With the warmer than normal weather we experienced last weekend some friends and I got out for a day of trout fishing in the driftless area. Due to some rain and snow melt we encountered some situations that we all learned from which in turn will make us more successful in the future. The first thing we came to notice was that the larger valleys did have more runoff muddying up the creeks and dropping water temps. Even when we traveled upstream toward the headwaters. We found the best water conditions in smaller drainages or creeks that flow from small reservoirs. The second thing we noticed was that the larger flies we tried didn’t get as much attention as small nymphs. We even saw a dozen rises throughout the day, and a fair number a midges fluttering around. On one particular creek where the visibility was maybe only a couple inches I caught several fish on a size 18 stonefly nymph. Most of us started the day with leeches and woolly buggers, but one by one we started switching to nymphs as we watched each others success. Given the circumstances we did pretty good. Catching trout on a foggy stream with some friends is a great way to spend a January afternoon.
