Snowy Splendor .....

The Outdoors of SE Minnesota are truly amazing and I'm reminded of this fact often as I spend a vast majority of my time hunting and fly fishing year round in the Driftless Area. I had this point reiterated once again on Saturday while fly fishing an area stream. While nymphing, I came across a deep pool with an eddy that had many rising fish sipping helpless midges at the surface from a hatch spurred on by temps in the low 30's. My hands were wet, cold and not functioning well but there was no way I wasn't going to tie on a dry fly! I could only muster up enough dexterity to firmly secure a large Elk Hair Caddis which was obviously much larger than the hatching midges not to mention a whole different species. What saved me was a foam line which obscured the true profile of the fly and by "skittering" it, this small amount of movement prompted the strikes. This is where the wonderment of the Driftless lies ..... here I was, fishing a secluded valley, with snow falling, catching Brown Trout on a dry fly in the middle of winter. As Dorothy once said, "There's No Place Like Home".

Brian Schumacher