Poor Man's Grand Slam

Rick picked me up at 7:00 AM as we we had planned the night before.  I was ready and waiting outside when he pulled up.  We have known each other from the internet for a few months now but this was the first time we had met in person.  He seemed to be pretty normal so I hopped in his truck and we headed for Wisconsin.  

Rick and I have something in common.  We both love the pursuit of trophy Brown Trout.  I decided to show Rick some stretches of river where I knew we had a pretty good chance of getting into some decent fish.  It's a lot like rolling the dice when you are hunting for big Brown Trout.  I have failed many more times than I have succeeded but there is something that keeps me coming back.  I love the challenge of looking marginal trout water strait in the eye and not flinching.  I came here for one thing and I am not leaving until I am smiling from cheek to cheek and she is cradled in my arms like a baby.  My name is Eddie Rivard and I am the William Wallace of Driftless Flyfishing.

We had fished for two hours and all I had managed was a Creek Chub who had inhaled Matt's Llano Critter.  Rick said that it was great looking water but inside I felt that I was letting him down.  I wanted to show him what kind of man I was so he would have a good first impression of me.  I recommended that we go to another stretch that had served me well in the past.  Then I remembered all the other times that stretch has left me empty handed.  Why can't things be easy?

Rick had to work tonight and we were running low on time when we made it to the second stretch.  We had about an hour and a half so we went to work.  Rick took a section and started working downstream and I went down a bit further and started fishing up.  We planned to meet at the big pool.
When I made it to the big pool I noticed that it wasn't as big as I remembered from a few years back.  It seemed like it was 7-8 feet deep before and now it had filled in to the point where it was barely four feet deep in the deepest part.  The head of the pool still looked somewhat promising as the water surface was rippled from water flowing in from the run above.

Rick appeared and asked me if I had caught any yet.  As soon as I replied that I hadn't a medium sized Brown took my bugger and started to fight.  Then he became unhooked.  Rick looked at me.  "There's more in there!", I said as I flipped my bugger back out there.

"I got one and It's big!" I yelled as Rick jumped in the water to help and watch.  After catching a glimpse I said, "I don't think it's a trout".  It seemed so big and powerful but the Avid 7 weight wasn't backing down and neither was I.  I kept steady pressure on her and hoped that the double surgeons knot that I had tied to join the 3X Tippet to the 12 pound fluorocarbon would hold.  There are so many things that can go wrong when you are David battling Goliath.  If I hooked this trout 10 times it might win the fight 9 times but not this time.  Not this fight, not today, today I keep tension on the line, today my knot will hold, today I am the greatest trout fisherman in the world.  This is my time!  That trout's time is done!  It's over!  I'm sick and tired of hearing how much fight a trophy trout can put up!  "This is my time!" I yelled as I scooped that trout up into the net.

As soon as I land a trophy the first thing I do is make sure that they were hooked in the mouth.  I didn't have to worry about that this time.

 What a beauty!

 "Hush little baby don't try to trick, Eddie will release you after one more pic."

 I was so happy!

The Beadhead Olive Rubberlegged Woolly Bugger that I tie on a size 2 DAIICHI 2461 hook rarely lets me down. 

Then I caught a Brookie.

 What a nice one.

Then this happened.

A Rainbow Trout to complete the Poor Man's Grand Slam!

Chub, Brown, Brook Rainbow.

Well it had been a good day for me but Rick had yet to land a fish and we were running out of time.  He mentioned that he would like to hit the bend that we had walked by when we arrived at the river so we made a stop there on the way back.

Rick caught a Brook Trout.

 Then I watched him beat the banks with his streamer for a little while before it was time to go.  Rick prefers to use the full sink line method when fishing his streamer.  It was nice to watch someone do it who actually knows what they are doing.  I am going to give that method a shot again some time soon.