Story originally printed in the Vernon Broadcaster or online at www.vernonbroadcaster.com
Published - Friday, May 16, 2008
Grouse Hollow Journal 5/15/08
All it took was an e-mail and my Saturday was set. Tom Downs and Brad (one of his four sons) were coming up from Altoona, Iowa, for a trout safari with the Old Griz and me, if I wanted to go. How long do you think it took for me to decide? Wrong, it was faster than that.
While I like eating grilled trout, I am not a trout fisherman. I had to buy a $10 state trout stamp and buy $2.60 worth of night crawlers. Beyond that, I have most of what I would need to fish last Saturday: an ultra-light rod and reel, knee boots, a vest with a lined game pocket and a raincoat.
I knocked on Bob "Old Griz" Stremka's door about 9:30 on Saturday morning. His wife called him in from spreading fertilizer on one of their huge garden patches. Several times a week, one can find the Stremkas at several local farmers markets selling bedding plants and other produce throughout the season. He and I visited about his operation and how the weather has put almost everything on hold or behind. The rain has been the biggest problem — as it always is, too much or too little. The real bad news was that he wasn't going with us because he had too much to get done on the farm in the "dry" weather of the day before more rain came. The sky was thinly overcast and it was in the upper 40s with no wind or rain.
He and I mulled over the DNR guide to trout streams (it looks worse than it is) until the boys showed, fresh from four hours of interstate highway chaos. After greetings and strategy discussions, Tom, Brad and I took off to chase trout.
We dismounted near Sparta along a creek/river close to Leon. They wore chest waders, but I only knee boots. We took rain gear but didn't need it. Here we were able to cross a field to get to where Tom wanted to start fishing. Some places fishermen must wade the stream or stay inside the banks with wet feet to keep from trespassing.
We came upon two ladies in angling garb who said they didn't have much luck — no fish at all, and they were going for breakfast. Uh oh. Anyway, Tom sent me ahead to a pool around a corner while he and Brad tried a hole he had got several fish in the week before.
I hooked a nightcrawler on and tossed it upstream in the fairly swift current so that it would float down into some riffles and pools where a hungry trout could be fooled into thinking he had just scored a free lunch.
For a while nothing happened. I had to tie on a new hook and sinker twice due to break-offs on underwater snags, and I was getting the hang of missing the hook eater area. I started reeling in before my crawler could get into the hidden drowned timber. On a retrieve, I had a strike. A golden burst splashed up out the dark green and shocked me into horsing the little critter up on the bank. It was a trout. It was over 10 inches in length (they had to be at least seven inches to keep here) and a golden color with multi-colored polka dots. It shimmered in the sunlight. Neat, I caught the first fish.
A while later just below this pool I had a ball landing a bigger fish from the riffles below the pool. I could see it a couple of times before I got it on the bank and at first my big river trained eyes thought it was a sauger, but it turned out to be a seventeen-inch sucker.
I had a number of hits and tugs, but I couldn't hook any more fish here. Trout and suckers will do a sort of bump, bump, bump on the bait that you have to resist until they take it. Brad caught three fish in this stream and Tom two before we finally called for lunch at Tim's Hideout near Melvina.
After a bellyful of burgers, we headed out for Timber Coulee. Tom wanted to show his son the Snowflake Ski Club. The hill looks kind of rugged this time of year without the snow pack and colorful regalia of a holiday on the hillside. The golf course looked great and was busy with people taking advantage of the almost nice weather to shoot a few holes.
Down the road a ways, we left my car and then went back upstream to go in and try for more trout. I put on the new Panther Martin spinner that No. 1 son Ben recommended last year and "third son" Dave Becker recommended to me on Friday night during a call. Ben fishes out in Colorado and Dave in South Dakota and the PM does an admirable job of hooking fish dinners for both. On my first cast into the riffles — I am not making this up now — as I slowly reeled the fluttering gold lure upstream over a log, a huge fish rocketed up and knocked the spinner up out of the water, but I missed the fish. Cool!
Tom worked ahead and Brad behind. Eventually, I would see three more fish and hook another 10-incher in shallow ripples with the Panther Martin before I was done. Brad and I had a good talk as we finally called it a day and walked out to the highway and to my car to wait for his dad.
I have taken Brad fishing before some years ago on the Mississippi, but we didn't have much luck that day. It was good to catch up. Anyway, Brad and Tom got a rock here with their night crawlers. Tom cleaned the seven we had and suggested El and I keep them. Thanks boys!
Until next time, get out...
The morels are out there. El got probably three pounds on Sunday afternoon. The fish are biting in the river, too, so no excuses, go fishing or mushroom hunting.
Enjoy.
All stories copyright 2006 Vernon Broadcaster and other attributed sources.