Some of the best conversations start around campfires. This post started as a conversation with friends around a campfire at the West Fork Sports Club in Avalanche (my favorite place).
For many, Highway 14 is the gateway to the central Driftless as it travels from Madison to La Crosse and maybe more importantly, the trout towns of Richland Center, Viroqua, and Coon Valley. Stay on 14 from its start in Chicago and you can travel all the way to Yellowstone National Park. For many, Highway 14 is a "trouty" highway but my vote for the troutiest highway goes to Vernon County Highway P.
To be sure, I am not the first person to ask myself and others this question. I mean, there is an entire book written on the idea for Alberta (link). Highway 20 is often referred to as the Rocky Mountain Fly Highway because it (unofficially) travels through Yellowstone National Park westward to the Henry's Fork of the Snake River, Silver Creek, and a number of other great trout rivers and streams. In the bigger picture, Highway 20 probably wins the title but more locally, I'm going with Vernon County's Highway P. First of all, the Highway 20 is 500ish miles whereas CHW P runs a mere 44ish miles and is about an hour drive (Google Maps link to the route).
The western end of CHW P is in Coon Valley, a great trout town, and runs nearly to Hillsboro and in these 44 miles, here are the trout streams it traverses:
For those looking for "secret spots", you won't find them here. I don't do hotspotting but this post hopefully gives you a little idea of the character of these streams. Anyone willing to do the slightest bit of research can learn more about these not-so-secret streams.
Let's Take a Little Journey...
That is a pretty good list of trout streams that gets even better when you include the Timber Coulee tributaries that it crosses - Spring Coulee, Bohemian Valley, and Rullands Coulee. But before we get to the trout streams, Coon Valley offers a few of my favorite places to grab a meal and maybe a beer. The Stockyard Grill and Saloon offers a bit of everything. It's not quite a supper club but it sort of plays that role on Friday and Saturday nights. Most of the rest of the time, it's what you'd expect of a bar and grill. The Legacy is my other typical option in Coon Valley (try the country fried steak). It is a little smaller and has fewer options but I have always had a good meal and one of these days, I'm going to make it to German night.
As you head east on Highway 14, you'll see the signs for Highway P which is a left that takes you past the Coon Valley Lutheran Church. The highway follows Coon Creek / Timber Coulee from the eastern edge of Coon Valley to the very headwaters of Timber Coulee. To many, this is Wisconsin's best trout stream. Just outside of Coon Valley, you'll cross the first tributary, Rundall Coulee. This is a small, high gradient creek that had most of the improvement greatly altered in a flood.
Continuing along Highway P, you will see the dead end driveway to the Neprud property, part of the Coon Creek Fishery Area. One of the things that makes the Coon Creek watershed so popular is the amount of state owned lands along with even more miles of streambanks that are privately owned but eased for public fishing. At the Neprud property, you'll find the confluence of Spring Coulee and Coon Creek. The lower reaches of Spring Coulee are pretty sandy and a lot of habitat structures seem to be somewhat buried. Coon Creek itself is a pretty good sized streams, at least by Driftless standards. This reach is difficult to wade and has a lot of logs and rocks to catch your flies but can be well worth the effort and the loss of a few flies.
Getting back on Highway P, you first cross Spring Coulee, a great trout stream that like Coon Creek currently is a "green stream" meaning that the limit is 5 fish with no size limit (always look at the regulations for yourself!). Rumor has it that the 5 fish, no size limit regulation may be applied to more streams in another effort to simplify regulations - an idea I think is sort of silly. Is having to know the regulations of the stream reach you are fishing really that much of a burden? Anyway...Spring Coulee is a favorite of mine and it offers many miles of public access, some of it quite a distance from the road if you're willing to cover some ground.
After crossing Coon Creek again, you'll take a big corner and soon after cross Poplar Creek, a small tributary that begins near Norskedalen, a Norwegian nature and heritage center located along Highway PI, near the headwaters of this small creek. Drive a bit further along Highway P and you are getting into the most popular part of the Coon Creek watershed. Bohemian Valley Creek, sometimes labeled Coon Creek on maps, and Timber Coulee confluence at the Bob Jackson public access at highways P and G. As you continue upstream, you cross a couple more small tributaries that kick in some cold water. Olstad Road, another popular access point, is a dead end road to the right and the pasture section above it is sort of the "heart" of Timber Coulee. Maybe you will notice the hundred or so trees we planted along the stream in 2024.
Continuing upstream, you cross Rullands Coulee and the "junction pool" where Rullands and Timber Coulee meet. Rullands was once "the Ph.D. stream" but the 2018 flood really rearranged the stream and changed its character. It is still one of my favorite streams but, like me, it ain't what it used to be, for better or worse (mostly worse). It's still a pretty great stream and one I fish a fair bit but largely gone are the weed flats that gave this stream its character before the flood. As you continue up the hill after crossing Timber Coulee, you'll pass one the longest, most remote section of Timber Coulee. From Highway P to Lars Hill Road is nearly two miles of stream that are all publicly accessible but rather difficult to reach.
Continuing along P above Lars Hill Road with the stream to your left, you eventually cross the stream again at the Snowflake corner and soon you will see the ski jump, an iconic sight in the headwaters. The Snowflake Ski Club's clubhouse is a great spot for lunch and a drink. And just above Snowflake, you will see the Westby Rod and Gun Club. Timber Coulee is pretty small here and here and more particularly above the club grounds on the DNR property, you'll get into a few more Brook Trout, though they seem less common than in years' past. There is a campground here that I've used on a few occasions. The Westby Rod and Gun Club has as bar and restaurant in Westby where you can pay to camp, grab a bit to eat, and maybe a beer to wash it down.
Continue up the hill and you are leaving the Coon Creek watershed and entering the West Fork of the Kickapoo watershed. In the bigger picture, you are moving from a tributary to the Mississippi River to what is, eventually, a Wisconsin River tributary which itself, of course, is a Mississippi River tributary. This ridgeline that Highway 27 follows from Westby to Cashton spawns some great trout streams. The area between here and Highway 33 to the north is where more than a dozen inches of rain fell overnight in August of 2018 and created the largest flood the area has documented. You'll take a little jog on Highway 27 to follow P and enter the West Fork watershed.
As you turn left to follow P, after a few miles, you cross the West Fork not far downstream of Jersey Valley "Lake". Unlike Coon Creek, where Highway P follows Coon Creek and Timber Coulee, Highway P crosses the West Fork just one time. To follow along the West Fork, take County Highway S to the right (south). Highway S follows the West Fork along its nearly 20 miles of trout waters to the confluence near Readstown. Highway S also takes you through Avalanche and by the West Fork Sports Club, my favorite place.
Back on Highway P, as you continue along the route, CHW P eventually follows Weister Creek from its headwaters to quite near its confluence with the Kickapoo River at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve (KVR). The stretch between the West Fork and where you finally reach Weister Creek is probably the longest expanse of Highway P without much trout fishing to be had. You'll notice a creek along your right but it is not particularly cold and for that reason, it does not offer public fishing. As you wind along P, it is rather easy to miss the right hand turn to continue in P. This will begin your descent into the Weister Creek watershed.
Weister Creek offers nearly 9 miles of mainsteam and a few tributaries. The KVR offers another place to camp and a number of other outdoor activities for the non-angler or for times you are not fishing. Weister Creek both in the reserve and above the reserve, offers a lot of public fishing opportunities. Much of the stream has seen fairly recent improvement that are done in the "newer style" - that is a lot of root wads and a lack of LUNKER structures.
Eventually CHW P joins State Highway 131 and you'll follow these two roads to the north. Not too far from where they meet up, you will cross the Kickapoo River and come to the metropolis of Rockton. The Kickapoo is one of the Driftless's largest trout streams and hosts a low density population of Brown Trout which tend to grow larger than your average Driftless Brown Trout. In Rockton, Rockton Bar is just a bit after the massive curve you'll take to cross the bridge over the Kickapoo River and is a great spot for a little mid-day fishing break or a dinner. The Rockton Bar is best known for their "almost world famous" Sunday chicken special - but be sure to reserve your Sunday BBQ chicken dinner ahead of time.
From Highway 131, P turns east (right) and follows Warner Creek, a rather good trout stream stream that has seen some recent improvements and provides pretty good access. Warner tends to be mostly Brown Trout, as do most Driftless streams. It is a stream that could use a little tree cover for shading, as could most Driftless streams. In my experiences with Warner, it is quicker to dirty than some other streams but it generally clears up pretty quickly. Warner's stream work was done mostly in the "old school" LUNKER style, largely because much of the improved trout waters occur through tree-less pastures.
County Highway P is nearly at its end. As you move up the ridge from Warner Creek, CHW P intersects with State Highway 82, another pretty "trouty" highway. From this intersection, you are just five miles from Hillsboro. Because I enjoy my food and drink, I have to mention the last stop for a beer and some food, the Hillsboro Brewing Company. It's a cool place with great food and you'll find some beers you won't find canned and for sale in your local stores.
All this occurs over about 44 miles and takes you a fairly leisurely hour to drive, with no stops for fishing, food, or drinks. But what fun would that be? This is my choice for the "troutiest highway" in Wisconsin. Sure, you could pick a longer route and maybe one with a wider variety of stream types, but this shorter route is rather densely-packed with fishing opportunities.
Your comments and suggestions for other "trouty" highways are welcome in the comments.
A 42mm beautifully swirling carbon case with DLC-coated pushers link and crown? Yawn. Chronometer-certified in-house link flyback chronograph? Wake me up when there's something interesting. A super cool skeletonized dial with red and blue accents, translucent subdials, and a ton of Super-Luminova? No link way, man. Not for me.
I checked out all the pictures of the streams along CTY HWY P and not one black willow tree along the shoreline. ------- A few quotes about college professors, DNR and TU. ------ A quote from John Meir, "God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.---- A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature."------ A quote from Aldo Leopold, "Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?" ------- A quote by Vadi Nasskott, "Ignorance is so much more conveying than stupid."