PLAN B

Upon arrival to the river I was going to fish today I discovered that it was running high and dirty.  Maybe fishable but a little too dirty for my liking and PLAN B seemed like an enticing option so I opted for PLAN B.

Exploring new water is one of my favorite things to do and sometimes new water just happens to be on private land.  Staying in the water can be quite treacherous especially when you encounter deep mucky sections so I was glad I had my kayak with me today.

I paddled upstream in search of trout.  I saw that there were cattle around so I proceeded with great caution.  Cattle can be dangerous creatures especially when there are calves around.  There are way cooler ways to die than being gored by a cow.  

 I noticed some Royal Wulffs coming off the water so I tied one on and was immediately rewarded with a Brown Trout.  After hardly fishing dry flies at all the last few years I have a lot of catching up to do.  It sure is fun to see them hit the dry fly.

 This was a productive little run.

 When I am not sitting in the kayak I break the paddle down and store it in the rod holders.  I then attach the kayak to my belt with a long strap.

 I'll take a Brook Trout any day.  Especially on the dry fly.

 American Badass.

 It opened up into a great meadow.  I caught a glimpse of some guy on a four-wheeler but he never saw me.  I mentally prepared myself for a confrontation but one never happened.  I turned around when I saw cattle too close to the river for my comfort.

 Another pretty place.  One thing I enjoy about fishing by myself is that I never need to rush.  I sat and watched this run for 10 minutes before I made a cast.  The Diet Coke I drank while standing there tasted excellent.

 Eventually I switched to a Woolly Bugger when I came to a deeper bend.  This guy chased it down and swiped at it twice before hooking himself on the third swipe.  I thought about keeping him for dinner but ended up releasing him,

 At one point I had to pull the kayak through the branches of a tree that fell into the river.

 This place looked very fishy but no luck.  It was getting close to noon at this point.  Trout don't like the sun.

 I drove around aimlessly for a while and thought about my life.  Then I found another creek that looked cool.  Mount up.

 Creek Chub on the Brown Bugger.

 Little waterfall.

 Shiner?

 This was a pretty section.  I'll probably take some fly fishing models back to this spot when I do a spread on the Driftless for Outdoor Life magazine.

Up close on the little waterfall.

 Man made waterfall.

 On the Parsnip Farm we used to say, "Head High by the fourth of June".  Some things never change.