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Post 18 Apr 2017, 12:21 • #226 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/26/14
Posts: 3578
Location: US-MN
Dang! You are finding some big brookies!


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Post 18 Apr 2017, 21:13 • #227 
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Joined: 06/28/16
Posts: 930
Location: Northern WI
hotdish, whaddya figure for a length on that last one? Black on the head usually means 15 plus. Nice!


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Post 18 Apr 2017, 21:16 • #228 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 10/26/12
Posts: 1188
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Now THAT'S a beauty Hotdish !!

Pecos


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Post 18 Apr 2017, 21:32 • #229 
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Joined: 10/30/09
Posts: 2527
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
DUDE.


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Post 18 Apr 2017, 21:35 • #230 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/19/14
Posts: 3925
Location: USA - Illinois
Uff Dah!


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Post 19 Apr 2017, 00:26 • #231 
Master Guide
Joined: 05/30/13
Posts: 853
Location: Wisconsin Driftless
Char Hunter wrote:
hotdish, whaddya figure for a length on that last one? Black on the head usually means 15 plus. Nice!

Somewhere in the 14-15" range. Not sure the head color indicates age. I've caught brookies with very black mouths that were in the 6-10" range numerous times. Not sure what causes it.


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Post 19 Apr 2017, 08:12 • #232 
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Joined: 03/18/12
Posts: 461
Location: Troy Grove, IL.
What a hansome rod and fish , just don't get anybetter Hotdish !!!!!! your photo's are fabulous kiddo.....


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Post 20 Apr 2017, 04:26 • #233 
Master Guide
Joined: 06/28/16
Posts: 930
Location: Northern WI
hotdish wrote:
Char Hunter wrote:
hotdish, whaddya figure for a length on that last one? Black on the head usually means 15 plus. Nice!

Somewhere in the 14-15" range. Not sure the head color indicates age. I've caught brookies with very black mouths that were in the 6-10" range numerous times. Not sure what causes it.

Yeah I've caught smaller ones with black as well, but usually in tiny creeks so I figured they were just old fish that stopped growing from a lack of food. It would be interesting to know if that's true or not.


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Post 09 May 2017, 10:32 • #234 
Master Guide
Joined: 05/30/13
Posts: 853
Location: Wisconsin Driftless
It's been awhile since I've done much fishing. A couple weeks ago I put a 2" gash in the crotch of my waders. :( A lot has been going on in the driftless. Including an impromptu meeting with ArtB. The beauty of it all has been enough to distract from the fact that I haven't been able to get out on the water for a couple weeks.

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Post 09 May 2017, 14:20 • #235 
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Joined: 02/26/14
Posts: 3578
Location: US-MN
Great pics of the flora and fauna!


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Post 09 May 2017, 14:42 • #236 
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Joined: 11/04/15
Posts: 632
Location: US-FL
Splendid pics, as per usual!!!


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Post 15 May 2017, 22:04 • #237 
Master Guide
Joined: 05/30/13
Posts: 853
Location: Wisconsin Driftless
Trout are fun and all but growing up along the Mississippi most of my life I had a healthy balance of warm and cold water opportunities. Not so much now. So when a friend let me know he was in the know on where some pike were stacked, I was down to get together and fish.

I woke up early and decided I'd "pregame". The weather was amazing and seeing all these posts of smallmouth on my Instagram feed has me chopping at the bit for warmwater. Unfortunately no smallies but I did hook into a hungry brown. Beggars can't be choosers.

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I continued en route to my meet up point. Hitting a few more spots along the way. Mostly exploratory. No takers. I reach the meet up point and am reminded why I left the city when I got yelled at by some tweaker because I wouldn't give him a ride somewhere.

My buddy shows up and rain rolls in. We didn't mind. Got our rods rigged and headed to the spot. When we got there. Sure enough fish were stacked. But they weren't pike. They were gar. Along with a few bowfin in the mix. The gar were really active. Lots of top water activity as they crashed schools of baitfish near the film.

Before we made our first cast it just starts pouring. Thought it was eventually going to hail with how hard it was coming down. So we were left with a couple options. #1, go back to the car. Nope. My luck it'd stop raining when we got back to the car. #2, hide under the bridge, aka someone's current living quarters, until the rain stopped. Tempting. But we went with #3, "F' it! Let's fish". Soon we had our first fish to hand, a spotted gar. They were picky but we were able to land about a dozen or so spotted and longnose gar between the two of us. My buddy ended up with one bowfin that he lost and we each caught a few tiny bass. ImageImageImageImageImageImage


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Post 15 May 2017, 23:04 • #238 
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Joined: 11/25/09
Posts: 2319
Gar?!?!?! That's awesome. Beautiful pics all around.


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Post 16 May 2017, 06:05 • #239 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/26/14
Posts: 3578
Location: US-MN
Heck yeah, fish in the rain! Nice gar!


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Post 17 May 2017, 13:11 • #240 
Master Guide
Joined: 05/30/13
Posts: 853
Location: Wisconsin Driftless
Rain rain rain. Conclave just around the corner and the rain won't stop. Stream conditions are horrible to great(ie: stained enough that they can't see you). Yesterday had me driving by a lot of chocolate milk that I'd imagine is still looking rough. Today though I drove by a lot of fishable water. Stopped and fished for any hour. Chucking articulated streamers and buggers dressed in gold. Fish are hungry. It's going to be a good weekend rain or shine.



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Post 17 May 2017, 15:21 • #241 
Master Guide
Joined: 11/04/15
Posts: 632
Location: US-FL
Beautiful fish! Glad the outlook for the fishing is good, even if the weather is not. I also muchly like the pics of the flowers, wee little turtle, and other items of interest. It makes the saga well-rounded and interesting as opposed to a thread full of pics of fish and nothing else. Can't wait for stories and pics from the Conclave!!


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Post 24 May 2017, 22:35 • #242 
Master Guide
Joined: 05/30/13
Posts: 853
Location: Wisconsin Driftless
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.

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Post 25 May 2017, 06:22 • #243 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/26/14
Posts: 3578
Location: US-MN
Good for you!


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Post 25 May 2017, 07:29 • #244 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/09/16
Posts: 746
Location: Colorado
Really awesome report and great pics! I would love to fish the Driftless someday - maybe next year for the conclave.


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Post 25 May 2017, 08:40 • #245 
Master Guide
Joined: 01/05/14
Posts: 689
Location: North Alabama
hotdish- great report and on the 70LS....I absolutely love casting mine with a 200gr sink tip line! It is a joy to fish and I hope to one day bring it to the Driftless....hopefully next yr.


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Post 25 May 2017, 09:40 • #246 
Master Guide
Joined: 05/30/13
Posts: 853
Location: Wisconsin Driftless
@Brandon, you're always welcome to the driftless. I'd like to get out on these streams someday with you and watch how you'd pick apart these streams while slinging some meat.


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Post 25 May 2017, 12:57 • #247 
Master Guide
Joined: 01/05/14
Posts: 689
Location: North Alabama
Cool! yeah it looks like a perfect setting.


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Post 25 May 2017, 13:02 • #248 
Sport
Joined: 12/08/15
Posts: 68
Location: Chicago, IL
What an enjoyable read....thanks for posting.


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Post 25 May 2017, 13:53 • #249 
Master Guide
Joined: 05/24/13
Posts: 364
Location: US-PA
Nice Browns... and oh yea... the food looks great.. I am hungry now...


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Post 25 May 2017, 18:31 • #250 
Master Guide
Joined: 11/04/15
Posts: 632
Location: US-FL
Great story!. It really was! And the pics were as superb as usual!

I'll come next year. But looks like I better rustle up some raingear and cold weather clothes.

And I am still planning on trying to make the Conclave later this year in the Carolinas somewhere, if it's still on. Once I get the dates I'll try to get the time off.


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