Hitting some upper Iowa trout streams this week.
- Thread starter Ed L.
- Start date
Where are you staying that you have an actual graveled camping spot? The streams I fish, one just camps in the weeds.
Ed-you have a little of that Driftless country in northern Iowa, correct?
Ed, This just happened to show up on my Facebook today, from one year ago. 
We are staying at a family owned camp ground called Spook Cave. We're in the area of Blood Creek. Not much of a fly fishing area. A few in the 8" size. Going to another area we heard about this afternoon.
Where were you here Dave?
Yes. We're in the area that converges in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. It can get pretty rugged here in the area. Bloody Creek, Blood Run Creek and Blood Creek are a few names used and is named for the native Americans battles in the area. Some pretty overlooks of the Mississippi River valley as well.
That is an area I have wanted to get out to and fish. Be a nice change of pace from out East.
I have fished Bloody Run many times. The lower and middle section, just above the county park is real popular. The middle section has a minimum length limit.
The stream I was at in the photos is Spring Branch.
Closer to Bloody Run is Yellow River. Little Paint, Big Paint streams.
We fished the area to the far left from Bloody Run Creek WMA Monday and yesterday. It was close to the camp ground. We went the the WMA today but didn't last long. Vickie rolled her ankle on a rock. She's not used to wearing waders so we went back
to the camper. Heading back home in the morning.
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Rick Pierce
Well-known member
You are talking about some of my old stomping grounds now…
Used to fish Spring Branch regularly and even got to play net handler for the DNR on a shocking survey there when I was 16/17….some of the fish they rolled out from the bank hides were unreal.
Caught my first trout on a fly on Waterloo Creek.
Used to fish Spring Branch regularly and even got to play net handler for the DNR on a shocking survey there when I was 16/17….some of the fish they rolled out from the bank hides were unreal.
Caught my first trout on a fly on Waterloo Creek.
Rick Pierce
Well-known member
From the Wisco side of the Driftless
I'm still kicking myself for not getting in an Iowa/Wisconsin/Minnesota Driftless trip while my sister and brother-in-law were living in Chicago. Storied trout water out there, celebrated by none other than Aldo Leopold in some of the Sand County Almanac essays. One of my Maine fishing buddies has a brother who owns a fly shop in Viroqua, WI.
Rick Pierce
Well-known member
I was in the Driftless Angler this past August. Nice shop, if that's the one.
That's the one. I think they maybe have lodging too.
Rick Pierce
Well-known member
The sad thing is that the Driftless, like a lot of the rest of the sporting world, isn't what it used to be.
When we first started fishing it, it was one of those "word of mouth" kind of places. If someone liked you enough to take you there and tell you about those streams, you kept your mouth shut.
I can honestly say I never fished a nymph on those waters; I fished some soft hackle flies once in a while, but it was 99.9 percent dry flies. When you can catch 60-80 fish in a morning from 4" to 16", all on dries...wild, stream-bred brown trout and maybe some brook trout in the upper stretches...it's heaven for a teenager. Anyone, really.
But then someone wrote an article for "Fly Fisherman". Then someone wrote a book. Then another article, then two more books, and the author of the third book basically said, "the first two didn't even TELL you about the good streams....so here they are". Then, "The Movie". And it all went out the window. For a while, you would see hatches of mayflies or caddis, and the trout wouldn't rise to them because they were so pressured. A hopper could hit the water and never get eaten.
I finally went back up this summer, just because I had the chance and wanted to roll the clock back a little. The trout are still there, there are more people on the weekends, and the streams have changed. A big flood in 2018 or 19 wiped out a stretch or two that used to be lights-out and changed some of the other streams' courses.
Standing alone, watching the sun set in the valley, listening to owls, watching bats and cedar waxwings swoop over the stream to grab mayfliy duns and caddis, deer grazing in the pastures and crop fields, and nothing but the sounds of the water, it was easy to fall in love with it. The years melted off, and the teenager stood, disguised in the body of a middle-aged man, home again.
Rick, I love your writing about the area. I was talking to another angler and he told me about an on going litigation that would effect the area that would ruin the whole area. Apparently someone has started a company that would collect and distribute manure from 11,600 head of cattle on a property in the area that would affect the trout waters. I don't see it happening because the waters are protected but it appears the owner is the son-in-law of a Iowa politician. Hopefully the Iowa DNR can keep them at bay. I haven't spent a lot of time looking it up yet but this was interesting.
State senator contacted DNR about his son-in-law's controversial cattle operation near trout stream • Iowa Capital Dispatch
An Iowa state senator contacted state environmental officials on behalf of his son-in-law’s large cattle operation near a trout stream.
iowacapitaldispatch.com
Rick Pierce
Well-known member
Yes, I’ve heard about it.Rick, I love your writing about the area. I was talking to another angler and he told me about an on going litigation that would effect the area that would ruin the whole area. Apparently someone has started a company that would collect and distribute manure from 11,600 head of cattle on a property in the area that would affect the trout waters. I don't see it happening because the waters are protected but it appears the owner is the son-in-law of a Iowa politician. Hopefully the Iowa DNR can keep them at bay. I haven't spent a lot of time looking it up yet but this was interesting.
State senator contacted DNR about his son-in-law's controversial cattle operation near trout stream • Iowa Capital Dispatch
An Iowa state senator contacted state environmental officials on behalf of his son-in-law’s large cattle operation near a trout stream.
They plan to spread the manure on some pasture, but there is so much of it, they can’t guarantee it won’t leach through the soils into the aquifers and affect the springs that feed at least a couple of the better streams in Iowa. As you’ve pointed out, at least one of them is protected. Nitrogen is the big one, but the volume is such that the system just won’t be able to handle it.
Iowa politics - the farm lobby is stronger than the DNR. “Protected” waters don’t matter so long as someone’s son-in-law can make money.
And not to rant, but that’s what I don’t get about Iowa. Over 95 percent of its historical wetlands are gone. I can’t even imagine the duck production if half of those wetlands returned. Or the reduction in flooding. Or the increase in water quality.
And yet, farmers are still draining and tiling with the blessing of the State, and questioning it is somehow wrong.
I posted up on another site about a chemical release in southwest Iowa that killed every bit of aquatic life in a 12 mile stretch of a small river and even went down into the Missouri, killing fish, including sport fish.
The reaction I got was, “well, it killed mostly trash fish like carp anyway, and that river wasn’t much more than a ditch…”. How do you work with that level of apathy?
I've bought an Iowa out of state hunting license every year since my yearly 20s because of the amount of public land they offer for hunting as well as other outdoor sports compared to what Illinois offers. Of course you know that. As you mentioned the farm lobby dictates what happens in Iowa and I have found, at least in my range from Green Island WMA South of Dubuque to the Lake Odessa area, some of the states more historical waterfowl hunting locations, the DNR doesn't support these areas due to lack of funding. We had a summer flood this year on the Mississippi I'm sure you're aware of and in pools 14, 15, 16 and 17 there's not much for the ducks to feed on. With that said, Iowa is saying the pheasant road counts are better than the past 20 years. I'm headed over today to get my Iowa license so I hope these old legs will allow me some walkin and my old lab doesn't just follow me around! I hope you have a great season down there.