crossing paths – iowa county trout

When I first started my blog, I never would have imagined how many great people I would come to meet in such a short time. Most of these people I have met online and some I have come to meet in person.  I recently had the opportunity to meet another local trout fisherman who just started his own blog. By coincidence, he shares the name Blake with me and is a talented fisherman, rod builder, and fly tier. His blog “Money Can’t Buy Happiness” has become an instant success and has rekindled my “trout bug“, even in the middle of summer.

We met at the Salmo Pond just off the famous Black Earth Creek, condensed our gear into one vehicle and started the journey further west. Our first stop was on a Dane County stream that was familiar to the both of us and our plan was catching some fish before heading out further to the west.

Blake from Money Cant Buy Happiness

We didn’t light the world on fire there but it was nice to shake the skunk early in the day. Both Blakes were on the board before we proceeded to depart, and push our way deeper into Iowa County.

the first fish of the day, a dane county brown

Blake(2) with a pretty dane county brown

The stream in Iowa County that Blake(2) took me to was a real gem. It was more of a pasture stream where bank side grazing kept the weeds and grass at bay. It was a real treat to be able to walk the bank without fighting chest high brush and made covering water much quicker. There was a whole lot of fast water dropping into some beautiful pools and was a real pleasurable fishing experience.

an iowa county trout stream

We both ended up stripping streamers down and across the stream and rolled plenty of fish. Our hook up ratio was around fifty percent which seems typical for streamer fishing but was a real blast watching those fish swipe at our flies. The action here was better and this is where we caught the majority of our fish that day.

an iowa county brookie

an iowa county brown trout

We caught around 20 fish between the both of us, mostly browns with a few brookies mixed in. Though we only caught a modest amount of fish, I made a new fishing friend. It’s been hard for to meet up with Damien and Neal for the last month due to our conflicting schedules, and was nice to actually be on the stream with a new buddy. This must have been the first time two Blakes have been fly fishing the same trout stream in western Wisconsin at the same time, so this was a major groundbreaking event.

On a side note, Blake(2) lost a personal best brookie at the bank that we estimated to be sixteen inches. Please don’t feel too bad for him though, later that week he went on to catch a personal best rainbow and brown.