I observed the area and could see a faint ripple coming out of the foam. I still had the emerger on and made a cast to the area of the rise and was greeted by a resounding battle and eventually landed a beautiful 15” brown which I affectionately labeled the blue cheek fatty – it was quite a trout. My mind wandered....If they are that big on the top what lies in the depths of that blockage?....

A notable thrill was the sudden, stout strike and subsequent battle of a truly beautiful 18 inch Brown. That beauty was unexpected but very much appreciated. A new season is beginning and with the amount of trout spotted and caught it looks very bright!

I found the trout today schooled up in pools and very eager to take scuds and nymphs. There were all age classes, nice egg laden females along with several large nicely colored fall run males brought to the net. The bite was consistent.

One of the brookies was so full of food that there were insects coming up out of its mouth when I was unhooking it - it must of thought just one more scud isn't going to hurt anything.

Well, it's one of those days that I figured it would be best to get an early start fishing before the day heats up.

Terrestrials are now beginning to steamroll and have been providing some very exciting action. It is hard to beat the thunderous take of a hopper!

Before taking the rod down and the boots off, the day was warming up considerably. It just seemed like a hopper day even though none were observed. I put a hopper on and then it began, big bold trout slamming the hopper like it was their last meal.

We love Iowa and have an arsenal of high quality trout streams but we desired to peel back another layer and aquire even more in-depth knowledge and expertise of these beautiful and nutrient dense spring creeks. Iowa always has a way to exceed already high expectations and it certaintly didn't disappoint during this particular escape into its depths.

Reminiscing over these 3 months, numerous trout were caught with the largest in the 16"-18" range and we always love those beautiful "best of show" trout that have just unforgetable beautiful markings. Many refer to them as the "butter browns".