Was very cold this morning. It was 25 degrees.
If you all don't know it...Wisconsin small stream season closed September 30th. Typically I go through trout withdrawals by now and have to go to Iowa to scratch the itch.
Dan Braun and I hit Bloody Run near MacGregor, IA this morning. It is the second time I fished Bloody run and I left it with the same opinion. Iowa trout fishing doesn't hold a candle to Wisconsin trout fishing. We walked way back on the railroad tracks. Lots of walking and only one trout caught by Dan.
I talked Dan in to going to Dorchester where I had some better luck on Waterloo Creek in the past. An hour and 13 minutes later we were north of Dorchester on some public land. I landed 3 tiny trout. A brookie/brown/bow trifecta.
I watched Dan at the last hole of the day. Dan switched to a size 18 humpy dry because there was some serious surface action. Dan lost fish after fish on hook set. Just kidding, I told Dan look at his fly to see if there was still a hook point. I counted at least 9 hook set attempts and no fish. Upon inspection of the hook Dan found that the hook was broken part way up and there was no point or barb on the fly any longer. He took a photo of the fly he is going to share. Dan put on another dry and caught one more trout and called it a day.
We both landed three trout and fished 8 hours in Iowa.
On the way home we talked about our outing. I told him I had a three strikes rule and Iowa had disappointed me three times and I didn't plan on returning again.
Later in the ride home we discussed it some more. He told me fishing somewhere was better than not fishing at all. I tried to put it in terms he might understand without being too crude. He agreed with my take on it.
I told him fishing for trout in Iowa was like settling for a fat ugly sister when you were trying to date the skinny hot one.
