There’s something about being without cell phone coverage, holding a beautiful fly rod in your hand, and landing a few trout that makes the problems of the world melt away. I found a small window of time where I was able to have a beautiful stretch of Waterloo Creek in The Driftless Region of NE Iowa all to myself. I packed up the Jeep, blocked three hours of conference calls with clients to occupy the drive, and headed out. I like to maximize my drive time to stay productive, which gives me extra opportunities to fish. It’s great that it doesn’t get dark until after eight so that extends the fishing day.
The gear list was pretty simple. I brought El Jefe in 4 weight, Econ 101 in 4 weight, and I also brought El Jefe in 6 weight, manly because it was already in the Jeep. Our packable rods actually fit in the tiny compartment under the floor in my Jeep Wrangler. I’m beginning to use our new Pesca Pack. This was the first time I’ve used it on a trip, and I’m hooked. It’s basically a holster for your cell phone PLUS it holds a fly box and some other small gear. It’s right where you need it to be, and works AWESOME!
Next I use our Go-Pack sling pack, it’s loaded with more fly boxes, leaders, tippet, and basically everything else you need. Today, I started out using a 5X leader with 6X tippet. I decided to start with a dry and dropper combination for two reasons. One, it works very well this time of year, two, I love fishing a dry and dropper. I love this so much more than a traditional nymph rig with the indicator, weight and two flies. This rig takes less time to to set up than the traditional nymph rig, and I love watching rising trout hit your dry. I’d generally rather miss a few of those fish holding on the bottom to fish this way, simply because I love dry fly fishing. The good news, I still catch my fair share of trout. The dry was a simple parachute Adams in size 14 and the dropper was my favorite, red zebra midge in size 18. I fished El Jefe in 4 weight the entire evening. Just my opinion, but this set up is perfect for most Driftless fly fishing situations.
The evening started out pretty solid. I fished the dry and dropper in a fast moving section just to test out the gear. I was able to hook up with a couple of tiny rainbows which is always great.
The evening allowed me to walk along the stream, quietly sneaking up to pools to present my flies, perhaps landing a small trout every 10-15 minutes. This evening was not a catching fest, but was an incredibly relaxing decompression from the world. I’m sure everyone could use one of these right now.
At the end of the day, I was able to land one chunk of a rainbow. I’m not sure what this fish was eating compared to the other trout in the river, but he must have been ordering the “husky” meal. Thanks again for checking out our blog, if you have any questions about The Driftless Area or fly fishing in general, send me a message. I’ve been having so much fun getting more people into this amazing sport. Fly fishing is the best way to clear your head, I guarantee it. Until next time, tight lines my friends! Jeff
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