Forecast: 73℉, 8 mph wind, Cloudy, 72% Humidity
Stream Conditions: clear/normal levels, water temp was 58℉
Insect Hatching Activity: Midge, Blue-Winged Olive, Caddis, Terrestrials
Today marked Day 7, the final day of our Driftless Excursion to explore and discover as many new trout streams and sections as possible. Today we returned to a same stream system we had previously discovered in order to explore it more deeply through new sections. A rainstorm passed through overnight, so the air was a bit more heavy and skies were cloudy. The rain wasn’t much of a match for this spring creek system as the water was flowing crystal clear and the wild trout were active from the first cast to the last. The section targeted today began in a beautiful pasture with a healthy herd of cows and calves and ended in a thickly vegetated prairie; all situated within a tight valley. The weapon of choice to begin this outing were tiny nymphs which the wild trout attacked like a piece of candy floating within the water column. During the back half of this outing, we switched to tiny dry flies/emergers and terrestrials once hatching activity was identified. It’s critical to be very locked into the insect patterns and lifecycles each day you’re on the stream because the wild trout switch their focus in an instant. It’s also critical to be very observant and dynamic with fly selection and presentation in order to dramatically increase your catch rates. This stream system is another one of those that you could spend a full week covering just this one system and still have more to discover, explore, and learn…we will certainly be back on this system quite a lot in the coming future. After living deep throughout all of the Driftless Area over the past week, it almost feels like you’re leaving a different world as you re-enter society. Even though we live within minutes of hundreds of high quality, pristine, and absolutely beautiful spring creeks, it feels like your hours and days away. We try our best to illustrate this supreme uniqueness that the Driftless Area offers but until you deeply experience it, it’s hard to truly understand. This marks the conclusion of our 7-day Driftless Excursion into its depths to explore and discover new layers, new landscapes, new streams, and develop an even deeper appreciation and knowledge of the Area. This deep dive into multiple aspects of the Driftless Area has immense returns in so many ways, but one of those ways is that it imputes within you a yearning for more. A hunger to want to experience more of the Driftless Area, fly fishing, spring creeks, wild trout, the beautiful, diverse, and complex environments that are uniquely found here, and the Intelligent Designer behind it all. Here are a few statistics of our 7-Day Driftless Excursion: 765 miles driven, 29 miles hiked/waded, and 25 different streams discovered and explored throughout the Driftless Area. The hunger remains.
