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Ishi’s 2025 Fishing Journal! (Who Would Have Thunk)

Ishi

PMA Member
I know this is hard to believe that I’m doing a fishing thread! I haven’t fish much the last 30 years but now being retired and time on my hand I bought lifetime hunting, fishing and trout license.
With a life changing event a few months ago I sold the beater truck and the SUV then bought a new truck and tricked it out and currently setting it up for overlanding to explore while keeping my good truck which is now my beat around truck.
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I ordered a rooftop tent and brought a lesser model to see if the style would work and it does so I’ll upgrade next spring and sell my current model.
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So my brother and I head to NE Iowa for 4 days trout fishing and he brought his tent and we stay in a campground so we had showers
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We fished five different streams and caught scads of trout
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We caught our limit in hardly no time then we did catch and release.
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The second afternoon it started to rain hard so we went to Toppling Goliath for a brew till the rain stopped.
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That evening after getting off the stream the rain set in we had no way to fry the fish so we went to Wally World and bought stuff to build a make shift cover!
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Once the fish was fried sure enough it quit raining!
Sunday afternoon I told Bro once I get home Monday afternoon that I need to mow and Tuesday head to Bass Pro for more gear and Wednesday morning I was going to go back solo for three more days.
My daughter took care of my cat and has access to pay any bills that need to be paid if so everything was coved at home and for future excursions.
I arrived back Wednesday morning at a secluded primitive spot and set up camp.
Once set up I went to a close deep pool and caught a bunch and only kept two for supper. While fishing I seen a huge trout swimming and didn’t think much of it.
The next day I went back and didn’t catch any so I went back to the truck and made breakfast then walked 3 miles down stream exploring for more spots and only caught a couple fish.
Went back to the truck to chill then went back to the hole around 3 and started to catch some trout the I seen the big one again… cool.
A couple casts later I seen her coming to the spinner but I was running out of real estate and she wasn’t in a hurry so I stopped the retrieve till she caught up and she took it and the fight was on! I got her on the bank and was more concerned about getting her back in the water after taking a couple selfies
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I didn’t have a tape or scale and after releasing her now I wanted a reproduction made of her so I measured my four fingers and doing the math I’ve come up with about 21 inches.
Still more yet the first part of June the young man I tutored invited myself on a fishing trip next June to northern Minnesota then that same night I received a call from a group from our church that goes to Ontario the end of August and it didn’t take long to accept the invite so after the call I got my passport paperwork all set up and now I have it!
I have another trip to NE Iowa in a couple weeks and will add to this thread and later the trip to Canada!
Fish Ya!
 
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  • Deleted by hillrunner
Show…
I’ve resized all of them so hopefully they can be seen! At least I can after editing and refreshing the site.
I can only do 10 pics per post so I’ll add one more.
When I went solo and on a remote site I bought a cheap solar shower and this was my setup! Really crude but it got the job done!
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I read through before the pics were visible and so glad that has been fixed.

I like the idea of being off the ground in that truck set up.

Planning on doing more trout fishing soon, both spin and fly.

Thanks for sharing!
 
Looks like you're hooked Ishi, love the truck set up also. Some new adventures and more
'Let's Eat" moments!
 
Arrived back home from another trip to NE Iowa. This time my brother went again and he decided to take his ten year old grandson who loves to fish. Not sure what to expect from him he told him we would be roughing it and made a contract on what he would be dealing with.
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He arrived at camp early and was setup before I arrived and he brings about everything and I bring just the minimum but the canopy was a great addition with the rain and heat the first two days.
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The first afternoon it was very hot and humid and only one fish was caught. We went back and ate a light supper and the youngest bugged us for three hours when were going back to fish. After eating and once the sun was below the trees he caught his first fish and he caught several.
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Bro and I didn’t catch many that night on lures and he let us know that back at camp. I said just wait till tomorrow.
Fresh trout fried in bacon grease for breakfast.
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Tuesday we all caught fish and I caught three Browns that day.
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Tuesday he had his first fall in the water and he was ticked but grandpa reminded him on the contract. He ended up falling three times and finally started to laugh each fall.
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The young man wasn’t able to cast very good and so he used bait and the fish always swallowed the hook and we didn’t want to keep anymore so we would throw lures and catch them and give him the pole to reel them in.
One day we fished a stream close to the Upper Iowa River and I caught my first ever Smally.
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That day I caught a couple more Browns.
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It was a fun trip with memories made for the youngster.
Next up I’ll try to go to Shiemk State forest as the have several ponds to fish before going to Canada. Also planning on heading back to NE Iowa September and October when the heat and weeds aren’t as bad.
 
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