Not more than 36 hours after getting home from Montana, I found myself driving east to spend some time with Rush River trout. This is the first year that the Wisconsin trout season opened at the first of the year. In previous years, we had to wait until March. I’m OK with an early season. Last year was not a good year on the river. … Continue reading Get To It
Or, Why I am Looking Forward to 2016. I started writing this post in the passenger seat of my Subaru on January 1 while speeding back to Minnesota from Big Sky, Montana. Now it is two weeks later and I’ve had more time to think about 2015 and the year ahead. We had a good year, 2015. A great 12 months. I fished in four … Continue reading 2015
The posting read “Cabin Available.” We scanned vacation rental sites for hours. State parks were booked. A few of the Lutsen ski condos were open, but we wanted something smaller, something rustic, something away from everything. Then we found it. A tiny cabin on the shore of Lake Superior in Grand Marais. It was three miles east of town, three miles further from Minneapolis. “Private … Continue reading Cabin Available
“How deep is the water we’re on right now?” I asked the dude driving the water taxi from the landing to the resort. “Oh, about 500 feet,” he answered. My interest was piqued. Ross Lake is a lake because of a dam. The Skagit River was dammed for hydroelectric power in 1949. With that, 24 miles of river valley was flooded, from Diablo to the … Continue reading Paddling Ross Lake
Deep in the Superior National Forest is a tiny campground on the Temperance River. It has nine campsites, gets foggy when the temperature and dew point are just right and has some seriously spoiled chipmunks. This is where we stayed. With the exception of canoe-toting SUVs, the dirt road passing by the campground was quiet. We watched a storm roll in while playing cribbage and … Continue reading Temperance
The trip looked glorious when we were planning. Drive the bikes and fly fishing gear to Lanesboro, set up camp, load the bikes with fishing gear to fish the many river access points of the Root River State Trail and catch trout and sip on suds until nightfall, then do it all again the next day. As this trip showed Parker and I, things don’t … Continue reading It’s The Thought That Counts
If there were an award show recognizing the most beautiful places in the world to fish, Rainy Lake would be a nominee. This place is heaven. A high alpine lake deep in the North Cascades. You can find it on the Pacific Crest Trail, just east of North Cascades National Park. The water is clear and blue from glacial melting. Trees line the eastern shore, … Continue reading Rainy Lake
Rivers are vital to nature. If a river is healthy, so is the surrounding natural area. If a river is unhealthy–i.e. dammed up–the surrounding natural area is negatively affected. This begs the question: Why clog a healthy river? And it is a question more and more people are asking. Patagonia released DamNation, a documentary about removing deadbeat dams–dams that were once built for hydroelectric power, … Continue reading Free The Snake.
It’s great to write those words. Brookies for days. Most Driftless rivers, where I usually fish, hold mainly browns. Some have a few rainbows. Select pools in select rivers hold brookies. My latest trip to northern Minnesota was a trip away from my usual rivers. It reminded me why I love fly fishing so much. Not like I’d forgotten, though. The Baptism River flows through … Continue reading Brookies For Days
The drive to the river took twice as long as normal. I waited in traffic on long, boring roads. A friend was kept waiting as I toiled in traffic. Work email was hitting my phone nonstop. The river was blown out from two inches of rain the day before. Few fish were rising for bugs. Water levels were 8″-12″ higher than normal. I was sweating … Continue reading Skunked and Happy
Birch & Flannel 