Day of wonder, day of glory.

Earlier in the week Taylor had asked me if I wanted to go fishing with  him in southern Minnesota on Sunday.  He picked me up at my place around 6am and along with Foxy we were on our way.

There is a Mcdonald's restaurant just off 52 near Zumbrota.  It has become tradition for us to stop here on our way down.

Traveling through Rochester on Highway 52 you will pass under some kind of bicycle/pedestrian bridge.  I call this, "The Gateway to Minnesota Driftless Bridge".

Arriving at the first creek I was just finishing rigging up when Taylor already had a fish on.  He had caught another one of these silvery tinted Brown Trout here last week.  Is this brown a recently stocked fish or are some browns more silvery naturally?

 Can you say flashback?

 Here is Taylor's second fish and it possesses a more common Brown Trout coloration.

 A deadly combination.

I was surprised to still see some traces from the last Ice Age including the Saber Toothed Jack Russell on the bottom left.

 I watched Taylor catched about for or five fish before I got frustrated with the streamer and switched to nymphs.  The Beadhead Pheasant Tail Nymph is the tomato soup of the fly fishing world; It gets the skunk out.

 I was using a Ray Charles Nymph as my trailer.  It just happened to be sitting on the Trouts head when I took the photo.  The trout was not double hooked.  After releasing this trout I switched back to streamers.  I've never really been big on tomato soup.

 Foxy loves trout.

 She also loves hot dogs.

After finishing up at our first spot we grabbed lunch and then met up with renowned fly fishing expert Ryan Frick.  Taylor nymphed 15 trout out of this small run next to the road.  I caught none at this spot.

 It was beautiful though and the snow was just starting to fall.

 We headed to another spot.

 Ryan is smart.  He pauses far away from the stream to examine the water from a distance before moving in.  One of my goals in life is the be the best fisherman I can possibly be.  Rather than re-inventing the wheel I enjoy spending time with people who are better at fishing than I am and then mimicking everything they do.  I am in the process of growing an awesome goatee so I can be just like Ryan.

  

I watched intently as Ryan stripped his streamer in.  So methodically I thought. Strip stop strip stop flow strip stroke drop strip stop strip stop flow strip stroke drop.  I have thought of a few different ways I can practice this technique even when I am not out on the water.

The next spot we came to I caught my first tout of the day on the streamer using Ryan's techniques.  I think my usual jerk-strip retrieve is probably a little too aggressive for lethargic trout.  I am happy to have a new weapon in my arsenal.

 Speaking of arsenal I was stoked to hear that the Timberwolves recently re-aquired Kevin Garnett.  Someday I hope to have an arsenal like his.

Ryan and Taylor fishing by the bridge.  It was so cold it was like a fridge.

 I thought this weed was cool so I took a photo of it and then edited the photo to make it look even cooler.  I am such a badass.

 We moved spots again and I caught a nice Rainbow right away.  Things were looking up.

 I moved upstream quietly where I came to a large pool of medium depth.  Soon I had a trout on that seemed sizable.

 At first I thought it was about 18 inches but then I measured it with the Rodrule and it was only 16.25 inches.  Man would I love to catch a Brook Trout this big.

I was so happy.  Today was also the first day I got to try out the Filson wading jacket that my parents got me for Christmas.  I was so warm and dry throughout the day.  Thanks Mom and Dad for the jacket and the superior genetics.  Look at that smile. :)

 After releasing this hog I ended up catching trout on my next two casts.  I can't remember ever catching trout 3 casts in a row before.  I will never forget it now.

 The terrible two.  While actually the terrific two but terrible sounds much more awesome.

 We traveled to yet another river and I nailed this 14 incher again on the streamer and again using Ryans technique.  He also tied the streamer that I caught all but one of my fish on yesterday.

 Foxy almost go her teeth on this one.  Good thing I have fast hands.

 What a beauty.

 Shortly before we left Foxy decided to go for a swim in the creek.  She was glad to have blankets to bundle up in on the long drive home.

Being that Ryan also has a blog he made a post about this day as well.  Here is the link.  Ryan Frick's awesome blog.

The End

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