Minnesota - Wisconsin back to back

My wife Carole had a business trip to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and I was quick to saw I'm in as I hoped to be able to break out for a Driftless fly fishing adventure in either state or ideally both.

April weather was unpredictable but I was going fishing come hell or high water.  Having never fished Minnnesota, I dug thru my old Fly Fishing magazine articles I had cut out over the years, and found some water only about 30 minutes from Rochester.  The afternoon I arrived in Rochester Carole was in meetings all afternoon so I punched out and found some trout water.  Once I got to the stream I quickle geared up and headed upstream casting a black wooley bugger initially. I picked up one Brown trout and went back to the bridge, reassessed and walked downstream and fished back up.  I tried everything... I picked up one on a pink squirrel, one on a caddis and one on a parachute adams before calling it a day.  Four Minnesota trout - nothing to brag about, but another state to cross off the list for having caught a fish.  

States I've caught trout now include Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Idaho and Utah.  I hope to add a few more states one of these days.

The next day I made a 2+ hour drive to my old stomping grounds in SW Wisconsin.  Weather wasn't great, it was raining off and on and I was worried the rivers could get brown and muddy with a good thundershower.  I hit up Knapp Creek and caught about a dozen browns on streamers below the bridge I parked at.  No big ones though. 

After a couple hours, I headed to Avalanche to fish the West Fork of the Kickapoo but the road was blocked and I couldn't fish the stretch I was hoping to.  I parked in a new spot and decided I wanted to nymph as I haven't done well nymphing for the past couple of years.  I'm glad I made the switch.  In my first run, I landed four Brown trout on pink squirrels, and over the next couple hours caught about 15 total on the squirrel and pheasant tail.  The action was steady and productive.  The rain picked up just as I got ready to head off the water. 

Hard to tell a Wisconsin trout from a Minnesota trout !