Iowa Driftless Region Tr

[Brian Wise]

Very cool! Just spent a few days in the Wisconsin side of the Driftless a couple of weeks ago. Such a cool area.

[HighPlainsFlyFisher]

Thanks guys..I have to agree that the whole landowner easement thing is a little strange compared to what we have around here. It's such a nice change of pace to see landowners that are willing to allow access to streams that otherwise wouldn't be fisheable. I have to admit that the streams and surrounding area were some of the cleanest I've ever encountered while fishing , obviously the folks utilizing the waters are doing their part to make sure the landowners don't change their minds.....Jeff

[ness]

I try to avoid generalizations, but since this is a positive one I'll go ahead. I found the area as a whole to be well kept, and the people to be very friendly too. It was interesting to see the references to Vikings, the many country Lutheran churches, and Norwegian (I think) flags in Decorah.

[Trout Commander]

Very cool! Just spent a few days in the Wisconsin side of the Driftless a couple of weeks ago. Such a cool area.

Kickass videos or it didn't happen.

:taps_foot_impatiently:

[Brian Wise]

Going through around 70 gigs of video.....it will be a little while and the video will be cool. You will get to see a 4/0 hook ripped out of my shoulder too. :-)

[David Unnerstall]

That is Iowa? I had no idea.

[moguy1973]

^----

Really...who would have thunk that Iowa had waters like those streams...I thought all Iowa had to offer were steers and, well uh, you know...

[Trout Commander]

Going through around 70 gigs of video.....it will be a little while and the video will be cool. You will get to see a 4/0 hook ripped out of my shoulder too. :-)

Sounds like it will be worth the wait. As usual.

[dgames]

I haven't fished Iowa trout, but back in the early 90's I made two or three trips up to southeast Minnesota which is pretty much the same area. I fished Forestville State Park quite a bit and then tried a little in Whitewater SP and the trout run creek just north of Preston.

The best hatch I have ever fished was right by the main bridge on the Root River in Forestville State Park. It early June 1991, the same weekend the US Open was held at Hazeltine just a county or two north. That was the US Open where a spectator was killed by lightning. That storm was a major storm that had dumped a lot of rain in the area. Most of the streams I had tried were blown out with the rain. I was actually headed back towards home, which was KC at the time, when I stopped at Forestville. I couldn't believe it when I saw that those stream were still running clear. I fished the afternoon in Forestville creek, which is a neat little stream you can almost jump across. I remember catching fish in almost every hole on gold ribbed hare's ears. By evening, I was about to quit and went back to my car and looked out on the Root River. There is a several hundred yard long flat section just above the highway bridge that had looked void of any structure and fishless earlier in the day. Now, however, I see rises, everywhere. Obviously, I quickly gathered myself to go fish this. Sulphur mayfly duns were starting to come off thick. For that last hour before dark, there were hundreds of rising fish in this section I had though looked lifeless. It was amazing. I had some kind of yellow comparadun that was a good enough match to catch some of the risers. I think I probably caught 8 or 10 in that hour that the hatch was going on, but it was really exciting to fish it. Another thing that was pretty crazy was that bats started flying all around me feeding on the mayflies.

Anyway, based on that evening hatch, I made a return trip or two within the next year or so. I ended up moving to Oklahoma in 93 and haven't made it back up to the area since.

[ness]

I've been through Iowa a number of times, and have always thought the eastern half of the state is the prettiest farmland I've ever seen. Last month on my way to Driftless Area I was sooo impressed by the beautiful rolling hills with corn -- and good looking, green corn -- planted on just about every square inch of it. Vast fields of corn stretching to the horizon, and very few pastures or man-made ponds; some beans here and there, but not much. They plant corn right up to the edge of the yard in a lot of cases. And the farms are very well-kept and prosperous looking too. The downside though is that there is drastically less CRP land than there was 20 years ago, and all the goodies that go along with that.

The scenery changes pretty abruptly up in the NE corner to larger hills with much more forestation. Sort of like the Ozarks, but again you won't see much pasture land -- and if there aren't trees there will usually be corn. There are dozens of spring creeks all within a relatively small area. Many have self-sustaining populations of brown trout, lots have stocked rainbows and there are even some native brookies up there. There's plenty of public access, the landowners are often accommodating to fishermen, the streams are generally too small to float (so none of those problems), and it's hard to get too, so lightly fished. It's a small stream guys dream. Too bad it's a 7+ hour drive for me.