Direct Gar Print

I am married to a wonderfully talented artist. Last night she printed a gar that I caught on a rope fly. The method is called 'direct fish printing'.

From the river...
To the studio...
Ink
rub
pull

Muddin'

My local mud flats.

Still learning the ways of the carp. It can seem futile at times. 

The mud flats are nice and shallow. See the fin out there. 

Black Hills

We recently took a week-long trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota. It was awesome.
Most of you know that I'm somewhat obsessed with bison. I still consider Alan Knapp's work to be one of the main reason I got into ecology. I remember having to write a literature review paper for my ecology class as an undergrad. Somehow I came across Knapp et al's Bioscience paper. I was seriously floored and forever hooked on plant-herbivore interactions. Bison are the essence of renewable energy. Someday I'll own some land with a small herd. In Custer State Park, bison are common and most people don't think it is too impressive to see one or a dozen. I thought it was great. It is simply the most impressive mammal in North America.

I fished French Creek in Custer State Park. It was full of rainbows. On my way there at 4:30 am, I saw a mountain lion. I was in my car, it was in the ditch, it looked at me, walked around the car, and then ran off. It was awesome-from my car.
I never got what I would call a 'big' fish, but I had a blast.
More bison on the edge of the badlands. Doesn't this photo just emanate ecosystems ecology?

Evidence

I was recently asked to provide some evidence of my work around the house. Here you go, some scenes from around the Black River Compound....
I did a little branch trimming and dropped a couple of trees behind the house. I didn't feel real great about it, but it does allow me to see the gar roll from the deck. Now if I could just catch one, I suck...

The wood already under the shed should get me through the next two years. The wood piled up could get me through another two years. Seeing this reminds me of something I read the other day. "A lady asked me if heating with wood really saved that much money on my heating bill. I replied, I don't have a heating bill."
The retaining wall is leveling off an area where we will eventually have a fire pit.
The fence keeps the rug rats in.
Potatoes on the left, strawberries on the right. The strawberries did great this year. Next year this entire bed will be strawberries.
The garden is growing well. That is a newly constructed compost bin in the background.

Ok, that's it. I'll work on getting some fish pics up soon.

4th of July carp

Was a hot 4th of July in Iowa. I spent a couple hours this afternoon tramping a skinny warmwater stream. We've gone 7 days without rain so I decided to fish a local creek that is more dirt and sand than some of my other options. Was happy to find a couple hungry carp that would move for a Clouser swimming nyph. Feels like summer fishing when you're dripping with sweat and deet.

chopped head and blurred fish. shooting with a timer... almost the money shot

tactics for small stream warmwater fish

Swinging streamers for smallies. Dead drifting nymphs and buggers for quillback. On my local warmwater streams the same trout tactics I would apply to driftless area trout streams apply to warm water specs. On this outing I observed quillback taking insect larvae in the lower sections of riffles. Neat to see flashes of silver as the sucker would twist into position to grab a bite.With the water being very clear the smallies would spot me from long distances. The fish on this stream haven't been too easy to catch. Just enough of a challenge to make it interesting.

The silver of a quillback

good looking warmwater stream in Iowa

Iowa Bedrock

There's a creek I fish locally that is geo-awesome. The sandstone creek has remnants from the Devonian era some 375 million years ago. In Iowa, rocky streams mean a better chance of clearer water and easier catching. It's hard to imagine that my great grandparents could once see the bottom of my larger local rivers. It's estimated that an average Iowa acre loses 5 ton's of soil per acre per year. I "hope" there's a growing recognition among farmers and land owners that they need to stop the bleeding with buffer strips, no-till, etc.

 rock bass

Look out smallie!

Angling Artists:

Check out Tim's blog and support the efforts to protect Bristol Bay.

Angling Artists: The Beginning...: "Alaskan rainbow trout sipping caddis. Photo by Monty Thierry. It is the beginning of my time in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska. I work an..."

On a driftless trip this March I purchased a couple Giclee prints from Tim. His paintings are awesome and reasonably priced. So check out the Bristol Bay prints and pay a visit to River Blend Studio
http://riverblendstudio.com/home.html

recent activity

I’ve been busy around the house lately: Here is a short list of some things I’ve been doing.

Helped plant the garden, created a new garden

Built a retaining wall below the house

Put up a new mailbox

Spread some poultry manure over the yard

Built a 300’ fence around the yard

Cut down and trimmed some trees, split, hauled and stacked wood. I’m set for the next two years.

I did manage an overnight trip to Iowa with Johnny and another trip to SE Minnesota with Dan H. Here are a couple of highlights.

Brookie
Bow
The largest trout stream in the Driftless Area

Tossing Rocks

When fishing with my son Quade, who is nearly 2 years young, the rock tossing is the main show while swinging streamers is secondary. As we made our way upstream we walked by a nice smallmouth in the background of the first picture. After we had sat and thrown about 20 rocks Quade allowed me to make a couple swings while he continued his work streamside. The fish I had walked by was still sitting there and hit the streamer on the second swing. A nice strong fish that snapped my leader at the tippet connection. Oh well, we came to throw rocks anyway.

walleye

fishing with Dave, 2001

My good buddy David and I had loaded the john boat in the bed of the pickup. I backed the truck out of the garage and immediately hit Dave's Chevy Lumina with the corner of the tailgate. Put a nice hole in the rear side window. I remember telling mom I hit Dave's car and that we were leaving for some fishing. We caught the fish featured in photo. Sometimes a few dings happen on the way to catching fish. 

warmwater fishin'

I'm home visiting family in NW Iowa. Spent some time this morning tossing streamers on the pond. Summers growing up were a routine of painting houses, playing baseball, chasing my girl, and fishing/swimming in the quarry. I don't make the visit home very often. It's fun to give the old pond a visit.

picked up crappie, bass, bluegill and perch

Iowa Trout Streams

Trip Report: May 13 & 14

Started my weekender on a small Iowa Put & Grow stream. This is a challenging little stream with anything 10"being a big fish. Large boulders serve as the deeper holding spots for the larger fish. Awesome scenery and no one there but me. I love those streams where you're surprised if you see another angler. Coulda fished this stream all day, but it was off to larger water to meet up with Nate.

This was a one night camp trip.  Thankful for no wind--tarp stayed up both days. 

Fished streamers, dries, nymphs, and the catching was excellent. Just what I needed.

Go North Son

I had a dream last night. I was on French Creek and the wild browns were dancing and everything in my world was good. I'm headed to NE Iowa on Friday -- and everything in my world will be good.