Ensign Hollow is one of Iowa's special regulation trout streams. All trout caught here must be immediately released, and angling is permitted by artificial lure only. I have fished Ensign a few times now and despite its diminutive size, it is definitely one of the most fun streams to fish.

The first time I first time I fished Ensign was on a cold January day. I only caught one fish that day, but it alone would have made any day of fishing for me. Being new to the creek and with all the terrestrial hazards present, I decided I would be better off with my spinning rod than the fly rod. Because of the temperature, many of the slow moving pools were almost entirely iced over. I headed upstream from where we parked and my dad headed the other direction checking this "new" place out. After piddling around for about thirty minutes I came to a place where a swift current ran into a fairly deep pool with an undercut bank. I stood downstream of the pool on the outside bank and cast my Rapala up to where the ripples started to dissipate. I started reeling in my line when I saw a long dark shadow dart out of its hide in the undercut bank. He hit so hard I did not ever have to set the hook. My adrenaline levels went right through the roof. I played the 18 inch brown as quickly as possible on an ultralite rod with four pound test line. This was the most colorful fish I've ever caught, I went to take a picture before releasing the fish only to have the camera tell me that the only disk I had with me was bad (the downside of some Sony digital cameras is that they use regular floppies, which ironically is also seen as their upside). After realizing that there was nothing I could do to capture the moment for others to see, I carefully placed this beautiful creature back in the water and watched it swim away.