Wisconsin closes its small stream season on September 30th each year.
By the end of October I am going stir crazy and need a trout fix.
My buddy Ducky from Iowa invited me there a couple years back.
We did well on the stocker bows and Ducky did manage a nice brown in the
catch and release only area south of Dorchester.
Ducky “Rich” from iowa caught this on a white marabou jig.
The holes were full of big trout but they were quite educated and it basically took throwing something they
had not seen before. Ducky’s white jig did the trick.
Just north of Dorchester the stream alternate between private and public and all are put and take.
On the first couple trips over there all I had ever caught were small bled out looking bows. I use
to catch a couple smallish browns to keep me interested.
I decided an early morning assault was in order so I was on the stream at first light. I still caught the same
bled out bows.
I was just about to leave and change areas and threw along a corner right where we had parked our vehicle.
There are huge rocks in the water there and it is not terribly deep.
It played out almost in slow motion. I ran my panther martin size 9 slowly so it could invoke a hit from
anything hiding under the rocks. I was not expecting what happened. It freight trained out from under the rock and
slammed my panther. I saw the mouth open wide. The white area I could see was huge. It was surreal because it
happened so quickly…..but I saw it like it was in slow motion. The big male brown engulfed the spinner and turned
in one motion. I saw blood immediately. It was flowing from its gills.
My friend Rick “from wisconsin” and I talked after he netted it for me. I have never seen such a big brown in Iowa. We both decided
it was either a dropped off brooder or a big brown with the spawning itch that came up from the Iowa River.
There was no question whether I was keeping it or not. It was almost dead upon the netting.
I took it home and froze whole and went to the taxidermist’s the next morning. He skinned my “””26″”” small stream
Iowa male brown later that night and gave me the orange colored meat to eat on the grill.
It graces my wall of my living room.
