Well I've finally found time to put it all together. Where do I begin? The last five days have been full of fish, rain, and excitement. Nervousness, excitement, realizations. Let's just say this introvert was put to the test. But I met a lot of cool people and did some beyond exciting things that I never imagined would happen.
I was really worried coming into the weekend. It'd been raining almost all week long. The weather was amazing the previous week and we were about to swing into colder weather and even more rain. I had a friend coming down from the cities for the conclave. He was worried things were gonna be ugly. I assured him that I'd been putting in the work and scouting streams all week, watching them and seeing how they reacted to all this water we'd been receiving. I fished Friday morning and found a lot of active fish thanks to the stain most of the streams had. Had a knee trembler... easily 20"+ take a streamer and almost immediately spit it back out. By the evening my friend arrived and we immediately went and hit some water, in hopes that we'd fish for an hour and then head over to Sidie Hollow for the Conclave. But that didn't happen as the fishing was just too good and ended up fishing until dark.
Saturday, Steve and I woke early and hit a stretch of water that holds some dinosaur sized brookies. Unfortunately they weren't coming to the party that day, guess they missed the invite. The weather wasn't ideal, cold and rainy. We rolled some nice browns but the lack of water clarity made for lots of short strikes. We landed quite a few still, the water started to turn to chocolate though, so we made our way to the Coulee Conclave.
The Conclave was awesome. Another wet one. I'm guessing next year's design will be on a rain jacket! But everyone was embracing it, what else are we gonna do about it? Ate some pie from the Driftless Cafe and drank a few brews from Pearl Street Brewery. Won some cool gear. My friend Steve won Dusty's 865-3! So jealous but it couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow. So glad for him. After that we hung out and cast some sweet rods. Including that new... oh so sweet... 865-3 of my buddy's. That 70LS rod of Chris' was really nice as well. Felt great in hand and it could certainly cast some line. I'd really like to try it with a more aggressive tapered line. I probably would've had a much harder time not buying one right then and there. A 7' 5wt lined with a 6wt is my primary quiver these days in the driftless.
As the evening progressed it was time to hit the water. We ended up driving around a bit. Water was looking pretty rough as the rain was starting to take it's toll on everything. Eventually we found fishable water. Fishing was still going strong.
Sunday morning Steve and myself met up with Art from the forums and conclave. We decided to head to a stretch we'd had good success on earlier in the weekend. Water was looking good. Conditions seemed to be lining up perfectly for a great day. Small black caddis were coming off along with craneflies, sulfurs, and baetis. But the fish weren't having it. Fishing was tough. We landed a few but we fished a lot of water hard to get them. The evening ended with casting to a pod of rising trout that had not interest in anything we threw at them. A lesson in humility indeed. Never the less, slow fishing can often be countered by good company and I enjoyed my time on the water with Art.
Well at this point in my report a little back story is in order I suppose. About a month ago my chef had mentioned to me that another chef, Colin, from NY was putting together a show called The American Rivers Tour and that he wanted to showcase the driftless and our restaurant. The show would have chefs that fly fished on it and they'd cook a streamside meal and fish local waters. Chef enjoys fishing but he doesn't fly fish. So he asked me if I had any interest in doing this project. I said sure as it seemed interesting and well I do fish every now and then. So he sent my name back to Colin and he was still very much on board. They lined it up for the Monday and Tuesday after Conclave weekend.
Coming into the week the nerves started to kick in. I'm rather introverted. It's why I enjoy exploring the driftless streams. Just me and the trout. Folks who have conversations with me will tell you I'm straight to the point. No filler unless you consider silence filler. No fancy words. Words that aren't words. If I can string together a coherent sentence in front of a stranger it's a miracle.
So Monday we planned to film the prepping of the mis en place for the dish that I was going to cook streamside the next day. I was feeling good coming into Monday. Had vented my fears and nervousness about the whole scenario to my friends and folks at the conclave and their support really made me feel more at ease. Once the cameras started though my mind went blank. I feel like I struggled with words. Everyone said I did fine. It seemed like an eternity. Afterwards we went fishing. I fished early in the day before filming and was carrying a skunk with me and it continued through the hour of steam time we got in. Luckily none of them have ever fished the area and were plenty happy with the scenery and the beauty that is the driftless. We ended the day with good drink and great food at the Charmant in Lacrosse.
Tuesday we were meeting up with a guide and were planning to fish and then cook my dish streamside. During the overnight we got a good dumping of rain. All of which just goes straight to the stream right now. No crops yet and the ground is already saturated. The guide we hired really only guides the area during winter c&r. And he lives hours away catering to warmwater fly fishing. He's very familiar with the waters but not living here and all the rain makes even a guide's job hard finding fishable water.
We decided we'd film the cooking first as there was rain in the forecast and it hadn't happened yet. The dish I chose to prepare was a wild mushroom ragout over toasted French bread. All done over a fire with cast iron. The ragout included morels, wild oyster mushrooms, and pheasantbacks. The filming went off without a hitch. I came through and cooked the dish to perfection without any hickups. My biggest concern obviously because there was really only one chance to get it right.
Where we decided to cook was going to be where we fished but the stream was muddy. The guide was unsure. So I put us on some water. There was another car but we decided to fish anyways because they could've gone either way. First cast and our first fish was on. A healthy 12" brown. Whew, the skunk is gone. In my head my day is completed. I've done the two hardest things, cook the dish and catch fish. My only two guarantees. I take one more cast in the run and land a 14" brown. We worked our way upstream and saw the anglers before us walking back downstream to their car from the stretch we're fishing. We had a few flashes but no takes. The guide suggested we try somewhere else and I let him take the lead. The rain really started to kick in at this point. Glad that we'd filmed the cooking session earlier. Now it was time to get Colin into some trout. We headed to a brookie stream. It too was running heavily stained. Colin fished a run and nothing. He tells me to get in there and I land a nice 10" brookie. At this point I'm feeling bad. The fishing ain't easy but we need to get him on at least one trout. At one point he was ready to leave and the guide and myself are like no way, we're getting you a trout before this is all done. A combination of his skill and my local knowledge we finally got Colin into his first ever driftless brookie! Everyone was happy and we fished back to the car.
We finished the day at the fly shop and had dinner at the cafe with the whole crew. Afterwards the guide took me back to my car. We got to chat a lot the whole day as we drove together. As we part ways he tells me that I should be doing what I did today. And if I had any questions to contact him.