Finally, I got out away from the city and made it into rural Wisconsin for my favorite fish, the brook trout. With a tip from a trout fishing colleague my dad and I headed to a gorgeous little stream about sixty miles west of the Twin Cities. It was one after another all day, both days.
I also saw plenty of deer, wild turkeys, song birds: scarlet tanager, gold finch, indigo bunting, Baltimore oriole, purple martin, red-wing blackbird, and a pileated woodpecker--the goofy one with the big red head. The stream we fished was recently restored. Habitat structures were put into place, the stream channel was narrowed, and as a result trout populations went from 200-300 fish per mile to over 5500.
The stream runs through the unglaciated, driftless area of limestone bluffs which were actually the bed of an ancient sea 350 million years ago. The woods are predominantly hardwood: black oak, silver maple, elm, ash, and the valleys are farmed or in the case of this stream all long-grass prairie. A beautiful place to be.
I also saw plenty of deer, wild turkeys, song birds: scarlet tanager, gold finch, indigo bunting, Baltimore oriole, purple martin, red-wing blackbird, and a pileated woodpecker--the goofy one with the big red head. The stream we fished was recently restored. Habitat structures were put into place, the stream channel was narrowed, and as a result trout populations went from 200-300 fish per mile to over 5500.
The stream runs through the unglaciated, driftless area of limestone bluffs which were actually the bed of an ancient sea 350 million years ago. The woods are predominantly hardwood: black oak, silver maple, elm, ash, and the valleys are farmed or in the case of this stream all long-grass prairie. A beautiful place to be.
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