Spring Hollow Cabin and Blue Creek Brookies

Jenn and I took Thursday and Friday off making our Labor Day weekend a five day vacation. We spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at Spring Hollow Cabin in Dakota, MN just fifteen minutes from La Crosse. This is our third year staying at Spring Hollow, both previous trips also in August. A nice log cabin with a master bedroom, lofted ceilings and two single beds upstairs. The cabin also has a big old porch, a nice hot tub and fire pit. It is well decorated and always relaxing.




On our way to the cabin on Thursday we first stopped at Pepin Heights Apple Orchards to pick up some ginger gold apples. Their sweet tangos apparently were just coming in Saturday or Sunday.



Next down 61 we stopped at Lark Toys in Kellogg for our first time. What an amazing toy store that just went on and on and on like it would never end. So many neat toys to look at including collector's toys behind glass sorted by decade.



Afterwards we headed over to Jefferson Pub in Winona for a bite to eat followed by a drive up the hill to Garvin Heights Vineyards. We have been numerous times and was nice to chat with Linda more about her vineyard and garden. Matt kept busy with his T-Rex he bought at Lark Toys.



Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning I fished Blue Creek from 6-9am. I hit the goldmine for finding 100% brook trout stream. Many quality fish. Each morning I caught 15-25 fish and it was all with chunks of crawlers.

Friday morning I only fished from 6-7 am then the sky went totally black and a torrential downpour started up. By 8am the storm had past and down to a light drizzle. I fished a brown trout stream next to the cabin. Here worms were also the ticket. Browns wanted nothing to do with spinners.



The hot tub was really great however not recommended for underwater shots with your digital camera. Photos were fine the rest of the day however Saturday morning I discovered condensation in the lens which goofed up my photos.

Southwinds Orchards had Sweet Tangos in which are fantastic eats. They come in ten days earlier than the Honey Crisps which is also part of their appeal which I did not know.

Friday night we also met up with friends Brian and Karen at the Arterial Tavern for the fish fry and Spotted Cow.



Saturday morning after landing my first quality brookie I then discovered the condensation in my lens. Here are a couple of nice brookies. Sorry for the haze, camera issues. On the drive back to the cabin I opened up the USB and battery doors and set the camera on the dashboard with the heat on which cleared out the condensation on the lens in less than ten minutes.



New friend Dan and his 18 month old Isabelle joined us for dinner Saturday night. Dan thanks for making the drive! It was great hanging out. Isabelle is a sweetheart that I don't think cried once the whole time. A really easy going kid for sure. You are blessed!



This morning I had one last chance to fish Blue Creek again. That is not it's real name. I just found the creek after doing extensive research and I now realize it is often hard to find a quality brook trout stream that is 100% brookies - no browns to take over. So I've decided to keep this one tight to my vest for now. I may share with some select friends if they ask. I came up with the name Blue Creek because it has numerous deep blue green pools just thick with brook trout. Most of the time a fish was on before the bait could fall to the bottom.



Fishing focus was brook trout only and I don't regret not fishing for browns. The way I see it, I can catch browns any day. Brookies are rare especially many quality 10-12" wild and colorful fish I was catching. Brookies were rather easy to catch however there was some skill involved. First off I was there 30 minutes before sunrise. Casts had to be precise and you could pull 2-4 fish out of one area but then that area was spooked and I would move up another 5-10 feet to cast into "untouched" water. I found four nice deep pools and I could fish all four and then come back to the first one and the brookies would be biting again as if they had no memory of me previously fishing for them. Using the smallest possible split to make the distance was the key. Big splits spooked the brookies. Other times you just had to be patient and wait for a strike. I used a #8 jay hook and very small pieces of crawler. Any larger pieces brookies would more easily strip the bait. Quick hook sets were a must. You had to feel and also watch the line the minute the bait hits the water and started to sink. A delayed hook set lead to a few gut hooks. That was OK because I was keeping some fish anyway.



Labor Day itself was nice and relaxing. I smoked my weekend catch. Jenn harvested some really nice Heirloom tomatoes, eggplant for my dinner tomorrow night, and cucumbers. For trout smoking I have found cherry wood to be my favorite. Second best is apple wood however I picked up some pecan wood and will try that next time.



Nice to play with the boy. Amazed Matt is starting kindergarten tomorrow, where did the time go? Today we also went on a bike ride to the park and also a campfire in the back yard for s'mores.

Life is good. Now tomorrow we are off to school and work!