Fresh from The New York Times this week, Gustave Axelson writes about traveling and fly fishing in Iowa’s Driftless Region — an area known for excellent Midwestern brook trout fishing. Although True North Trout focuses principally on fly fishing for trout and salmon in the greater Great Lakes bioregion, it is not much of a stretch to include the Driftless in this assessment.

If you’re not familiar with this part of the country, you should start by knowing that we’re talking about an area of over 20,000 square miles that straddles the boundaries of four states: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. You also should know that we’re talking about an area of the country that offers some outstanding fly fishing opportunities for large fish on dependable hatches.

In a mad dash from Michigan to the mountains of Montana or Wyoming, one can easily pass through the Driftless Region — which is an area with strong enough trout fishing to make it a fine destination all by itself. In any event, with snow just around the corner due throughout Northern Michigan, T|N|T will make it more of a priority in the next few months to get you thinking about angling destinations near and far.

“Hope,” as Dickenson writes, “is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.”