7-05-04 - Tommy, Jim, Leanne, Travis and Rich are ready for some trout fishing. This is the first time here for any of them (well Rich hasn't been there in 12 years...)

Got my skunk off right away.

Leanne gets in the action.

Nice Fish Lea!

7-05-04 - Reunion at Paradise Springs

Waters Fished: Paradise Springs
Fish Caught: 6/10 personally
Outing Date: 7-05-04
Weather: Cloudy
Air Temp: upper 70's
Water Temp: didn't take it
Water Level: normal
Water Color: Crystal Clear
Fish Species: Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Brook Trout
Pattern Fished: Griffith's Gnat, Tucker Nymph
Pattern Color: as per the patterns
Fishing Quality: Good!

Talk about a fishin' weekend...and it's Monday....and I'm not back at the office! If this isn't the excuse to fish, I don't know what would be.

And to top off that great occasion, a few of my buddies also have the day off...MS2, Mrs. MS2, their son Tommy, and Chiro to be precise. I've been telling them all about Paradise Springs. Not to mention that I've been on FAT's case for a year now to go up there..it's like 30 minutes from our houses!

It all came together today...well...I ended up late (as usual) so we met along the way. Everyone was excited...except for me pretty much no one else had been there before! I was excited too; for the most part I knew that if we showed up, as a group, with this many people, anyone who was there would PROBABLY get frustrated and leave. Not that I don't WELCOME THEM TO STAY, but I am aware that very few anglers would. But Paradise Springs, from all viewpoints, is an URBAN fishery...don't go there expecting solitude (that's what IOWA is for)!

We got there, two guys left, one guy ran up to get on the water before we did...cool by me! I broke out the 6' 6" 2wt. (honestly a bit too small for Paradise Springs) and started catchin' fish. I'm not going to give you a play-by-play, and in fact I'm going to leave you with this...we ALL caught fish, several of them. I sighted all three species of trout today in the spring, which is GOOD NEWS in my book as the brookies are running pretty scarce these days (hopefully they'll stage a takeover soon!).

One bit of advice, the NOSEEUMS have show up at Paradise....a bit of trouble in....? I am STILL, 8 days later, covered in bites. Chiro had the foresight to bring repellent which worked OK but not fantastic. However, it was ALL worth it!

So I left Psprings with a new record, 6 landed (All rainbows). As usual no particular pattern outperformed any other, but the Tucker did get 1/2 my fish.

A name change was recently proposed on one o the forums from Paradise to Rainbow Springs. HMM...think about it while you check out all the additional pics below.

  MP 

Rich likes taking fish at a distance!	The rainbows like to thrash around a lot.	Unlike many rainbows we catch in IA, the Paradise Springs 'Bows have lots of color.
Jim hooks up with another rainbow....	...and Leanne lands it for him.	More Rainbows for MP!
Yet another fine rainbow for Rich, taken with his Route 37 Fly Rod.	FAT is a happy camper today!	Another colorful Rainbow Trout from Paradise Springs. I can't wait to see this fish in a couple years!
The crew hangin' out on the pier.	Travis nailed many fish as well!