The ice is gone and I've got open water here in the Driftless at least for now. I hit the stream trying to catch the big one I missed before things froze up. Sometimes I'm happy with catching one and done. But, today I took my time and pushed on to try my luck at catching something more than this nice stocker.
I don't really know what it is about fishing the Driftless so much but it's something our family has done all my life. My father would catch and eat every fish he could no matter what the size. I very seldom keep any trout unless we're camping or I deep hook them...
Size doesn't really matter but I know the rubber part of my spinning rods handle is 10" and the end of the gold wrap is 13"
Today I caught 3 nice browns and a rainbow for good measure.
The Salmonoid family has a fatty fin know as the adipose fin which is full of nerve endings which helps the trout detect changes in the water around them.
I'm glad I kept fishing because I was lucky enough to catch this beautiful brown.
but the picture doesn't do it justice unless you know the distance from the tip of my finger to the bend in my elbow is 20"!
After fumbling with a wet fish, cold fingers and a camera the only real way to to judge th.e size is to look at the size of my smile
