Wandering Back To The Driftless - Part Three

As with all trilogies, the final installment may very well be the weakest, but I tried to save the best for last...the fishing portion of the Wisconsin trip!  (For installments one & two, click HERE & HERE)

Friday...

Very abbreviated fishing. As I mentioned in the first post, it was cold, windy, and wet, and I only fished for a half hour in Coon Creek, right down the road from where a group of us were meeting for dinner. 

Even with the short time and circumstances, the trout were cooperative. I managed two fish on my standard-issue "Road Kone" kebari. The dead drift wasn't working, however, a slightly upstream pulse of the fly seemed to get the fish moving. Even for all the pressure that Coon Creek receives, I thought these were some nice fish.

Saturday...

Saturday was a little bit of a mixed bag. It was still a little bit chilly, plus the Midwest Tenkara Fest was in full swing. There were a few gaps in the presentations that allowed time to sneak down to Coon Creek yet again throughout the day. Again, the same technique prevailed, a pulsed "Road Kone" seemed to get the fish to play. Here were two of the nicer fish, although you can tell the second one has clearly been in some battles.

I might have caught more on Coon Creek, but that pesky"Tenkara Gandalf" was out casting magical spells at fish all day.

After the Fest was over for the day, I drove up the road about 15 minutes to Bohemian Valley (it's well-known & posted, so I'm not spot burning) to take advantage of some of the final hours of sunlight. I had fished in the same spot last year, so I didn't want to waste too much time aimlessly searching for somewhere new to fish.

It's always odd to me fishing with cows looking on, but I didn't mind. I find it comforting to fish somewhere you're at least a little familiar with, and it definitely helped this time. I seem to recall struggling mightily with the long slick runs last go-round, however, this year I brought about a half dozen trout to hand, all pretty much carbon copies of the fish below.

Sunday...

Sunday was more Fest in the morning, however, for the most part the festivities broke up around 2 PM allowing everyone to go out and fish.

Using a tip from Len Harris, I journeyed a bit further away from the usual spots I had been fishing near Coon Valley to a pretty little semi-wooded stream about 45 minutes away that according to Len had "wild brookies & browns" in it. 

For whatever the reason I didn't find the brookies, but I did find the browns and they were a blast to catch in some of the close quarters. They'd just explode out of seemingly nowhere.

Also interestingly, this was the one stream that the "Road Kone" came up empty. Instead, I had much more luck with some files I purchased from Three Rivers Tenkara at the Fest. I'm not sure what they're called, but I started calling them "Naples Bugs" and they certainly worked well when drifted along the micro edges and small in-stream rocks. Definitely need more Naples Bugs in my fly box.

Monday...

The final day, and the one dedicated exclusively to sleeping-in and fishing all afternoon & evening. It was also the best day weather-wise of the extended weekend. After being downright cold most of the days, Monday was Sunny and 70 degrees. T-shirt weather!

Again, I decided to venture far from the area I had fished the first few days. I'm not going to tell you where I fished, but I freakin' hit the jackpot. While the fish weren't big, they were certainly plentiful. Brookies and browns galore! I think I caught a fish on 8 of my first 10 casts. That never happens. I stopped counting around 30, and believe me, I can tell you that never happens either!

Much like most of the other fish over the course of the weekend, the "Road Kone" was again the fly of choice. I ended up going through quite a few, not because I was losing them on rocks or in trees, but because the fish were mauling them. Ridiculous fun.

I could go on with more fish pictures, but I just stopped taking them after a while. And I'll tell you, not worrying about being skunked really allows one time to step back and admire the beauty of the region...and man, it's sooooo different than Florida.

Finally, in a bit of an ironic twist, while I flew all the way across the country to catch trout, the last fish to hand wasn't. It may have also been the smallest of the entire weekend. But no shame with my "tanago trophy" here.

A Look Back...

Reflecting on the weekend of fishing, I can't help but believe that some of the lessons on technique learned at the Midwest Tenkara Fest helped increase my success rate on the water. 

Last year, which was my first trip to the Driftless, I felt totally lost in the meadow streams. They appeared so glassy, slow, and featureless. A far cry from the higher gradient streams I was accustomed to fishing. I caught a few fish, but to say I struggled wouldn't have been a lie.

However, this year, utilizing some lessons about short, meticulous, upstream drifts from Discover Tenkara, as well as the realization taken from Paul Vertrees' presentation that all of the features I'm accustomed to fishing are still in these streams, they just happen to be submerged underwater, something definitely "clicked."

I found that applying those tactics led to an increased catch rate, and are yet another example of why if you have an open mind, attending events like the Midwest Tenkara Fest can be extremely beneficial for your fishing. I know it was for me.