Trout Fishing in Iowa…Really!

The last blog I posted 2 years ago was about trout fishing in Fennimore WI. This town is in the Driftless Area where glaciers did not penetrate. The result is lots of hills and cold streams. These are perfect for trout.

Farming is difficult in the hills so many farms pasture raise dairy or beef cattle. The streams pass through the pastures. The Driftless Area extends into Northwest Illinois (see blogs about the Apple River). It also extends into Northeast Iowa. Paul has talked about fishing there for years. In the summer of 2019 he and I finally made the trip.

Farmers agree to let people fish in the streams as long as you don’t bother the cattle and follow the signs for accessing the pastures. It takes some experience to know where to go, so Paul arranged for a guide. He also  made arrangements for us to stay in Decorah IA, a place made famous by the Decorah bald eagles whose nest has it’s own camera and website. I have watched the eagles for many years.

It is a looong way to Decorah from Bloomington. We decided to take the Iowa route through Dubuque IA and then through Dyersville to see Field of Dreams. Paul had not been to Field of Dreams, but I had been there years before and had just visited again in July. Dyersville is also home to the National Farm Toy Museum, but that’s not Paul’s thing.

After the obligatory picture coming out of the corn (see the movie) and a few souvenirs, we continued to Decorah. We had an evening appointment to meet the guide. Paul said the guide would charge $200 for half a day. I figured a $100 each plus a tip if we caught fish.

We met the guide at Walmart. He was driving a pick-up that looked like it had been through combat. There was paint all over and lots of junk in the back. He asked whether we wanted big trout or lots of trout. We said big ones, so he pulled out a box with a mess of tangled up Rapala lures that were 7-9” in length. This goes against everything we knew about trout fishing which are usually fished with very tiny flies or small lures. We had brought light rods which were a little light for his big lures. Needless to say his appearance did not instill confidence.

He did tell us we could catch trout around Decorah as there was a fish hatchery that stocked trout in the local streams. He gave us advice on where and how to fish for these smaller trout that evening. The fish hatchery is also where the Decorah eagles' nest is located. My surprise was that Decorah is more than an hour’s drive from the Mississippi River, which was where I thought the nest was located. He told us we would be fishing for big trout in a stream more than an hour’s drive north east and we should meet him in the morning for the drive out. Knowing our ability to get lost, we wanted to stay close to the guide.

We fished locally that evening, but the streams were very muddy from recent rains. We caught a couple of trout on small lures, but the fishing wasn’t great. We went back to the hotel and then out to eat. Decorah is a beautiful small town. It has an active downtown business district. This is so rare to find since most have declined while shoppers go to Walmart’s and other big stores located away from the central town. I really enjoyed walking through Decorah.

The next morning we met the guide at a gas station. He bought us bottles of water and some snack food. Apparently this was how he started all guided trips.

We followed the guide for quite a while, finally stopping way off the main roads. It was a long walk to the beginning of the public fishing area across the pasture. As we approached the stream, the guide told us to crouch low so that the trout would not see us approach. Unfortunately I had chosen to wear a bright chartreuse green shirt He gave each of us a large Rapala and we looked for a spot to get close to the stream. He told us to jerk the lures hard to create action. He said the trout were big meat eaters and would hit the action.

I made a cast and had a fish. It was a nice brook trout. Brookies are covered with bright colors. They don’t glimmer like rainbow trout, but the colors are vibrant. The guide’s photo was not taken up close, so the trout doesn’t look big in my hands and you can’t see its colors. 

I figured this was going to be a great day. I didn’t know that was the only fish I would catch that day. Paul was fishing downstream from me and then he caught a nice brookie as well. 

We fished for another hour or so moving down stream towards the road. Pretty soon Paul yelled out that he had hooked a big fish. He fought it for quite a while. The fish he landed was a northern pike IN A FARM STREAM!! I had never seen a fish like that in such a small stream. 

We decided that we were close enough to the North Iowa River and the Mississippi River that the northern had just moved upstream from the big rivers. By the way, the Mississippi actually follows the channel of the ancient Iowa River. It was pushed west of its original course by the glaciers thousands of years ago. It’s original course was about 20 miles west of Bloomington.

We finished the pasture and headed back to the vehicles. After changing clothes I handed the guide what I thought was my share of the fee, $100 plus a tip. I thought Paul did the same. The guide said he would join us in the evening to help with fishing around Decorah. As we were driving back Paul told me he had paid the guide the full $200, plus a tip. Oops! The guide had a better day than we did. He didn’t show up that evening.

The next morning, we returned to the places from the two evenings before. We caught nothing. Before leaving we decided to visit the fish hatchery. I noticed on the information boards there were photos showing people fishing at the hatchery stream.

The stream flows directly from the limestone aquifer down a man made waterfall. It is quite scenic. We saw a kid working the rearing ponds and asked if we could fish the stream which flowed through the grounds. He said we could and that they had just released trout the day before.

We both caught a number of trout. We felt a little guilty, but heck we had come a long way to fish Iowa. We walked across the road to the location of the eagles’ nest, but we never saw the eagles or the nest.

So it was not exactly a fishing disaster. We caught fish, saw some pretty country and a very nice community. However driving 7 hours each way to catch a few fish sounds a lot like our usual fishing experience.