Category: 2021, May Driftless Area

On Tuesday I stopped by to see two old friends from the mid 70s. A couple of months ago I realized that they had retired to Viola, Wisconsin about 10 miles from where I usually camp in the Driftless Area. They weren’t married when I knew them. He and I were roommates for a few years. Quite a coincidence that he ended up being a tool and die mold guy like me.

Horrible weather and it’s not looking a lot better so I’m heading home now.

I think I figured out what the problem was with my blog’s photos and videos, a bad plugin.

Fished the Timber Coulee again this morning after almost a week of off and on rain. Fished from 8 am til noon and got a pretty good sunburn. Wasn’t expecting a sunburn on a May morning. Used my new and inexpensive 3 weight outfit. I really like it. It’s delicate and casts well fishing dry flies and gets the job done fishing nymphs with an indicator.

Caught 19 brown trout, and terrorized many more fish. I caught several around 10 to 12 inches but caught one brown that was 15 to 16 inches and one 13 to 14 inches. They were beautiful. They weren’t real picky. They liked an old standard, the “pheasant tail”, and an “orange scud”. The biggest fish were caught on the pheasant tail but it’s just the fly I had on at the time.

Nothing happened yesterday.

The weather really went down the tubes once I got to the Driftless. I’ve been reading.

Hwy 35, The Great River Road, runs parallel to the Mississippi River on the east side of the river. It’s about a mile from my campground. Around here the Mississippi has many, many islands and channels. Don’t want to insult anyone but the area feels very rural and like you stepped back in time a little bit. The Great River Road is one lane in each direction with no room for widening because of the bluffs along the river. There are little “towns” along the highway with small old taverns. Time has not been kind to the towns in the area. It’s a rougher looking crowd with many biker types.

Many boat ramps and a tremendous amount of bass boats and larger jon boats are up and down the river. There are many private campgrounds and a couple of large state and federal campgrounds full of trucks and boat trailers. I’m not sure how many combination dams and locks are up and down the river. The river areas below the dams are called pools. There is a lot of walleye fishing. Due to the weather and weekend I probably won’t fish until Monday. I’ll be taking photos along the river and post them when I get home.

Driving around looking for streams took me through many old towns down in the valleys, “coulees”. The surrounding country is beautiful but the little towns have seen better days.

Spent the morning and a quarter gallon of gas exploring streams and creeks I had researched leading up to this little trip. They are all in beautiful settings but most are way too small for my liking. They have fish but I enjoy casting too much to fish 4 foot wide creeks.

I went back to the Timber Coulee but fished a section I hadn’t fished before today. Hooked up with 16 browns. It was about an even split, half were pretty small and half were decent and fun 12 to 13 inchers. Again they liked Pink Squirrel nymphs and they also liked an Orange Scud nymph. I tied both flies. It’s a good feeling catching fish on flies I tied. There were a few rises but I couldn’t tell what they were eating. I tried a couple of dry flies but they weren’t interested in what I offered.

There’s a tremendous amount of commerce, for lack of a better word, on and next to the Mississippi River. There are two sets of train tracks running parallel to the river. I haven’t timed it but freight trains are running by, north and south, regularly as are barges on the river.

I’ve come to the conclusion I have way too much shit in my trailer and truck. I’m going to try to eliminate a good deal of it before my next trip.

Rain all day today which they really need here. There’s a mini-drought in these parts. I took a ride down to Galena, Illinois instead of sitting in my trailer. I do have some tv and can run my laptop through my phone but really don’t want to sit in my trailer all day. Rain tomorrow also but the streams need it.

This morning I went to The Driftless Angler, a fly shop in Viroqua, Wisconsin. The owner is always helpful and friendly. After I bought some flies I didn’t need he told me a rock bank just downstream of my campsite is “full of smallmouth “. Might give that a shot. I fished a familiar stream, the Timber Coulee and Coon Creek just before it entered the Timber Coulee. Had 10 fish on but only landed 4 of the 10. I only use barbless hooks these days. Now you can buy barbless hooks instead of debarbing them yourself. They like the Pink Squirrels I tied last week. All the fish I saw were brown trout. They were mostly small fish. Three or four were maybe 12”. Tomorrow I’m going to give the branches of Copper Creek a try. It’s pretty skinny water but very pretty and classified a Category 1 Wisconsin stream.

82 degrees today and I got a little bit of a burn. Never gave it a thought. Looks like rain the next couple of days. There is a little bit of a drought here. Streams are low, slow, and crystal clear. Fish are spooky so the man at the fly shop said.

Arrived at my campsite at The US Army Corp of Engineers Blackhawk Campground just north of De Soto, Wisconsin and was set up by around 4 pm. It isn’t the most beautiful campground and my site is not in the best location but it’s fine. The campground has bathrooms and a shower room which helps a lot. I have an electric hookup but do not have city water or a sewer connection. But I have 36 gallons of potable water so I should be good for a long time.