns for Driftless Spring Creeks
Under-the-radar flies that will help you catch more fish in the spring creeks of the Driftless Area… The Driftless is an amazing and unique fishery, and it arguably holds some of the most fascinating spring creeks in the world. Though standard trout flies catch their share of fish, a few unique patterns have sprung up from the special set of circumstances a spring creek brings a trout fisherman. A few guides, fly shop owners, and avid trout bums have graciously agreed to share some of their favorite trout patterns for the spring creeks of the Driftless Area. Some are standard trout patterns that have been tweaked for local waters, but most have been tied, tested, and developed specifically for the trout of the Driftless Area. Dave Anderson, On the Fly Guide Service Dave Anderson is a veteran guide on the streams and creeks of southeastern Minnesota’s Driftless Area. After…
So It Begins
April 14, 2014 Nearly all anglers have their opening day rituals, and we’re no different. Some involve early mornings, others involve dry flies, and all involve an unrealistically high dose of expectations and optimism. Though it’s hardly a “ritual,” Braden and I fished a small stream (we’ll call it Frustration Creek) on Minnesota Trout Opener for the second year in a row. It’s a torturous little creek, flowing deep, weedy, and horribly narrow, even in spring floods. A seemingly impenetrable wall of brush chokes the banks of the stream, intimidating even the most gifted of fly casters. If it didn’t scare off most anglers, I wouldn’t be surprised if a handful of innovative new casting maneuvers were invented from its soggy banks each year. The fish are another story if you can bear the brush. According to electroshocking surveys (a method I’ve been tempted to resort to on a…
Freezing on Taneycomo
March 18, 2014 Warm, temperate, Missouri-springweather was hardly what we got on our day on Taneycomo. Really, it was more like hand-numbing, shivering, freeze-your-waders-off kind of weather. But it sure beats snow and negative fifty-something like we’ve had back home. We stopped in Branson on the way back from Texas and hit Taneycomo. Braden and I stuck it out for most of the day despite rain and temps in the 40’s. I figured the miserable weather would discourage most anglers from fishing today, but I failed to calculate the horrible affects that cabin fever has on a fly fisher’s restless mind – there were still plenty of anglers plying the frigid waters with flies. We followed the typical ritual that we perform each time we hit Taneycomo. Grab a few layers of clothes (which happened to be quite a bit this time around), stop at River Run Outfitters for licenses (an awesome shop…