If this trip were a menu, I would order everything. But not that I need a menu to eat. Angry Catfish is now our traditional starting point. They serve up stellar hot caffeinated beverages and sell pastries from Baker’s Wife, a bakery two stores down. Between the two is Buster’s on 28th, a bar that has an extensive tap list. We set off at 7:30 … Continue reading Fly Fishing. Now With More Brats.
You either have a cabin or know someone who has a cabin. That’s one way to tell if someone is Minnesotan. My parents bought a place on a lake when I was two and have been going up there ever since. The first six years we had the place, it was one of those Memorial-Day-to-Labor-Day deals–pretty frequent for most Minnesotan cabins. Weather up here is … Continue reading Bass Are Biting?
“All you need is a credit card and you can be an outdoorsman on Instagram.” If you look at a cache of photos on any given hashtag–#campvibes, #camptrend, #liveauthentic, whatever–you’ll find a few photos of people doing cool shit. You can see people hiking the PCT, traversing glaciers or camping in Trolltunga. But most of all, you’ll see people standing in a field with their … Continue reading Slow Fishing
The Subaru was loaded up and ready to go at 10 a.m. on Saturday. I picked up Phil from Angry Catfish shortly after. He was waiting for me with two sprinkled cake donuts as requested. It was a wonderful way to start the morning. We were off and rolling to Whitewater State Park, one of the few areas in the state to fish trout this time … Continue reading One Fish
If you’ve wondered why I haven’t been posting much lately, it’s because I came down with pneumonia a couple weeks ago. It knocked me on my ass. Literally. During the worst of it, two weeks ago, I had a fever of 103F for four days and energy was at an all-time low. While at the doctor, the simple task of holding my arms above my head … Continue reading An Outdoorsman (Me) with Pneumonia
Mend Provisions, my local fly shop, is the reason I’m into fly fishing. I was given my first spin casting rod and reel when I was three and began fly fishing when I was six or so. My form was awful, but the panfish didn’t seem to care how the fly got to the water. That’s all it was. I would infrequently use my dad’s … Continue reading Fly Tying. Not For The Impatient.
So. We thought the Minnesota trout season was over. We were wrong. Thanks to some new regulations, fishing in state parks is catch-and-release all year. It seems we’re in for for more adventures. But first, to close out a stellar weekend on the Whitewater. Temperatures in the campground hit 25F that night, which was fun because the forecast said the low would be 38F. *takes … Continue reading Whitewater River. One last hurrah: Day Two
When you spend a lot of time on the river, you receive questions. What is it like to fly fish? What is the biggest fish you’ve ever caught? Have you ever seen “A River Runs Through It”? No, I have never seen said film. But thanks to Topo Designs, you can get a feel for fly fishing in a short video. Very little about … Continue reading Everything Except The Fish
Well, kind of one last hurrah. But more on that later. While I was fishing Skunktown Creek in Iowa, my buddy Phil had a productive weekend on the Whitewater River in southeast Minnesota. He posted a photo of one of his fish, a 16″ brown that was more orange than anything else. It was a gorgeous fish and it was in that moment I decided … Continue reading Whitewater River. One last hurrah: Day One.
Driftless is a region covering far SE Minnesota, SW Wisconsin and NE Iowa known for deep valleys, fast rivers and exposed limestone bluffs. It is an area untouched by glacial drift during the last ice age. If you travel there, you’ll find incredible scenery and some of the best trout fishing in the country. Decorah, Iowa lies on the western border of Driftless. Audra has … Continue reading Enjoying Driftless Iowa
Birch & Flannel 