August Trout

Driving to Decorah to pick up my son and figured it should be a many-faceted outing.  Started with a guy who gave me the instruction drive east out of the little town and we're the first drive on the left going north.  Look for the house across from the goat herd.  I asked him about the goats and he said he's lived there a long time and he still doesn't know what the guy does with them.  They come and go.  I bought a couple old aquarium pumps from the guy; for my boys to use.  They are getting into hobby fish keeping and it's been a good lesson regarding economics biology toxicity; also on how much of a good thing (e.g. food) can be a bad deal; also how to use an aquatic vacuum cleaner; how to catch wild invasive koi fish and bring them back to their roots; etc. etc.  So I want to help them along and this was one way to do so: make this stop right around 0700 hours by the goat herd.  And then from there take it easy and find some pasture water; meeting in Decorah later on in early afternoon.

Driving through good country is more and more pleasurable as years pass.  Big sky, clouds, green lands and cows ripping grass as God meant them to do on the sideslopes and rolling pastures.  Good pasture is a good system and it doesn't leak.  Look at the soil water under a pasture and find very little nutrient leaving the land surface leaching downward.  The living roots hold it tight.  

Actually achieved moderate relaxatioin this morning being so late in the year; didn't have to look over shoulder.  Easy walking because I went to pasture section.  First fish of the day had a pretty nice big mouth.  I think around 14-15 inches.

Came from the point of that V.  Cast streamer up ahead and let it drift down, sinking.  Slowly pick up and come tight.  Was no retrieve before the eat.  Pretty nice water right there.  Many fish.  I didn't catch many fish because I was making a point of not nymphing.  Streamers and hoping for terrestrials maybe.  Funny that one would deliberately catch fewer fish but it's what happened.  Trying to diversify and be better with various methods.

First off the fish in the riffles were coming from very subtle gray pockets and slashing at streamers presented down and across.  They were socking them pretty much seconds after the fly slapped the water.  This made me think maybe they were looking for a splatting grasshopper but it was not so; or better said it didn't work when I tried it.  The streamers were splatting harder and I figure that got attention better in the riffles.  I tried hoppers along the grass banks and never drew one strike.  Streamers pretty good though  

Stomach contents of doomed trout.

Good water; just had to walk the streamer pretty much up in the film to keep it out of the macrophytes.

This whole deal doing everyone favors. Living roots in the ground.  Cows eating as they should, in the free air.  Cropping the grass tight so guy like me can walk freely.  And then protein comes out of it in forms of fish and beef.

One little gray water here did produce a trout.  The pool above was slow and shallow and showed many creek chubs.

Another morning later on

I've stood in this water quite a few times; some with WFF.  Waiting for a trico spinner fall.  We had mugs of coffee hooked on our belts and we logged some notable events e.g. tricos laying eggs before our eyes floating by on the meniscus; a living gray cloud above the water building peaking and then coming apart; many trout eating dying mayflies.  I was looking for these things so I drove to the very place and waded into the water.  Another low stress deal; no one going to come in here this late in summer on an off day.  So I stood around for a while and watched.

Fish were rising.  The gray cloud was there and coming apart although it was an order of magnitude smaller than I remember.  But fish were paying attention so I addressed them.  On first cast with an emerger caught a brown trout.  That year class that is right around nine inches; seems to be everywhere.  Probably killed that one.  I then commenced to try various flies in the film; various dry flies including a trico spinner.  Only hooked five more fish and I think landed only two of those.  It never got really silly like it has in years past.  

I decided to leave that water and walk downstream; to turn around and fish up.  

Don't have the citation in front of me but just reading about how the main controlling factor in terms of density of aquatic vegetation is vertical fall.  Which one can observe and verify about anywhere.

I think I did break down and do some nymphing this morning.  Not much for risers.  Threw streamers for a while.  But nymphing the handful of good deep holes produced the majority of the fish to hand.  No big fish at all; just a nice load of those aforementioned nine inchers.  Few that I took to be one year older at 12-13 inches.  Seemed like a good population from which to extract a creel of fish so I did it.  

Another hole at which the banks don't tell the story.  Eroding banks; would be labeled "bad" by any metric out there.  But there is enough current to conduct the sediment downstream thereby keeping the substrate clean and keeping some decent depth.  This water was thick with trout.  One broke off a streamer on the strike.  Some others came to hand.  Walking out finally got a fat trout to rise up from a pool belly and eat a foam hopper; not a bad deal.