Driftless Trip Report & Video

[Brian Wise]

Hey Guys,

Here is a quick report on our Whirlwind trip North...Musky were on the brain but we had to stop on the Driftless since we were pretty much going through there.

The next report and video will be on the Chippewa River, Wisconsin.

The Driftless.

In the beginning. Three fishermen go on an adventure, a long way from their familiar waters, the Ozarks. The first stop….. The Driftless Region, Wisconsin. Similar to the slopes of home, any Ozarker wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart once fog crept through the valleys and the sky went grey to blue in the dusk.

The bottom of the hills similar limestone bluffs rose above the stream valley and the streams were cool and clear like the Ozarks but these streams had more sediment, there was no clean gravel but black glaciated soils from the crop laden hills above. This is where the journey begins….

Just as we arrive in camp, aka dairy cattle pasture laden with cow pies and flies but at $10 a night for all of us and the land-owner bringing us fire wood every evening how could we say no. Our good friends from Chicago Land are stumbling out of their tents as we stumble from the truck after driving all night. Like true fish heads they stagger first to their fly rods and make a few casts before the morning coffee. We catch up quickly on times past as we rig fly rods. Tying 6x tippet has been easier to tie, no sleep for 24hrs is catching up as the sun rises through the fog on us. (by day 7 tying knots is worst though)

Blue River is our first stop after legalizing ourselves to the Wisconsin wardens. Beer cheese curds and sausage sticks are for lunch this day and for the next week. Yes, fishing is more important than eating. Anyway. We all split up to fish alone, reconnect with the water and reflect what is on our heart at the time.

By noon some have passed out in the field along the river and others are catching the biggest trout of their life in these waters. After depleting beer supplies we head back to camp to recharge and get ready for the evening round of fishing.

This is when sky opened up. We hid under a small tarp and told tales of big fish.

Soon the sun came back and we headed back to the river. We claimed an awesome stretch of river on the Blue. It had a magnificent prairie with flowers and grasses over 6’ tall (You probably wonder how Brian made it through this), well luckily our friends from Chicago are 6’8’’ or better and we just followed them to the water.

The cameras could not do justice to the sunset, the fog, and the setting we fished in but the smiles and laughter of good friends described it all.

Night fell and the campfire called us home. We cooked and reminisced of past adventures together and planned the new ones. Soon we were to turn the page to the next adventure. Musky Country. The Muskyteers hit the last of the Driftless that morning and headed North, toward toothy critters….

(Trip Report by Kyle Kosovich, Photos by Aaron Scott, Video Editor Brian Wise)

[Flysmallie]

Nice video and pictures guys.

[Justin Spencer]

Awesome stuff!

[stlfisher]

Nice...looks like a beautiful place to fish!

[ColdWaterFshr]

Nice work! You guys really go to a lot of effort setting up some of those shots and then editing it and putting it all together. I enjoyed it thoroughly but I'm wondering if the fishing isn't taking a back seat to the cinematography?

And <gasp> did I see a pink shirt?

:lol:

And what's up with the birds drinking the wine as you are preparing to leave? Are they celebrating? :lol:

[mic]

Pure Sweetness.

[Brian Wise]

Nice work! You guys really go to a lot of effort setting up some of those shots and then editing it and putting it all together. I enjoyed it thoroughly but I'm wondering if the fishing isn't taking a back seat to the cinematography?

Funny you bring that up.....I can answer your question if the fishing is taking a back seat to the cinematography by telling you a story.

I hit an hour of the most awesome hopper fishing I have ever seen...........and not a single fish in that video was caught on a hopper. So I can, without a doubt, say that the fishing was first and foremost on our minds. It's kind of funny, I get the question a lot "How do you shoot all that video?" or "Do you ever get to fish if the video camera is in your hand all the time?" My usual answer is "No, the oars are in my hand all the time." We are really blessed to do what we do (and by "we" I guess I am saying "I" am lucky to guide as much as I do) and when we fish for ourselves we are pretty die-hard....and that will show up in the next 2 videos of this trip. Throwing 10wts and 12" flies until you can't lift your arms is pretty awesome--kind of hard to shoot video when your arms are shaking from casting and stripping like that but we got some really, really cool stuff!

And yes, the ladies were having a party because they didn't have to hear us talk about Musky, the Driftless, and HUGE flies for 9 days.

We will throw the Chippewa video, report, and photos on here next week and I usually don't say stuff like this but the Chippewa video is crazy-awesome....even if we do say so ourselves.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Just giving you a hard time, Brian. Videos of wild flowers and men fly-fishing in pink plaid and filming themselves doing it . . . well, it was more than Paul Dallas could bear.

Hoping that the Chippewa video has you wearing solid earth tones, or ratty old flannel, and the crunching guitars of some old Iron Maiden for background music as you pull in giant duck-eating muskies.

[Justin Spencer]

I know for me it is nearly impossible to get a fish to bite with a camera running. The second you turn it off you always hook up. Without the cinematography it would be 5 minutes of fighting 2 small fish. I always look forward to Brian's videos (as I'm sure we all do). A lot of time and effort goes into each one.

[Brian Wise]

Just giving you a hard time, Brian. Videos of wild flowers and men fly-fishing in pink plaid and filming themselves doing it . . . well, it was more than Paul Dallas could bear.

Hoping that the Chippewa video has you wearing solid earth tones, or ratty old flannel, and the crunching guitars of some old Iron Maiden for background music as you pull in giant duck-eating muskies.

I am totally feeling you.....it was weird for me to "slow down" the tempo of this video and set it to something slower. I PROMISE the Chippewa video will more than make up for the lack of A. Hard Riffs or B.Steady Thug Beats....Musky or not.