Fall in the driftless...

is a beautiful time of the year.  Fishing, hunting, and gathering are all part of the season...a good friend stopped by yesterday and brought some ginseng seeds to plant on our property and look for root.  He stopped back after a couple hour walk with some in his bag...we talked about hunting and fishing and family.  He's married to my wifes cousin...everybody knows everybody in the kickapoo valley and we had some catching up to do.  Its what we do in small towns everywhere.

Hunting will start in earnest, soon enough...I don't like to burn out on bow hunting too early.  Our stands are up and bows ready...I'm hoping one of my sons gets a buck first.  I like to wait and look them over.   Besides, there is still fishing to do.  And what better than to close the season on your home water.  Bob Hunt, longtime head of Wisconsins cold water resource, once told me after catching 50 trout with a friend on our land, that this stream is the best naturally reproducing small stream in the state.  Indeed, conditions are so optimum that tiger trout are often produced.  Tonight I caught multiple year classes of trout to prove it.

School and other obligations kept me off the water, yesterday...I've been fishing enough and nobody was feeling sorry for me.  So I got out today in the late afternoon...the sun was putting on a light show with the multi colored leaves and making havoc of my angling when trying to see in the reflections.  I still caught some fish...you see, I was in my home valley fishing just downstream from our farm.  I could see our hillside for most of the time.  Its a beautiful valley and I never feel it necessary to put the fishing first, though sometimes I do.  But, this afternoon it was the show...

Driftless late season...the good old days!

Driftless trout fishing is winding down.  Probably a good thing...I can't get enough of it.  The fishing is fantastic...and, as one of our fish managers says...now is the good old days.  The fly fishing for trout is the best I've ever seen it...I would even go out on a limb and call it the best spring creek fishing on the planet.  And, I've fished the spring creeks of the paradise valley...many times.  Today, as many nice trout came to hand in two hours as in a full day at Armstrongs, Nelsons, or Dupuys.  And, that was fee fishing...this is public water.  I've seen two other cars the last five times out and they were together and throwing spinners.  Ten miles of one of the best driftless spring creeks to myself all summer...you all have seen the pictures...just has me shaking my head in wonder as the west fork and timber coulee get pounded.  And, I've spent years guiding on both...

Now, you are probably saying I'm full of...myself.  And, you could be right...I feel pretty good after the afternoon rise and then watching my 14 yr old play football for his middle school.  He caught his second TD pass in two games today and another 40 yard pass he ran down to the two yard line...so you can hopefully pardon my strong opinions.  The rise ended just in time for me to get there to see the kickoff...

A bluebird day... trout were just starting to come up as I entered the water.  They were in shallow riffles and undercuts, sometimes in only inches of water...casting accuracy and careful wading were at a premium.  As they always are...but, my trude matched the bwo's perfectly and had few refusals.  My apologies, these pictures don't do the fishing justice...