Tour of the Driftless

OK, here goes the story of our four day weekend. Thursday we drove to Sparta, WI. We rent bikes from Speeds Bicycle Shop http://www.speedsbike.com. We used them last fall. This was Matt and Jenn's second trip and this was my third. My first trip was when I was a Boy Scout years a go. From Speeds we biked from Sparta to the first tunnel which is eight miles or 16 miles round trip. On the way there you are going up a gradual incline. The way back is much faster. We had a add on bike for Matt and this time around I could really feel him pedal! Last fall Matt got worn out after the first half hour and he was dead weight. This time he was really into cycling and wanted to race mom. On the way back Jenn did the tandem bike with Matt. At the tunnel we had another nice visit with Tunnel Tom who has a house right by the first tunnel and has a shack in his back yard where he sells ice cream, frozen candy bars, pop, and bottle water to bicyclists.



After the ride we got cleaned up and headed into Sparta. I made reservations to Angelini's http://www.angelinis.com in town for 6:30 and glad I did because it was the last open table in the house. We love Angelini's "gravy" as the Italian's call it. His tomato sauce is out of this world. The manicotti and the vodka bacon tomato sauce on mostacholi noodles really hit the spot after the brisk 16 mile bike ride. We stayed at the Sparta Best Western which has a nice pool and hot tub as well as Brewski's Pub within the hotel. We swam Thursday night and Friday morning per Matt's request. Anything to tire the boy out a bit...

Prior to the Friday morning swim I headed out at 5:00 am to fish Angelo Dam on the La Crosse River. The La Crosse River is a large river with many warm water species including panfish at Angelo and Perch Lakes. Yet headwaters within Fort Mccoy as well as tributaries such as the Little La Crosse River and others are spring fed and support trout. Rumor has it there are some seriously big browns from Angelo to Perch within Sparta. I stopped by the dam after dinner and talked to some locals who had landed a few average sized trout at Angelo Dam. They told me they have caught multiple 20" browns and rainbows here. The bows I assume are holdover, stocked from one of the tributaries perhaps. I believe the best way to fish a lot of water, a canoe is needed. I did not bother with waders, I just had long pants and a t-shirt on. I ever dragged a camping chair down there to relax on Friday morning. I spent one hour on the left side and ended up catching three brown trout. Largest trout landed was around 15." All hit in fast water from the dam on spinners.

Just above the dam is Angelo Lake which supports sunfish and bass, clearly warm water. Fishing the edge of the shore on what appears to be cut bank a trout smashes my #9 silver and blue Panther Martin spinner right at my feet. At first I was not excited, the trout looked average. Then as I played the fish a bit I realized it was a brook trout! This one ended up being just shy of 12," and what a pleasant surprise. I was getting nibbles on the left side which I assumed were chubs because they were light taps. Then after the brook trout landed I tried worms and caught a handful of sunfish back to back. Sunfish and brook trout. Who would have guessed.

At Angelo Dam I only caught a handful of trout and put in two hours. I decided to cut my losses and try an actual trout stream. I headed over to the Little La Crosse. For the most part I'm not impressed with this one. This was my first time fishing it however I scouted it out last year. Last year's impression was this is a muddy silty river with runoff issues. Farmers probably planting to close or there is just not enough gravel substrate and boulders. I briefly fished around Leon for 15 minutes and it was chocolate milk and a couple of dinks biting. I then scooted upstream hoping to find clear water. We got rain Thursday night. Amazing that Angelo Dam water was more clear than Little La Crosse. Upstream I found water I liked a little better. More narrow and deep, yet the water was heavily stained. I tried spinners with limited success however before I headed back at 9am I caught two respectable browns in the 14-15" range and a half dozen smaller ones right at the bridge on my way out.



If you happen to be in Sparta give Angelo Dam a try. You could also try closer to Sparta by the Eagle's Club. I've yet to try this but locals tell me this is also a good spot with brown trout being the primary catch. I guess I am HOT SPOTTING, sorry for sharing!!!

Friday morning back at the hotel we had breakfast, cleaned up, and after another swim we headed to Viroqua to spend the weekend at The Farmer's Inn http://www.thefarmersinn.net Jeanie and Gary are fantastic hosts. This is our fourth time staying with them and I can tell you it will not be the last. Friends Mary and John showed up shortly after we picked up groceries and got settled. Friday afternoon we went over to Vernon Vineyards http://www.vernonvineyards.com and hung out with owner Bob and other guests including a large pack of Harley riders. After wine sampling each couple purchased a bottle of wine to drink up on the hill overlooking the Bad Axe River Valley. Matt played with Bob's dog. On our way back we briefly stopped by to take a look at Three Chimney Rock which is apparently an ancient rock formation that highlights the ancient seafloor mountain range that makes up the topography of the area. At 5:30 Jeanie and Gary were milking the cows as they do every day. We came down to watch. Matt fell in love with a kitten he could not stop carrying around. Jeannie however sparked his interest in showing Matt how to milk a cow for the first time.



After milking the cows we went to out to dinner at the Old Towne Inn http://www.oldtowneinn.net Great food. Old school supper club. A lot of senior folks were there however not complaining the food including the salad bar was fantastic.

Saturday 6/18 fishing was tremendous. John and I got up around 4:30 and were fishing a little after 5:00 on Lightning Creek. We were worming some deep pools. Five minutes into it John's pole bent in half. He had a big brown that bit and just ran with the crawler like a freight train hit it then the fish was off. A few minutes later John got his first stream trout brown around 14." I also caught one about that size, maybe smaller that I quickly threw back. An hour into it no biggies so I decided to head to the next upstream pool and John stayed put. Luckily I left my big Frabil net with John because he hooked onto a big fat 18" female brown. All I could hear were big splashes. I ran over to help net but by the time I got there John had just swooped up the fish himself in my big ass Frabil net. John was just so excited to have landed this one. Further upstream I saw just a giant trout swimming around the middle of the creek that looked well over 20." Casting to the fish one plunk of the sinker the fish scattered. Chasing the fish upstream I sneaked up through the tall grass and looked over to see a very deep pool with several giant sized browns. Five seconds after I dropped a worm I felt a tug and set the hook. I landed a beautiful rusty colored 20" male. Just beautiful spawning colors. That really made MY morning. Now BOTH of us were extremely excited.

Afterwords we went to the very best brook trout stream in all of Crawford County, let's call it Beaver Dam Creek. We each caught at least two dozen with half of the catches being 10" or larger. I ended up catching the biggest brookie of the day, just shy of 13." This stream has one beaver dam after the next. I counted over a dozen beaver dams. Each dam creating a big deep pool, all of which held quality brookies. However some slack water in the middle of a beaver dam pool by a big downed log and a corner bend was really soft water. We pulled at least a half dozen out of there. I caught one brookie literally two feet from where I was standing. Fish were rather aggressive. By 9am the sun was high. On the way out there were some long straight beaver dam pools. I put on a #9 silver and blue PM. Basically every cast I had a fish on. It was almost too easy. Clearly one of the best brook trout streams on the planet.

Although the brook trout were a blast I know John was mainly excited about the big brown. The first thing John did was make the photo his profile photo on facebook! John is a catch and keep angler and he insisted on keeping fish including his 18" and my 20" brown. I told John the big browns likely not going to taste that good but he is great with the smoker and insisted. Gutting out my big brown was a half digested leopard frog! Big trout eat big baits! Crawlers did the trick Saturday morning, that's for sure!



Saturday morning we got back and cleaned our fish. Mary and Jenn cooked us bacon, eggs, hash browns and exceptional coffee. That hit the spot! Around noon we headed out for the day. First stop was Spurgeon Vineyards. We had a nice wine sampling and good conversation with my friend Mary Kerr. Mary got through breast cancer and nice to see her back to her cheerful self and a full head of hair again. Spurgeon has lots of sweeter wines so it is one of my favorites. They also have a huge selection, so many to try. Spurgeon Vineyards http://www.spurgeonvineyards.com is right next to Big Spring. I wanted to hike up to the Big Spring and show John and Mary however Jenn did not have adequate hiking shoes. She chose some fancy sandals with heels. Sad. Oh well.

Next stop we made our way over to Spring Green for lunch at the Spring Green General Store http://www.springgreengeneralstore.com. Interesting this place was very Grateful Dead like. I felt like I was in trendy Uptown of Minneapolis with unique gifts, earthy food, art all over the place. Good food, neat atmosphere. The girls also appreciated the free wifi for their iPhones as did I - internet let along phone service is quite spotty in southwestern WI, at least on the AT&T network.

After lunch just outside of Spring Green is Peck's Farm Market East http://www.pecksfarmmark...om/seasons-attractions. This place has a free petting zoo with all kinds of cool animals. There is a huge playground and all kinds of toys Matt played with too. We fed the animals with pellet food from the quarter machines. Really worth a stop if you have kids and you are in the area.



On our way to Harris Fest we briefly stopped at Weggy Winery http://www.weggywinery.com for another tasting. Each year they expand their selection. I really liked their new apple and black currant wine which has Honey Crisp applies. Their peach wine semi-dry as well as Weggy Blue are also fantastic.

Harris Fest was a BLAST! Exceptional food, great music, endless beer. Len and Barb have some really solid friends and family. The five of us had a blast. I had fun getting to know everybody and just hanging with Len. Buddy John got into some polka including the chicken dance.



Thanks for a FANTASTIC night Len and Barb! Sunday morning fishing was a total BUST with 5.3" of rain overnight. I've never seen southwest WI like that before. Entire fields were underwater and water over several bridges making them impassable. There were boulders in the road that fell off cliffs and trees in the road too. I did a 40 minute drive around and went back to bed. I was hungover and needed the sleep anyway.