As quickly as I touched down in Madison, Brad was there to choose me up. We made the mandatory stops for groceries, lunch, after which headed north into the Driftless, dropping off the camper at Jerome Kohout’s combined use campground the place he additionally grazes his cattle. Brad has camped right here for years and it is a particular place although it is suggested you watch your step for cow pats in the midst of the evening if you might want to take a stroll to the outhouse.
The streams that we fished over these few days had been excellent 3-weight water. Chances are you’ll be asking your self, “What makes for an ideal 3-weight fly rod?” At the least for my part, it is three issues. This fly rod needs to be fiberglass, it normally would not should be longer than seven foot, and it ought to have an motion and taper that falls on the spectrum of full-flexing and even what some would say feels sluggish. I am certain there are some graphite (gasp…) and bamboo that might test these bins however I do not learn about them.
As this journey approached, I put collectively a rigorously curated Sea Run Case with six fly rods, which I will deep dive into in one other publish, two of which had been cherished 3-weights with the Ijuin-Rod Yomogi (constructed by Kazutomo Ijuin) and a C. Barclay Fly Rod Co. Blue Ridge Particular 68 (constructed by Chris Barclay). Each of those fly rods are paired with a Japanese-made KINEYA Sort out Maker fly reel, which simply raises the extent of aesthetic perfection of every outfit.
Fly choice was straightforward with small foam hopper patterns and although it might need yielded just a few extra fish, I did not hassle with dropping a nymph off the again bend of the hook. I will take pure dry fly solely eats over treating that very same fly as an indicator. I find yourself fishing hopper/dropper tandem rigs in a different way than if I’m solely casting a single floating fly. And, actually, F$&% nymphs. That may be a scorching take however it’s late summer time within the Driftless. Let small foam hoppers float excessive and swirl within the corners, close to the undercuts, and alongside the tall weed lined riffles and runs. Look ahead to the sluggish rise of a trout nosing up the floor.
Brad and I took a protracted stroll downstream by way of a collection of pastures making an attempt to time how lengthy it’d take us to get again to the bridge. Chase from Oak & Oscar had left Chicago that morning and was planning to satisfy us on the pin that we despatched him for the afternoon. This is able to divide our day into two halves and I spent this morning session with the Yomogi. It was overcast however heat. Hoppers of a number of sizes jumped and flew out of our manner as we walked by way of the pasture and although none of them had been pink and purple, these colours of the froth flies labored higher than extra pure tones of tans and brown.
Whereas Brad and I had been fishing one of many final zig zags of the steam close to the bridge, we heard from Chase that he was gearing up on the automotive. He made good time from Chicago and this was a ok excuse to stroll again to crack a beer and snack on some chips. I took a second to place collectively the Blue Ridge Particular 68 and tied on a contemporary hopper because the couple that I used all morning had been a bit chewed up.
Chase and I made a decision to work our manner upstream and Brad needed to circle again to some areas downstream for a second strive. We crashed our manner by way of tall grass and weeds that a lot of it was taller than Chase and I. This wasn’t the identical pasture water that I had fished by way of the morning and it required cautious quick casts, at all times trying behind you to guarantee that the backcast would not get wrapped up. A number of trout rose to Chase’s fly and it wasn’t too lengthy earlier than he slid a brown trout into his web.
I despatched the primary solid close to the tail out of the nook, then one other into
the riffle to the entrance fringe of the nook, after which one final solid deeper in that landed within the riffle and was shortly swept alongside the financial institution. I
watched because the hopper floated excessive in opposition to the grass after which it
disappeared. I raised the fly rod as much as really feel the instant weight of a
trout and watched as a big, at the very least for this water, brown trout swam out of
the undercut financial institution. Moments later, I used to be in a position to transfer this brown trout
right into a thick weed mattress to admire it for a second earlier than
eradicating the fly and coaxing it again into the deep water. What a trout to cap off an already great day. I possible did not deserve it however typically issues work out that manner.
The solar was falling behind the forest once I met up with Brad and Chase to stroll again to the vehicles. With the tailgates up, all of us cracked a beer to have fun a stellar day on the water. After that final brown trout, I did not really feel the necessity to fish once more this journey, although I might.
