Fishing Trip to the Driftless Region of Wisconsin

 After contemplating several states for a late summer fishing trip I settled on fishing the Driftless Region of Wisconsin. Montana and Colorado were just too far away for a solo trip and I knew I could drive out to Wisconsin in two days. The area is noted for wild brown trout, spring creeks, cows, and cheese curds! So you might ask what does driftless mean and how did this area get its name? Glad you asked, when the glaciers retreated they left behind silt, gravel, and rock that geologists call "drift". The Driftless region of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota were never covered by glaciers during the last ice age and are therefore "driftless". It is a unique geological area with spring fed creeks and rich soil. It also has a lot of wild trout!

My trip started out pretty uneventful with an easy 600 mile drive to the Best Western in Howe, Indiana. I didn't run into any traffic and there is a pretty good Chinese restaurant within walking distance of the Best Western. The next day was a 425 mile drive to Coon Valley Wisconsin. I timed it totally wrong and hit Chicago rush hour at 8:45 on Monday morning. Luckily it moved along pretty well and I arrived in Coon Valley in the early afternoon. 

Named for the Raccoons

I stayed on a working farm at the Quiet Valley Cabins. Bucks Cabin was my home away from home and had a nice porch out back, air conditioning, grill, hot shower, and comfortable bed. Cows were my neighbors and after checking in I unpacked all my stuff and went fishing right at the farm. It was late in the day so I only fished for a little bit but caught my first driftless area wild trout. There were quite a few bugs outside so I started the grill while enjoying my after fishing beer to keep the bugs down. The farmer was vaccinated and separating cows and that would impact my sleep that night. After dinner and a long day I settled down early for what I was hoping would be a quiet night sleep, the name of the lodging is Quiet Valley Cabins after all. However, the cows cried out for each other ALL NIGHT LONG! I got very little sleep and was mulling over my options for where else I could stay. Becky, the owner, came by that morning and apologized for the noise. She felt very sorry for the cows and assured me they would be back together that day and the next two nights would be quiet. She refunded my first night's stay and baked me some chocolate chip cookies. I really do like the people in the mid-west, they are always very friendly and thoughtful. I decided to stay there the next two days and they were indeed quiet. 

Buck's Cabin

Quiet Valley Cabins

First Driftless Fish

Bug Deterrent

I spent the next couple of days fishing the small creeks and coulee's near Coon Valley. A coulee is a large steep-walled trough and that is a good description of these streams. I happened to hit a heat wave with temperatures in the low 90's and intermittent thunderstorms. The smaller coulees remained nice and cold though with one stream measuring 61 degrees F and the other stream measuring 58 degrees F. If you release your trout like I do, you want to stop fishing with the water hits 67 degrees F so the temperatures were perfect. I did pretty well the next couple of days catching wild brown trout out of each stream I fished. I tried to use a number of flies but the only fly I could get them to take was a size 16 black ant. They really liked that pattern.

I also had something happened that has never happened in all my years of fishing. I had a hit on the black ant that seemed like a 12-14" fish. All of a sudden my rod bent very deeply and I see a HUGE fish fighting off my rod. The fish had to be at least 20" in length. I tightened up my drag and got ready for a big battle bringing this fish to net. When I got the fish closer something didn't look quite right, almost like the fish had two heads or something. The fish got closer and as I was bringing it to the net I saw that the large fish had the fish I caught in its mouth! Once the big trout saw my net she let go of the smaller trout and I landed that fish. It didn't seem worse for wear and happily swam off. 

Typical Coulee

 

Rock Outcroppings (typical of the driftless region)

Bait for the Monster Brown

Spring Coulee Creek

This was a great area to fish but it was time to move on and try some other areas. The weather wasn't cooperating for my camping portion of the trip so I decided to head to Fennimore, Wisconsin early and stay in a motel. It is about an hour drive from Coon Valley to Fennimore and I stopped in Viroqua to check out the Driftless Angler Fly Shop. Nice little fly shop and I bought a few flies, a spool of tippet, and a t-shirt to commemorate my trip. I didn't get any great intel from the shop other than he recommended staying up in the Coon Valley area instead of the Fennimore area as there are more streams and they are less crowded. 

I decided to check out Big Green River on the way down to Fennimore. This was a nice looking stream but had quite a bit of angling pressure so I decided not to fish it. I found another stream to fish on the way to Fennimore that doesn't get a lot of anglers fishing it. It turned out to be pretty small but had 52 degree F water and lots of willing brown trout. After fishing that afternoon I headed to my motel in Fennimore.  

Creek near Fennimore

Cabin along Big Green River ($25 nightly)

Motel in Fennimore

The motel in Fennimore was not to my liking. The outside was dirty (see picture above) and it was noisy. There was no way I could sleep here another night so I decided to head home one day early. I was also missing my Ruthie and couldn't wait to see her again. I got up early and left for Port Clinton, Ohio. Ruth and I stayed there before when we bought our trailer years ago and they have a great fried fish restaurant across the street from the Best Western Motel. In case you couldn't tell, I like Best Western as a motel chain. Always clean enough for me and reasonably priced. I have a gold membership and used some of my points for this trip. Stick with me Ruth, we travel first class! The fish fry was as good as I remember it and Lake Erie is very pretty. 

Lake Erie

Walleye Platter

After a good night's sleep and 465 miles I arrived home around 1 pm. It was a great trip but it was good to be home. I really enjoyed the fishing in Wisconsin but the wading was very difficult and the streams were small. The area always fascinated me and I am grateful for the chance to fish it. I think the fly shop's advice to stay up in the Coon Valley area is good and if I ever go back that is where I will spend the bulk of my time. My 3-weight rods were enough for these streams but I found that chest waders were definitely better than hip waders. Next big fishing bucket list destination is Montana.