8-24-03 - 3 Days in Iowa with FAT, his posse and the Monkey! Day 3, Brennon, ASM and I SCOUT out new waters!

Waters Fished: Waterloo, Clear, Wexford, Little Paint
Fish Caught: 2/4
Outing Date: 8-24-03
Weather: Clear
Air Temp: up to 92F in the shade!
Water Temp: N/A
Water Level: All Seemed Normal
Water Color: All pretty clear, Clear was a bit muddy and Wexford was blue/cloudy in deeper spots.
Fish Species: Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout
Pattern Fished: Tucker Nymph
Pattern Color: gray & gold
Fishing Quality: Downright TOUGH

Again, if you missed the Friday report, the "caveot" on this weekend's reports is there, so jump over and look at it for a sec!

Now, with that said, here's how it went down. On Sunday B & ASM entertained my notion of scouting out new rivers. On the list? Waterloo, Clear, Wexford, Little Paint and maybe a couple others if things didn't pan out.

Without having pictures, or notes, it's kinda hard at this point to say just how we all did! We started our day early on the Waterloo, hitting a new section I hadn't done before, but was on my list. We found this huge hole bordered by tall banks...ASM and I both hooked up and landed here...but it was tough. The stocker rainbows were some of the largest we'd seen of the trip! I've seen a rough scan of the picture taken by ASM of me landing my trout...man how I didn't fall in?!?!?!

After that, stop #2 was hitting Clear Creek, which flows through a town right on the Mississippi. Now, Gene Hughes calls Clear Creek "the most inconsequential trout stream in Iowa" (or something to that effect) in his book Iowa Trout streams, and I cannot agree more, although I think he should have used the term "worthless" instead of "inconsequential". It looked like the Pike River in Kenosha after it hasn't had rain in a couple weeks. Low, muddy bottom, murky if it's deep, and perhaps most importantly, almost no aquatic life of ANY kind. Access sucked too.

Now, upstream on Clear is supposedly some of the un-mapped "Put and Grow" areas, but these were a total bust too! We drove around looking at dry creekbed after dry creekbed. Bottom line, Clear Creek was a TOTAL bust.

Next stop, Wexford! Took us a while to get there, but well worth it. The first access we found was alright...a small pool downstream of a bridge that held a few large stocker rainbows. Beyond that, nothing. We fished it briefly but the fish were not interested in biting at all (they were totally baking in the sun).

We only faired slightly better at the second access point...a gigantic hole that was deep blue...and DEEP too! I saw ONE trout which I spooked while walking up; ASM noted a large trout that followed his fly up out of the deep, but never took. Brennon had gone upstream and came back with nothing of interest to report. So we called it a day on Wexford...nice, small, and at least this time around, totally unproductive.

Now this is where the story gets funny, and I am totally going to plagarize from ASM's post on TSS and let you hear it from his point of view (afterall, it will only last on TSS for a month or two, but on MP's RR you can rest assured it'll be here forever!).

"An interesting side note on the trip: Drove through Harper's Ferry on the mighty Mississippi on the way between streams on Sunday afternoon. Stopped by the only local dive in town open for lunch (something like the "Harper's Ferry Supper Club" - mp). Upon walking in, mp, Brennon, and I noticed AT LEAST 40 mounted trophy buck heads all around the bar. I made the irresistible comment "looks like a haunted house for trophy bucks in here" to the waitress. A little bit later she pointed to a guy that looked like an evil clone of Ted Nugent, dressed head to toe in full camo on a 90 degree day, and said "He's the one who done shot most of those". It was a trip having this guy and his posse stare us down the next 30 minutes while we enjoyed some of the biggest, juiciest burgers I've ever seen (INSANELY HUGE AND JUICY, and they brought out tons of fried fish for EVERYONE too! - MP). I can't help but wonder if he was contemplating adding a mount of the rare Snow Monkey (and his buddies) to the wall!"

Now let me tell you I was relatively grateful to eat and run quick...and leave a big fat tip too! From there we headed to the Little Paint. For once it was relatively deserted!

Brennon acted as our guide on this river as he's already fished it top to bottom. He started us all the way as low as he's ever started and we hit every friggin hole upstream for two miles! The bite was slow in most places...you'd either find a pool of spooked, uninterested fish or a hole where they were on fire..chasin' each other around and hitting anything they could! Of special note, I again caught the elusive put & grow (or maybe even WILD?) brown; my only fish on paint, and again on the TUCKER NYMPH!

We also saw some really huge trout upstream and arguably the best one was the rainbow that got away from ASM with the fly...it resumed swimming around the pool, chasing other trout, all with a gold beadhead piercing! That was one unstoppable trout!

Well, with 4 miles of hiking in full sun and 92F in the shade, we called it a day as afternoon crept into evening. It took 3 cans of mountain dew, slammed, before I even really started to feel myself again!

One more great trip to Iowa, and this time especially fun 'cause ASM got to see the Iowa Streams and I got to hang out with Brennon again! I'm looking forward to fishing with both of these guys again, and if ever the opportunity should arise for you to fish with them, do NOT decline the offer!

  MP