When I was young, my mother’s parents used to take me and my brothers camping and out on their boat fishing. The Drifter was a 21′ StarCraft center console with a 70hp Evinrude. As Marylanders, we mostly fished in and around the Chesapeake Bay for flounders, speckled sea trout, croakers, bluefish, and stripers.
Pop-Pop Jerry was the reason we were out there- he was a consummate sportsman- but Grandma Gerry (Gram) was the one who did nearly all of the rigging for my brothers and I. We mostly bottom fished with bait- minnows, squid, or peeler crabs- though sometimes we would jig buck-tails or throw spoons at breaking fish. We would typically set up drifts through popular spots in deep water; The Drifter was aptly named.
You could say I’ve lived a bit like a drifter- dropping out of college, moving to Boston, moving back to Maryland, getting kicked out of my apartment (for having a dog) and having to move back in with my parents, moving back to Boston, moving to Pennsylvania- but regardless, I’ve always identified with the archetype… And so I found myself on the Rush River in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, attempting to execute passable drag-free drifts through pools of voracious brown trout.
In Minneapolis for a friend’s wedding, I found myself with a morning and better part of a day to kill, and so I looked up fly fishing destinations outside the city. When I saw there were several Driftless rivers within an hour or so, I knew where I’d be heading. After a short drive I was speeding over rolling hills through some of the most beautiful cow country I’ve ever seen. When I found the river and walked down to take a look, I immediately knew it would be a good day; There were already fish rising all over the river.
I was in for a bit of a surprise however, when those seemingly ravenous trout turned out to actually be very picky, clearly keyed into the midge hatch I was seeing. Unfortunately I didn’t have any dry flies quite that small, and so I tried a little dry dropper setup with a midge nymph. I fished the first pool for quite some time before deciding that those fish clearly see too much action and moving upstream towards a fresh pool. Within 10 minutes this time I caught my first brown of the day- a modest yet classic wild Driftless trout.
I fished for the next couple hours and managed to pick up four more fish on a variety of flies- dries and droppers- all-together a decent handful of little gems. It was the perfect DIY followup to the impromptu guiding I received on the Brule. I might’ve needed a real local experience to get on the steelhead, but resident trout in spring-fed streams were still well within my wheelhouse.
Leaving the river that day I learned that Gram had passed. I felt like the universe put me out there that day, reveling in the outdoors like Grandma Gerry taught me so long ago, to honor her legacy, and remind me that these moments really are just fleeting opportunities that we have to seize while we can. Some day will be your last out on the water, soak in the sun and the beauty and goodness while you can.