timber coulee flood debris timber
Photo by J. Harrington
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Based on the reports we had heard, and the debris height that remains, we might have expected every trout, mayfly, caddis, and scud to have ended up down in the Mississippi River along with trees and large chunks of the hillsides. Reports from Wisconsin's DNR, via the folks at The Driftless Angler, are that the decline, if any, in fish populations is slight. We're still hoping to confirm that, but we're just working out the kinks, testing some new toys and getting back into the grove called fly-fishing, not to be confused with fishing for flies. So, the Better Half and I have been practicing our casting, checking our leaders, tie-ing on flies, and waiting out breezy times, not necessarily in that order.
Timber coulee washout and timber debris
Photo by J. Harrington
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Today we stopped in Viroqua and visited Driftless Angler, the Ewetopia yarn shop, and the offices of the Valley Stewardship Network, where we picked up a copy of Reading the Driftless Landscape. We're going to see if the section on developing a Land Stewardship Management Plan will help us get better organized for our efforts on our own small parcel in the St. Croix Watershed. We haven't yet seen a comparable resource from the St. Croix River Association, but then we've not yet asked them.
Have you heard enough red-winged blackbird calls to consider them cheery? We used to file their sounds of a rusty gate hinge in the same category as fingernails on a blackboard. After listening to a multitude of them for the past few days, we've reassessed that opinion. Perhaps it's the association of squeaky gates with Spring time heart warming, instead of a transition from Winter into Spring that's triggered the readjustment. The combination of blackbirds, frogs, toads and whatever else is calling, calling, calling in the fields makes cacophonous sound charming. Now, if only we can complete the transition from fishing to catching.
[NOTE: this was posted a few days after it was written. We neglected to bring the cord that would let us transfer pictures from the camera to the computer.]
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