Wind,cold and Pink Squirrels.

Had my first trip of this year up to the Driftless region, the cost of gas these days is going to be quite prohibitive for my getting up there to fish, I only for see one maybe two more trips this season, kind of a bummer but I have a family to take care of.

I got up there Saturday morning at 7:30 and hit one of my favorite streams, lots of Browns and Brookies in there. Fished the section upstream from the bridge I park at, no luck there,unusual in that I normally hook and land a dozen fish in the first hour but nothing at all. I went back and fished downstream from the bridge for the first time, very nice stretch of water, walked to a section warning people of the private property a short distance away, I got in the stream and started working upstream.

Fished through a large pool,had a lot of takes and landed a half dozen small Browns 10 inch range.These were all caught on the Pink Squirrel, very popular pattern up there, rightly so, I've caught more fish up there on that fly than any other pattern in my pack.I'm not sure why I have a pack around my waist, I could get along just fine with a shirt pocket box with Pink Squirrels and leech patterns!I fished up a bit further came upon a bunch of downed branches and stuff like that, nice deep hole, tossed my leech into the pile of dead tree below and on the second drift hooked a good Brown maybe 18-20 inches, a big fish for this stream.I fought it for 10 second or so and the fish got tangled up in the mess below and snapped off the leech.I didn't actually think I was going to land it in that tangled mess did I? NO WAY.

Fished my way back to the bridge landing a few more,couple Browns and a Brookie about 10-11 inches.Moved onto the next spot, Got on the stream and hooked up with two Browns that were in the 12-14 inch range, both were able to throw the fly and swim away. Worked my way downstream further than I've been before, was able to hookup and land a number of smaller Browns again in the 10 inch range.They were on Pinks Squirrles and a Copper John, small, maybe size 18. The water was crystal clear and the fish were fairly spooky.I made a couple short stops after leaving this spot bot like a switch was flipped,the fish were turned off.All and all a decent day albeit windy at times,cloudy and intermittent rain,was a good first outing of the year, I look forward to getting back of course but that wont be until well into summer.