''Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting."
Cormac McCarthy
The Driftless...Spring creeks...Dairy cows...Trout...
Fishing The Driftless has always been a dream of mine, an article I read when I was 10 told of the beauty, the springs creeks and the fish, I knew I needed to go but it would take 31 years before I realized this dream.
The trip was planned around attending the Midwest Tenkara Fest, a great event put on by my friend Matt Sment who I'd met the previous summer at the ONI School in Utah and his partner Mike Lutes, owners of Badger Tenkara. My buddy Paul Vertrees of Zen Tenkara was going to give a presentation and I decided it was a good time to fulfill a lifelong dream, I was going to The Driftless!
Being 30 seconds late to the door of our flight cost us a full day in Wisconsin and a night spent on the floor of Minneapolis Int'l, waiting for the rental car place to open at 6 but in the end it didn't matter, we were there, finally on our way.
I wish I could say that I patiently sat through all the speakers and then went fishing but as soon as the talking began I was gone, impatient to get on the water that I'd dreamt about for over 30 years and I was not to be disappointed.
The water here is different than the high gradient pocket water of Colorado that I'm used to, it's slow and meanders and it's unbelievably clear so the fish can see you coming.
I managed to turn up a dozen or so Browns on Coon Creek just behind the event hall. After it was done for the day we explored a pretty, yet frustrating creek and I managed a couple more Browns.
After a couple hours here we headed to our camp on the Bad Axe River and after setting up my tent I did some more fishing until almost dark. Others were fishing it also and it was interesting to see the different rods and techniques being used but I stuck with my Tanuki 325.
This was the only place I was able to catch any brookies and it was nice to think that I was catching a native fish in their native habitat, unlike the brookies here in Colorado which are viewed as a plague.
The next morning found us back at the hall by 9 or so and I was gone again. I'd talked with a guy who's name I never learned around the campfire the night before and he'd mentioned some deeper holes further upstream from the hall that sometimes had larger fish so off I went in search of them and I found the holes, many were deep, 5+ ft deep in fact and I was able to dredge a few smaller guys out of them and I lost one that felt solid although as to what size I can't say, just that it was solid.
I got back from this foray just in time to eat some cold pizza and head out to Bohemian with Paul and a couple other guys and I must say that that was my favorite stream that I saw during my brief time there, it reminded me a bit of another creek I know here in Colorado. While everyone else got into the fish during a really nice caddis hatch I struggled and only managed to hook into 1 brown.
All to quickly my time here was over, the 2 days I had were all to brief, barely enough to even begin to scratch the surface of what this region has to offer for the fly fisherman. After I was done fishing that last evening I just sat on the bank along the Bad Axe River not far from camp and watched the Brookies as they rose to an evening hatch, contemplated a lifelong dream that had come true as the sun slid under the horizon and once it was gone I went back and sat by the fire with old friends and new and relived my short stay here, fish caught and lost, and realized...
I will be back again.
Cormac McCarthy
The Driftless...Spring creeks...Dairy cows...Trout...
Fishing The Driftless has always been a dream of mine, an article I read when I was 10 told of the beauty, the springs creeks and the fish, I knew I needed to go but it would take 31 years before I realized this dream.
The trip was planned around attending the Midwest Tenkara Fest, a great event put on by my friend Matt Sment who I'd met the previous summer at the ONI School in Utah and his partner Mike Lutes, owners of Badger Tenkara. My buddy Paul Vertrees of Zen Tenkara was going to give a presentation and I decided it was a good time to fulfill a lifelong dream, I was going to The Driftless!
Being 30 seconds late to the door of our flight cost us a full day in Wisconsin and a night spent on the floor of Minneapolis Int'l, waiting for the rental car place to open at 6 but in the end it didn't matter, we were there, finally on our way.
I wish I could say that I patiently sat through all the speakers and then went fishing but as soon as the talking began I was gone, impatient to get on the water that I'd dreamt about for over 30 years and I was not to be disappointed.
The water here is different than the high gradient pocket water of Colorado that I'm used to, it's slow and meanders and it's unbelievably clear so the fish can see you coming.
I managed to turn up a dozen or so Browns on Coon Creek just behind the event hall. After it was done for the day we explored a pretty, yet frustrating creek and I managed a couple more Browns.
After a couple hours here we headed to our camp on the Bad Axe River and after setting up my tent I did some more fishing until almost dark. Others were fishing it also and it was interesting to see the different rods and techniques being used but I stuck with my Tanuki 325.
This was the only place I was able to catch any brookies and it was nice to think that I was catching a native fish in their native habitat, unlike the brookies here in Colorado which are viewed as a plague.
The next morning found us back at the hall by 9 or so and I was gone again. I'd talked with a guy who's name I never learned around the campfire the night before and he'd mentioned some deeper holes further upstream from the hall that sometimes had larger fish so off I went in search of them and I found the holes, many were deep, 5+ ft deep in fact and I was able to dredge a few smaller guys out of them and I lost one that felt solid although as to what size I can't say, just that it was solid.
I got back from this foray just in time to eat some cold pizza and head out to Bohemian with Paul and a couple other guys and I must say that that was my favorite stream that I saw during my brief time there, it reminded me a bit of another creek I know here in Colorado. While everyone else got into the fish during a really nice caddis hatch I struggled and only managed to hook into 1 brown.
All to quickly my time here was over, the 2 days I had were all to brief, barely enough to even begin to scratch the surface of what this region has to offer for the fly fisherman. After I was done fishing that last evening I just sat on the bank along the Bad Axe River not far from camp and watched the Brookies as they rose to an evening hatch, contemplated a lifelong dream that had come true as the sun slid under the horizon and once it was gone I went back and sat by the fire with old friends and new and relived my short stay here, fish caught and lost, and realized...
I will be back again.
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