After telling both Kschafer3 and NBrevitz that I would be fishing the Kinni this morning I didn't want to be one of those guys who says he is going to do something and then doesn't do it.
I heard it would be raining again tonight and also through the weekend so who knows when my next opportunity to strike will arrive. I am way behind on my quota for fishing the Kinni this year and it bothers me a lot more than I let on.
While driving to the access point off of FF this morning I thought about first going to F to look at the river but I knew in my heart it would at least be somewhat fishable and I only had so much time.
Upon my arrival at the banks of the Kinni I was happy that I could see the bottom of the river in the shallow areas but not in the deeper pools. I was confident that I could use the slight stain in the river to my advantage. In martial arts it is common to use your opponents strengths against them and that is exactly what I planned on doing to the trout of the Kinni.
My plan was simple. Fish large flies deep to try and catch the biggest fish in the river.
I thought for a moment that I had succeeded when I realized that this trout was only about 11 inches long. I would be my only fish of the morning but one is a whole lot better than none. I believe that if I can catch a couple fish a year over 20 inches it will more than make up for a lot of my zero and one fish days.
I don't want a lot I want just enough. So why does it have to be so dang tough? These are the breaks I guess.
When the fishing is tough I just pretend that I am on a hike. The canyon is a beautiful place to go for a hike.
You've been reading this and you are probably wondering what the guy who wrote this looks like. Here is a photo I took of myself so you know what I look like. Notice the dimples on each cheek.
On the walk back to the car I was happy to see a couple Monarch Butterflies. They are in decline and as if I don't have enough to worry about I worry that someday we won't have any more of them around. At least I will have this photo to remember them by.
On Saturday morning I met up with a couple of fellas that I met on the internet through the website DriftlessTroutAnglers.com. They go by the names NBrevitz and RippinLips87 but in real life I just call them Nick and Drew. The beauty of the internet is that you don't always have to use the name your parents gave you and you can call yourself anything you want. While these guys aren't the first fellow anglers I have met in real life from DTA they are definitely a couple of the coolest.
I instructed the guys to meet me at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Hudson at 8am. From there we would travel eastward to explore the unknown and expand out repertoire of streams.
Much of our day was spent driving around checking out new spots. Sometimes we fished and other times we just looked. Recent rains have sent many Western Wisconsin rivers over their banks while others were in great shape for extracting Brook Trout.
NBrevitz's copy of "Trout Streams of Wisconsin and Minnesota: An Angler's Guide to More Than 120 Rivers and Streams" sits on the dash board. It is well worn as he claims to have read it numerous times.
If you are going to go exploring it is good to have a "DELORME Wisconsin Atlas and Gazetteer". Cell phone coverage can be spotty in certain parts of Wisconsin and you will not always be able to rely on your smart phone for navigation.
At one bridge crossing that we came to Nick and Drew fished downstream and I walked upstream. The stream bottom was mucky and travel was tough. I saw a small waterfall in the distance and it inspired me to trudge onward.
While this spot looked very fishy the water in this section of river was still quite stained and I failed to catch a fish in this spot. I have made a mental note of this location and will come back here soon to exact my revenge.
Many trout fisherman complain about beaver dams because they cause the rivers water to warm during the summer months and can inhibit fish migration. This beaver dam created a beautiful pool that was chock full with hungry brook trout. I say, "Nice Beaver".
RippinLips87(Drew) examines the water before attempting to fish it. A relative newcomer to trout fishing this guy has a passion for learning the sport. I fully expect that he will be teaching me things about trout fishing before the summer is over.
This is the pool that the beaver dam helped create.
Here is my first fish of the day. What a beauty.
We were getting ready to go to another spot. I forgot to tell the guys to smile.
Those who have fished this stretch will easily recognize the location. Others could spend years exploring the streams, creeks and rivers of Western Wisconsin and never find this spot.
This was a nice place.
Drew was practicing fishing the Streamer.
Fish new spots but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold. This rule also applies to friends.
There was something missing from the trout streams of Western Wisconsin on the opener last Saturday morning and that something was me. I had other things to do although I was still determined to make it out at some point opening weekend.
My first stop would be the Willow River State Park Office. I feel somewhat naked not having a Wisconsin Park Sticker on my primary trouting vehicle and figured it was a good time to pick one up.
I had thought about making my way over to the Kinni Canyon but decided to fish below the falls on the Willow since I was so close. I had fished this section of the Willow once before and all I caught was chubs but that was later on in the summer so I figured I would give it another chance. There was also this little spring fed backwater near the falls that I had spotted while perusing Google Earth at some point a while back and wanted to cross that off my bucket list of places to check out.
There are some things you just can't tell about a place when looking at it from space. Besides my paranoid delusions I also have delusions of grandeur. I hope to someday find my own personal "Trout Xanadu". It will be a special place where trophy trout eagerly take my offerings. It is the belief that a place such as this exists that makes exploring fun. A part of me hopes that I never find it because looking for it is such a blast.
I'm sure glad that I know how to read otherwise I may have went the wrong way when I saw this sign.
The trail down to the river is very steep. It would be wise to leave your Rollerblades in the car.
The river was going pretty good.
While walking along the shore I spotted a Woodchuck. That's all I have to say about that.
If I ever get a girlfriend I think I'll take her to see the falls on the Willow River.
I made a few casts into the Willow and I wasn't feeling it so I decided to go and check out the little backwater that I was interested in. The majority of it was quite shallow and silted. I wondered if it had always been that way or if it is something that happened when the white man came to North America. I didn't see any trout but I did see a few snapping turtles. I also saw a school of minnows but I don't think that they were trout. This little backwater has officially been crossed off the bucket list.
I left the Willow around 5pm and decided to go and check out another place that I have been curious about for a while. It is a smaller stream that is completely surrounded by private property but I knew I would be legal as long as I stayed in the water. When I found a place to park it was right on a bike trial and there was this dude biking by. He saw me with all my fishing gear on and we started talking about fishing. He asked me if my name was Eddie Rivard. I told him that it was and he said that he has seen my blog and that he enjoyed it. This surprised me because I thought that only my parents and a few of my friends that felt sorry for me had ever looked at my blog. I guess I'll have to start putting some effort into making it cool now that I know other people have seen it.
The area where I started was quite flooded but I had checked the creek out beforehand from a bridge upstream and I knew that it would be better once I reached higher elevations.
It was very pretty but I didn't see or catch any trout for quite a while.
There was a lot of evidence of stream improvements along the creek. I wish it translated into more trout darting around.
I reached a section that was quite brushy to say the least.
If it wasn't for my peak physical condition I don't think I would have made it out of here alive.
This sign read, "Notice This is a licensed private fish hatchery, No Tresspassing". I know my rights and I forged onward.
Finally things started to open up.
I had been concentrating most of my efforts on walking upstream because I had to make it to a certain bridge before dark but I did make a few casts where it looked prime and managed to catch a small but hard fighting Brown Trout. I noticed he had some scratches on him so I named him Scratches.
Scratches thought that it would be good for us to have a group photo and I figured why not so we had a quick photo session before I sent him on his way.
This place was pretty cool and I'm glad that I finally got a chance to check it out. It would be a lot nicer if I could walk on the banks. I made it to the bridge and had enough time to walk the mile and a half back to my car before it became too dark. In total I thing I walked 3 and a half to 4 miles. I had no trouble falling asleep Sunday night.
On the Friday evening of April 11th my friend Kyle Schaefer and I traveled south like a glacier heading strait for the heart of the Driftless Area. And unlike the glaciers before us we wouldn't be stopping at the the edge of the Driftless because we were intent on making our mark.
We would finally get to meet our mutual friend Trapper in person who we both became acquainted with through the internet trout fishing forum DriftlessTroutAnglers.com. Known as DTA for short Driftless Trout Anglers is like the wild west of internet trout fishing forums where the only rule is that there is no rules although you might ruffle a few feathers if you blow the lid off someone else's secret stream.
Arriving at Trapper's place shortly after dark it was really nice to finally meet the man behind the legend. We talked about trout fishing and Trapper gave us some advice on where we should start fishing the next morning. He also informed us of a good place to set up camp for the night.
I had talked with Kyle on the way down about what it would take for me to earn the nickname, "The Kickapoo Kid". Trapper informed me that his cousin Rodger Widner held that nickname until he changed it to West Fork later in life. It got me to thinking of what other Driftlessy sounding nicknames I could give myself and the best I have been able to come up with so far is, "The Tainter Creek Terror" or possibly the "Tainter Terror" for short. I have yet to fish Tainter Creek but I already know what my nickname is going to be if I end up pulling a 30 inch Brown Trout from its depths.
I'm glad I have a quality sleeping bag because it got pretty cold in Kyle's tent early Saturday morning. I remember waking up at some point and tightening the draw string of the mummy style bag around my face. That allowed me a couple more hours of sleep and sometime around 6:30 we broke camp and set out to fish the first spot that Trapper told us about.
We decided to split up upon arriving at our first destination. Here is a photo I took while walking to my section.
The water held a slight stain but was definitely fishable. Some would call it a perfect stain.
I decided to start out with a size 8 streamer that slightly resembled a Conehead Muddler.
After dragging and popping it through this pool a couple of times I struck my first Driftless Gold.
Well actually Brown but Gold sounds cooler than Brown.
I caught another small Brown Trout on my little Muddlery looking streamer before becoming bored with it and switching to other streamers that didn't produce. In my mind I think, "Well I have caught fish on this streamer, now I should see if any of the other streamers I have work to catch fish".
Once I caught up to Kyle he informed me that he had already caught 8 or 9 small to medium sized trout. It was a good way to start the day.
We made a quick stop at another place that looked fishy and all I had to do to catch this small brown was dip my fly in the creek. We were only there for a couple minutes when we saw lightening strike in the distance. We decided to drive around for a bit until the rain stopped.
With Trappers help and another short rain free window we found ourselves catching trout on another beautiful Driftless area stream. The rain would soon start up again forcing us to make another plan.
With all the red and green this map kind of reminds me of Christmas.
Here is Kyle texting Trapper for our next set of coordinates. Don't worry we were parked at the time of the texting.
The next couple hours were spent driving around searching for water that was clear enough to fish. Once we finally found clear water it was a little too clear and small for our liking so I suggested that we drive downstream to find the right mix of water clarity and stream size. Upon arriving at our chosen location Kyle took off like a man on a mission. I figured he was intent on creating some space between us so that we would both have a good stretch of water to ourselves.
It had been a long day and even though I had caught a few fish I had already been severely out fished by Kyle. I wasn't too down about it though because fishing is one of the few things that can still be fun even when you are failing miserably at it. I was pounding a nice run when all the sudden I saw Kyle coming back upstream looking out of breath and disheveled. He was mumbling something about catching a 21 inch brown and he had photos on his cell phone to prove it.
Here are the photos Kyle took of his trophy as well as the photo of the olive colored streamer he tied that he caught it on.
Kyle brought me to the spot where he achieved Driftless Immortality and had no problem telling me what I had been doing wrong when I asked him for advice about improving my technique. It turns out I wasn't pausing long enough between strips. Here is a quick video of the "Schaefer Streamer Stripping Technique".
Our evening fish was cut short when hail started falling from the sky. We made our way to Trappers where I was delighted to see friend and fellow trout blogger Dan Braun of Brauntrutta.com. The evening was made even more enjoyable when Seth (aka BigRiverBum) and his girlfriend stopped by to join in on the trout fishing discussion. Before we left for the night we made plans to fish with Dan and Trapper on Sunday. Trapper instructed us to check a few different streams from the road in the morning to see what was blown and what wasn't.
To our utmost dismay every stream we checked was running about as brown as chocolate milk.
When we made it to Trappers we relayed what we had seen in our survey. That's when Trapper decided to give Driftless Trout Fishing Icon Len Harris a call to see if he had any idea of what streams might be running clear. When Trapper put Len on speakerphone for all of us to hear it was the first time I had heard Len's voice live but this guys been entertaining me with his stories and dazzling me with his stunning photos for years. If trophy trout hunting in the Driftless was NFL Football I'm sure Len Harris would have more Superbowl Rings than anybody. Always willing to help out his fellow anglers Len suggested a place or two that he thought might be worth a try.
We weren't in a huge hurry to start fishing so we decided to do a little bit of sightseeing in the Driftless. We begged Trapper to guide us to the dam in Gays Mills where Len has posted so many photos of himself holding trophy Northern Pike.
I have known for a while that this bench existed but it was finally nice to see it for myself.
The mighty Kickapoo River.
It was finally time to get fishing. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
