ICE MAN

Since January of 2016 the Wisconsin Early Inland Trout season has started on the first Saturday in January.  Also since 2016 Trapper has hosted Winter Trapfest at the Westby Rod and Gun Club in Westby Wisconsin to coincide with the opener.  I always try to make it to Trapfest and this year would be no different.

I contacted Robert to see if he would be fishing with me again this year since we had fished together last year and had great success.  We decided to meet for breakfast in Westby Saturday morning before heading out to fish.

After finishing breakfast it wasn't long before we were on the water.  This stretch was pretty icy and we didn't catch any here but we got all of our kinks worked out before we headed over to the Dream Stream.

 What a lot of ice.  Too bad I left my auger at home.

 The Dream Stream proved to be dreamy when I got this small Brown Trout on my second cast.

 Robert was getting ready.

 This was a pleasant surprise.  I was really impressed with the colors on this one.

 What a beauty!

 Robert got into the game as well.

 Another Brown for the Edman!

 Another Brown for the Robman too.

 An even bigger Brown for the Robman.  We were really on a roll there for a while.

 After we finished fishing we headed down to the Rod and Gun Club.  It was good to see Trapper again.  I am just tickled to be such close personal friends with a true trout fishing icon.

 We had a couple new members to our group this year.  This guy calls himself "Bowl of Mush" on DTA but I forgot was his real name is.

 This is Bowl of Mush's buddy, Snowboard Forever.  I always forget peoples real names but I rarely forget their DTA name.

 Skimmer was looking at his phone while William tied flies.

 Dan checked out a photo album that John Bethke had brought over.  It was good to see Dan again.  I'm going to make a point to try and fish with him this summer.  He seems to get most of my jokes which is a great attribute in my book.

 Here's Trapper's puppy Molly.  I thought it would be cool to get a picture with her now and then another next time I see her so it shows how much she has grown.

On Sunday morning we all went and had breakfast in Westby.  The Sunday morning group breakfast is one of my favorite Trapfest Traditions.  Here is Seth and Dan.  We talked about a lot of things most notably the absence of  Mike Juran.  I guess he had to head out of town for business or something. I think I almost got a little teary eyed when it was time to say goodbye to the fellas.  

Shortly after finishing breakfast and I was back on the stream again.  Here a spring comes out of the ground.  The water is so warm that the plants stay green year round.  I decided to make myself a salad with the stream lettuce.

 What a beautiful place.

 More stream lettuce for my salad.

 There are many secret streams in the Driftless.  This is probably not one of them.  At least not anymore.

 I gazed across the fruited plain.

 Clear, clean and cold.

 Bowl of Mush and Snowboard Forever were fishing away.

 I watch as Bowl of Mush put on a clinic.

 What a dandy!

 I went to check out a new stretch and it wasn't long before I had my first fish of the day.  I was so happy.

 It's always fun to check out new sections of streams.

 There was a lot more water up here than I thought there would be.

 Approaching this corner bend I could tell that it was deep and it probably held a lunker.  The feeling of anticipation I get when I happen upon a place that looks like it has good potential is one of my favorite things about fly fishing for trout.  I formulated a plan on how I would accomplish the Four A's.  Anticipate, Approach, Attack and Achieve.  If you do well at these four things there is no reason why you cannot become a trout fishing champion like myself.

I did end up hooking what was probably about a 14 incher in this bend but it got off and then I got snagged on my next cast and had to walk into the water to retrieve my fly.  Oh well shit happens.

 Looking downriver.

Around 3:30 or so I finished fishing this area and decided to start making my way back to the cities.  Another Trapfest weekend in the books.