Tribute to the VETS

Yea, they may look like old timers and I sure did give them a hard time, but here are three Vietnam vets and between them there is probably 75 years of service to the U.S. Navy and the citizens of the United States. It was guys like this that the back of our country was built upon. I thought this photo was a fitting tribute.

More Driftless 3.0

Well, I got a great CD of in the mail from Floppy today so I thought I would share a few of the great photos. Floppy has a knack of catching you at the right moment. 

This one is titled..."WHO FARTED". As you can tell from the grin on his face my bet is on Stinkbug. Floppy and Q-ball seem to be trying to hold their breath.

I am not exactly sure what is happening here. Stinkbug must have an itch.

Floppy landed a great shot of Me and Stinkbug

 

Floppy's very first SELFIE. An old dude with a smart phone is not always pretty.

When you play FARKLE you must keep a constant eye on the one around you. 

Camp Life

Driftless 3.0

We started off with a bit of good news/bad news this year. Sasquatch, the man who swore he would never reproduce, ended up eating his words. That is the Good news. Tadpole (the wee ones name) showed up a couple months before our 2015 fishing trip trip, so Sasquatch decided to stay home and give momma a hand. That was the bad news. Another bit of Good news…Tadpole is a beautiful baby that takes after her momma. Good thing too. Imagine if she would have come out with a goat beard and dreadlocks. Hmmmm.

So to fill Sasquatch’s spot Q-ball, Stinkbug and I looked high and low for a replacement. In the end it was mostly the low places that we found the most suitable candidates of our fishing group. This is where we found “Floppy” Thompson. Now, Floppy it turned out was eerily similar to Q-ball and Stinkbug. First off he was a Navy SeaBee, secondly, he is an old guy and thirdly, he cannot hear shit without his hearing aids in. Boy, did he fit right in with our group. Oh, I forgot to mention that he has a plethora of really bad jokes that he can call up on demand from the neither reaches of his mind. So the group was set. It was me and the geriatric three amigos.We are hoping that Sasquatch will be able to join us next year, but I am not sure the state of Minnesota could handle five of us at one time. LOL

 

Stinkbug, Floppy, Q-Ball and Boot

  

Driftless Brown

Why Floppy?

Most of the members of the group have a nickname based on a physical characteristic they possess. Q-Ball is as bald as a baby’s ass, Sasquatch is as hairy as…well Sasquatch, and Stinkbug is not so much named for a characteristic that he possesses, but rather one that he is able to produce, seemingly at will and with varying degrees of lethalness.

I struggled at first coming up with Floppy’s nickname. At first I thought of “Old Dude”, but then I found out he was the youngest of the geriatric three I had with me at the spry age of 67 years old. The next thought I had was for a nickname was “earplug” because he couldn’t hear anything, but I hated giving someone a nickname based on his dis-ability, unlike Stinkbug who is actually named after his ability.

As we sat down on the first day to put on our waders and go fishing…BOOM! Out comes this hat. What it really reminded me of was “KARL” the Grounds Keeper. You remember Bill Murray’s character KARL the Grounds Keeper from the movie “CADDYSHACK” and his obsession with getting that evil gopher. The funny looking floppy hat that Karl wore in the movie had been transcended to Minnesota and was now resting on Floppy Thompson’s head. So thus we dubbed him “FLOPPY” and his name has been set. 

 

Floppy Thompson - That hat says it all!

Driftless 3.0 Fishing Report

So how was the fishing you ask? In a word…Great. This was our third year to head into the Driftless area to fly fish and it was the best yet. Two years ago we came to Minnesota after a historic flood that had scoured everything and took most of the aquatic life with it. The fishing was good and we had a great time, but the fish were a bit on the small size. Last year we took off to Viroqua and fished the Kickapoo and Coulee’s in SE Wisconsin. The fishing was good, but the camping accommodations did lack a little bit and you had to drive a half hour one way to get to the stream. The fishing this year in Minnesota topped them all. First, we hit great weather, which always helps. Secondly, the trout were hungry. We had a great time fishing dry flies such as Hendrickson, Caddis and Sulphurs in the late mornings and early evenings. During the warmer and sunnier parts of the day we had success on small nymphs and stripping leeches. And finally, the state of Minnesota installed a slot limit a few years ago on the Root River, which protects trout between 12 and 16 inches. This seems to have really made a different. We landed several 13-16 inch fish this year. In 2013, I landed only one fish over 12 inches. I would say their plan worked and the fishing has improved drastically. 

Another Driftless Brown Trout

Wasn't hard to figure out what they were rising to. These Hendrickson's were everywhere

I told you these guys were old. Naps were quite commons.

We have to say thanks you Ms. Laura for keeping us well fed.

 

Have to thank MOM also. She knows my favorite

 

No camp is complete without several rousing games of FARKLE dice. I am sure they heard us hooting and hollering all over the campground

Fly Shop review of the Driftless Fly Fishing Company

The Driftless Fly Fishing Company is an ORVIS flyshop located in Preston, Minnesota only a half block off of the town square. It is a small fly shop, which has only been open for about a year, but they seem to be moving forward. They have fairly odd hours during the week (7:00 to 9:00 pm), but they are open all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday.  Their stock seems to be limited and they don’t have everything, but what can you expect from a small shop. They have a small selection of the standard of flies from the area and the prices seeme din line with any other flyshop. They also have the necessities to handle any emergency such as waders, boots, and the like. I only noticed about a dozen fly rods in the shop. I didn’t really look at the prices, but they are an Orvis shop so I would imagine you could expect the Orvis prices. 

Floppy landing a fish he hooked on a dry fly

I believe in shopping the local fly shops when I go into any new area. Between the four of us we spend about $100 on a couple dozen flies, hats and T-shirts for those back home. The owner is friendly and willing to give some general information, tips and pointers for fishing in the area. The information given was something that any experienced flyfishermen could figure with time, but talking with the local flyshop usually speeds up the process. That being said, they do run a guide service out of the shop so I am sure they hold information close to their vest and part it out to their own clients. I don’t blame them a bit, that is just business. They currently don’t have their Minnesota fishing license so if you need a fishing tag or trout stamp you will need to go somewhere else. I personally recommend the Quick shop in downtown Wykoff. It is close to the campground and they are super friendly.  The Driftless Fly Fishing Company is a nice little shop that I am sure will get better with time.

 

In closing. Went up there and fished for the week only to find out that humans are not allowed to fish. Seems only the fish can go fishing. Who knew?

Going Driftless is going on the road to Boliver, Missouri on August 4th.

If you have the time and the inclination try to make it to the TRI-LAKE Flyfihsers monthly meeting on August 4th in Boliver, Missouri. I will be giving a presentation called "GOING DRIFTLESS..." I will discuss fly fishing opportunities in Southeastern Minnesota and Southeastern Wisconsin. It is bound to be a hoot. Hope to see you there.

Boot

More 2014 Driftless oddities...First Fishes and new caddis'

Here are a couple more interesting tid-bits from our the recent trip to the Driftless area in Wisconsin. Both come from the Kickapoo.
 

Net spinning Caddis

The first is a really interesting Caddis I seen. Actually, it is the caddis house more than the caddis itself. This little guy built or spin a little net that looked like a cabana . The water would flow in to the opening and to the back where he lived on the scraps that floated in. I had heard of these net spinners, but this is the first I have ever seen. Pretty Cool.

Q-Balls first brown Trout

Okay, so Q-Ball may not quite classify as an complete oddity, but I have to show you a photograph of his first ever brown trout. This came on what else...a PINK SQUIRREL.

2014 - Going DRIFTLESS...version 2.0

During our 2^nd annual Driftless Fishing trip we ended up in southwest Wisconsin, more specifically, Viroqua, Wisconsin. In addition to “Stinkbug” and “Sasquatch”, this year we added a newbie to the group “Q-ball”. With a bald head like that there is no question where he got his name. 

2014 Driftless Crew...Boot, Q-ball, Stinkbug, and Sasquatch

The first two days we had pretty good success fishing on the Kickapoo River located east of Viroqua. The water was great and the fish seemed eager to bite, especially on leeches, coulee scuds and of course pink squirrels. 

Coulee Scud. One of the most productive flies we used all week

The first two days on the Kickapoo River looked great. Lots of fish and great water.

Two days into out trip the rains set ina nd the Kickapoo River was Blown out and muddy the remainder of the week

After a couple days the rains set in, the bigger creeks rose quickly and turned to mud. We had no other choice but to go to the more technical smaller streams of the Coulee Creek system. These streams are a bit more difficult and can drive a person crazy if they are not used to fishing them. The best success was seen fishing up stream with dry flies. The fish were not huge by comparison, but for a small Driftless area stream they were wonderful. Each day I was able to land a dozen fish with the largest reaching 12 inches. For the Coulee System that didn’t seem bad to me at all. 

Spring Coulee Creek...Small technical stream with great rewards

Spring Coulee reward

I should mention that there is a great little fly shop on the main drag in Viroqua called the Driftless Angler. They were more than willing to help us plan our trip over the last few months and even helped us to find places to fish after the rains had set in. Check them out and tell Matt and Geri (the owners) we said Hi. They are super nice. Always to support your local fly shop!

 

One of the greatest things about Wisconsin is their ability to brew beer. Leinie's Red Lager is something we cannot get here in the midwest., but you can there. My recommendation is to give this a try. You will not be disappointed.

YUM!

The fly shop has an apartment upstairs, but if you want to camp the Vernon County park system is great. They have all the amenities that you could ask for...clean showers, quiet campsites, and centrally located. Sidie Hollow was really nice and the price was right. About $20 a night. Cannot beat that anywhere.

More to come soon. Including a photos of Q-Ball's first Brown Trout, Stinkbugs worse joke of the week and great photos of our 2014 Driftless Area trip.

Going Driftless

Our first trip to southeast Minnesota to fish the “driftless” area was a wonderful success. We caught several fish. All wild browns…none of them huge, but they were beautifully colored and loved to fight. We fished the south branch of the Root River, primarily around the Forestville State Park area in Fillmore County. 

Me with a small Minnesota Brown. Average fish was about 9-10 inches with the largest about 12 inches

The streams were absolutely beautiful. A major spring flood had just crested 10 days before we got there so the stream was still in a transition stage, but the fishing didn’t seem to be impacted too bad. 

Here is Mel "Sasquatch" Freeman fishing the south branch of the Root River

 

While the books say that the second week of June is the Brown Drake and Light Sulfur hatch, the heavy floods that just receded probably played a big part of this years light hatch. The hatch chart may not have been right, but just as predicted the Pink Squirrel turned out to be a fly to fish. Bouncing one of them off the bottom worked well. However, not mentioned in any the books were the fishes hunger for olive and brown Mike’s Mohair leeches. 

 

Here is the whole Crew. Boot Pierce, Mel "Sasquatch" Freeman, and Larry "Stink Bug" Pierce

This photo is tilted "Who farted"...guess who?

Nearby - White Water Creek

 One of the really awesome things about Minnesota is the relationship between the Department of Natural Resources and landowners. Much of the fishing is on private property, but the owners have leased to the DNR public access to the stream banks. It is an amazing concept that opens up so much more water for fishing.  This stream actually just went through some major stream rehabilitation efforts thanks to the local Trout Unlimited chapter. They did a wonderful job with lots of undercuts and rock work.

 

Me over looking another part of the Root River. Note: the rise rings in stream behind me. Some light sulfurs were hatching...mostly late in the evening.

 Don't go to Minnesota expecting huge trout. The streams in the upper portion of the basins are small and the fish are wild browns. Most of the fish ranged from between 9 to 10 inches. The largest I landed was a 12 incher

Pink Squirrels

Mel Tying up a batch of Pink Squirrels

 Forestville State Park is a great place to base your fishing trip from. It has a great campground, hot showers, and is within walking distance to several miles of fishable stream. I would recommend checking you the Minnesota DNR webpage. They have all kinds of information on where to fish, the rules and regulations, and maps of all the fishing areas.

Great place to start a fishing trip to Minnesota's "Driftless" Area

There is even the random Sasquatch siting as they travel back and forth across the river. Mostly to drift pink squirrel nymphs through the deeper holes.

Root River at Historic Forestville, MN.