On the Road Again

We've been very lax on keeping the blog going since we departed for Wisconsin on Monday 16 Sept. Carol has been busy with her editing jobs and so have I with my forthcoming book. On top of it all we keep forgetting to get out our mini iPads and take pictures. OK, so much for the excuses.

The main purpose of this approx. three-weeker road trip is for me to fish two Top 100 trout streams in northern Wisconsin. I have already fished ALL of the top 100 trout streams east of the Mississippi River, except the Bois Brule (French for burnt woods - Bois as in woods and Brule as in Creme Brule--burnt cream I guess) and Wolf rivers. It took us two and half days to get here. We drove through West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. And we saw lots, and lots of cornfields along the way.

Cornfields everywhere.

We stayed in a very nice log cabin at the Brule River Classics (http://bruleriverclassics.com) right next to the Bois Brule (or just Brule, pronounced "Brul" as they say it around here). Here's a photo of Carol and our cabin.

Carol outside "Ginger Quill" (the common name of a mayfly)

This is really beautiful country. The glaciers of the last ice age (10,000 years ago) covered two-thirds of this state and created the great lakes. Other glacial signs are everywhere. There is even a National Scenic Ice Age Trail supported by the National Park Service and the State of Wisconsin. The brochure they publish makes for some very informative reading about "global warming" which so many "scientists" and non-scientists today claim is being caused by man. According to this brochure, there have been many ice ages and global warming cycles over the past 100,000 years. (So given that mankind back then had no means to pollute the air with cars and burning coal, it makes me wonder if our present global warming scare is nothing more than just an extension of the global warming that started 10,000 years ago. So I say to that person who was almost president and his followers, how's that for "inconvenient truth"? Perhaps the time spent by present global warming scientists would be better spent on planning what our northern states and cities will do during the next ice age?

Yesterday, I took a canoe fishing trip down the north-flowing Brule River with guide Cordell Manz. Carol helped with the car shuttle and saw us off. Like me, she too forgot her mini iPad so no photos. Carol did take photos with Cordell's phone but I don't have these as of this writing. Here's one Carol took when we were scouting the river and looking at campsites.

The fabled Bois Brule River about 10 miles downstream of RT 2 bridge.

Cordell is a very easy going and friendly guide who knows this spring-fed river well. He grew up here and his mother owns Brule River Classics. He explained that the early French settlers used this river to access the Mississippi River from Lake Superior. They did this by following the Brule upstream to a one mile portage area to the St Croix River, which flows into the Mississippi. (We found it amazing that the Mississippi headwaters are all the way up here in Wisconsin.)

The sky was grey but the temperature was near 70. Nevertheless I brought my rain gear just in case. We travelled only about 100 yards downstream before I caught my first trout, a 7 or 8 inch brook trout that put up quite a fight. All I need to check off a river is one trout, so I thought to myself, I can relax now. Another hundred yards produced the largest trout of the day, a 12-inch brook trout that really put up a fight. As the float trip progressed, the weather changed frequently. A mist appeared on the river many times and at another time it rained very hard. Fortunately, when it started to rain hard we were passing under a walking bridge at the famous Cedar Island where five US presidents from Grant to Eisenhower stayed and fished this fabled water. Cordell and I ate lunch under the bridge in the rain while two women in kayaks joined us to get out of the rain. Unlike Cordell and I who had on rain gear and waders, these two had on short-sleeve shirts and short pants. Fortunately both women had on life jackets and were carrying plenty of excess weight, which may have kept them from getting hypothermia.

During the eight-hour trip I managed to catch a total of eight trout. Two I caught on dry flies and at least one on every artificial fly Cordell put on my line. I caught one rainbow trout, one brown trout and the rest were brook trout. Cordel said I won the "triple crown" (meaning I caught all three species of trout in the river). There was no monetary reward or public recognition for this feat, my only and most important reward was that warm glow that follows a perfect fishing day on a beautiful trout stream.

By the way the trip up here was about 1,100 miles.

Standby for Carol's entry coming up tomorrow.

Best wishes to all,
Jack