The Driftless – As Good As It Gets

Rarely does anything exceed expectations in today’s world and the same goes for hunting and fishing. If, like me, you read hunting and fishing magazines…well, let’s say that it all looks great on paper and rarely will it fish or hunt so well once you make the destination. I’m here to tell you that The Driftless Region in northeast Iowa is not just as good as promised, it is actually better.

A few years back I read a big spread in one of the fly fishing mags. It was covering a region in Northeast Iowa, Southwest Wisconsin and Southeast Minnesota; this area known as the driftless (as the glaciers retreated they didn’t scrape off this part of our country and therefore didn’t leave behind what was known as drift, sand, rocks…all the way to big boulders). Actually the geology of the region is much like southern Indiana in that it is Karst Topography. What makes this corner of the land so special is the many cold-water streams that flow…along with these many streams are the many trout; brookies, browns and rainbows. Truth is they are all three in great abundance at some spots you can actually catch all three species from one pool.

Vickie and I had put Nebraska in our rear view and in about six hours had crossed the state of Iowa and landed in the small town of Decorah, Iowa. You may have never heard of Decorah but it is one classy little town. Truth is there is all a person could ever want from restaurants to shopping; one bigger plus…the people in the town are friendly, very friendly. One such person is Brian Milaise. Brian is the manager/director of the Decorah Trout Hatchery and a super nice guy. Rarely do you find someone so easy to talk with and so giving of his time and knowledge of the area.

After setting up our camper I dead-headed for the hatchery and as I opened the door to the maintenance area I was met by Brian; “Guess you had a good enough time last year to make a return trip this year”! Not only did he remember me from a year ago but also remembered that we were in Iowa instead of Montana last year due to truck issues. I asked how the fishing was and Brian just grinned, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. He gave me a couple of new maps that had each fishery in the area along with the local roads and I was off to catch as many trout as possible.

My first stop would be Cold Water Creek…about 20 minutes northwest of Decorah. As I neared the bridge the map showed I was crossing Cold Water Creek, I could see a few people on either side of the bridge fishing. The map showed that about another mile upstream would be another parking area; as I pulled up I was relieved to see that indeed the parking area was empty. I readied my gear which included my three weight floating and sinking lines, grabbed a few patches of flies, a vest, a couple of cameras and down the hill I went; a half mile later I was looking down into one of the most beautiful streams and scenic hillsides I had ever seen.

I surveyed the area and figured I would tie on an olive wooly with white rubber legs…I would also head upstream and try dead drifting the fly through the various holes. As I stripped off some line I saw movement in the first pool, an accurate cast and a slow drift resulted in my first fish of the trip, a ten inch brook trout that had a burnt orange belly. I moved to the second hole and could see that not only was it deeper but it had a dead tree that was a perfect lair for a big fish looking to ambush. I casted above the hole and allowed the fly to disappear into the belly of the pool when I saw the end of my fly line move sharply. I quickly strip set with my left hand; a battle ensued as I tried to keep this noticeably big fish out of the limbs of the downed tree. I backed away from the pool and as I did a 17 inch brown trout came ripping up from the depths and put on an aerial display that was awesome to watch. A few seconds later and there in my landing net was a real trophy; gold, copper, yellow, brown, red and several other colors adorned this native of Scotland/Germany (browns from Germany have red spots while no red spots are Scottish, the Loch Leven variety).

My first night would be an indicator for what was to come as I fished pretty hard over the next three days, catching fish on a regular basis from a large number of streams. In my 3 ½ days of fishing I crossed one other fisherman while on the stream. I am sure that The Driftless Region might just be the most well-kept secret in trout fishing.

If you’d like to see a short video of a few fish and some beautiful scenery from this region then please click here to see the ‘Fly Fishing in the Driftless’ video.

It’s a long ways to New Zealand or even Montana but The Driftless is my new best secret; lots of water, friendly people and enough trout to keep a guy busy for days…sounds like a recipe for Enjoying the Great Outdoors.