I had the absolute privilege of share our Amish waters with Ann Miller this past week. Ann is a author, conservationalist, and good friend. She "won" a ATO guide trip a few years ago at the SJRVFF auction and we finally found a time that worked to put her on some Amish Trout.

Ann was a wonderful client. Even though I would say Ann is in many ways a traditionalist and FlyFishing rockstar (she penned the classic Hatch Guide for Upper Midwest Streams), Ann was very open minded to the "Amish nymphing" techniques and quickly excelled.

We we had an unusually cold start to the day with temperatures in the high forties, but has the day drew on, the temps warmed up, and so did the fishing. Ann brought several brown trout to the net (and missed several more! "Damn barbless hooks,") and even a hold over rainbow, using French nymphing techniques.

We fished a mile beat of the catch and release section of the Little Elkhart River, bouncing from hole to run to riffle. We fished for over seven hours, but the time flew by. Ann took fish at almost every stop. The Bishop proved to be the fly of the day. Ann also spooked a 22 plus inch brown! (I'll be back for that one!)

We ended the day with some great steaks, good wine and of course, Amish made whoopie pies.

I can't wait to fish wIt's Ann again! Next time, she can guide me!

Middlebury Strip Steaks, compliments of Hoosier Meats, downtown Middlebury.

I wanted to get out and take advantage of the gorgeous weather before the trout season break, so I head to the river to do a little scouting and hopefully catch a trout or two.

The river is looking good... IF it were June. We have very low water conditions right now for April. The water was clear and cold and I expected success today. My plan was to head upstream in a very familiar stretch of the Lil Elkhart and see what changes had occurred over the winter. A few rather large log jams had been completely removed. Some by the currents and some buy land owners. One of my favorite holes now had tree split through the middle of it.

I fished the hole intently, understanding that there where going to be a whole new population of snags to deal with. Much to my surprise, the run was pretty clean. About my fifth cast, I placed my rig as close to the front side of the log as possible and led the flies through the current.

BAM!!

A Strike! A hard one at that!

My line tightened and my rod bent and after a brief and energetic fight, a brought a 12" fat brown to my net! Success

I continued upstream "Amish Nyphing" from run to run. I changed my leader out and tied on a small, grey and white clouser minnow I have dubbed "The Better Beach". Beachy has been wacking trout all spring with his grey clouser, I wanted to see if I could have the same luck. And I did! After a half dozen casts or so I landed a beautiful 10" brown. I moved swiftly down stream, pounding structure and missed a few hits along the way.

Several years ago, a tree uprooted and fell across the river creating two deep holes with a sandbar in between. I bounced the clouser off the logs and immediately gave my flies two quick strips.

The water erupted as the huge 19" hold over rainbow shot out of the stream. What a wonderful fish! I landed the well fed monster, got a couple of shots, and gently released her back to her home. Great early start to the season.

I picked my pace up heading down stream, and missed another hawg on the way, but that couldn't erase the smile on my face. And anyway, I had dinner plans with a beautiful lady.

Life is good.

ATO Guide Trip: Ann Miller

Opening (next) Day Photo Essay

Big Bow Before a Break