Quick Fish

I made the drive out to River Falls earlier today to pick up some stuff from Lund's Fly Shop.  While I was out there I figured it would be best to spend an hour or so fly fishing for trout.

The Glen Park access on the Kinni is probably one of the first places I fished for trout in Wisconsin back in 2006 or 2007.  Between there and the County Road F access is where I cut my teeth as a fly fisherman.  I always get a special feeling when I walk down the trail from the tennis courts.  It's kind of like coming home.  This sign could use a new paint job.

 Wisconsin changed a lot of their trout regulations in the past year but it appears the regs here are the same as they have always been.

A quick look downstream at the bottom of the trail.  Shangrila.

This place looks pretty much the same as it always has except for the new graffiti on the dam.  I am looking forward to the day when this dam comes down allowing the falls and river upstream to be restored to their natural splendor.  This pool used to be chock full of trophy fish until about a year ago when a local guide caught a 20 inch Brown here and told the whole world about it.  It hasn't been the same since.  At least I have the memories.  Maybe I will catch a couple little guys.

Back on January 2nd I broke my Saint Croix Avid 2 piece 7 weight rod in the commotion of photographing the new Wisconsin State Record inland Tiger Trout.  I just recently sent it in for warranty and the good folks at Saint Croix Rod informed me that they no longer deal with 2 piece rods so they sent  me a 4 piece as a replacement.  This would be my first time trying her out and I was completely satisfied with the performance.  People often question my use of seven weight fly rods in the Driftless.  I regularly cast heavy streamers on long leaders and the seven weight handles them with ease.  I will elaborate more on my methods in a future post.

Last Wednesday evening after finishing my homework I sat down and tied 6 Frick's Fixes in varying color schemes.  Some I tied in the traditional brown while others were Pink Squirrel themed.  I also tied two yellow ones just like the one I used to catch the Wisconsin State Inland Record Tiger Trout on January 2nd.  It was the only time in recent memory that I tied a flies and didn't immediately post photos of them to the internet.  It felt good not being an attention whore for once in my life.  

I started off casting one of my Pink Squirrel themed Fixes everywhere in the pool.  I was so sure that the Pink Squirrel Fix would be a trout magnet but it failed to illicit any bites.  That's when I decided to tie Old Yeller on.

I say yellow

Trout say hello

Come bite on my streamer fine fellow

They swim over there without a second to lose

What comes next I got nothin' to prove

The Old Yeller Frick's Fix is almost as good as the dog that I name it after.  I always wanted me an Old Yeller Dog.

All I got was this this Jack Russell dog named Foxy.

There's something about a yellow streamer that can turn a fishless day into a fishy one.  On my first cast with Old Yeller I had a fish on.  It was no match for the 12 pound Flourocarbon tippet I was using but I could tell it was sizable.  Turned out to be a 12.5 inch Brook Trout.

 It even had a little kype.

I had to take a quick selfy.  I was so happy.

 One more photo before I let him go.  He shot off like a rocket.

 I wanted to fish one more hole so I ran down here and took a few casts before running back to the car.

 Check out my new Trout Unlimited hat.  There will be a story on the hat this summer at some point.  Can you tell I am down one pound?