It’s been way too long since I had myself a day with the cold water. Conditions: 55-60 Degree Air Temp, Overcast, WNW Wind at ~20mph after 8am. The S.E. MN region has had it’s share of rain this summer season this last week was no different. Three out of five days saw rain in the gauge. I had some concerns about finding clear water but my fears were eased at 6am when I stepped up to the bank at dawn. I could see the rainbows stacked thick just waiting for me. My goal for the day was a two part mission. One, nab a stash of stocker rainbows while the wind was low during the morning hours. Two, migrate to a much smaller system in search of the Heritage strain, our native brook trout and avoid the wind that would get brutal as the day wore on.

The semi-stained water I saw at 6am gave me confidence that my plan was going to make for an excellent day despite the early morning wind and thick clouds. I rigged a new fly I’ve been mulling over in my head for a while now that is essentially a short, fat mini leech. A downstream and across approach with a decent amount of weight to keep the fly a good 3-6inches under the surface produced fish after fish. Hard to argue with 13-14inch rainbows readily taking just about everything presented to them. I fished the new pattern until a series of rises forced me to swap to a Devestator with a #16 WD-40 trailer. A few minutes later and I was working a few more rainbows and a tiny brown to the net, all in all I would say I got close to 2 dozen to hand and another 2 dozen hooked in the two hours I spent here.

I pulled off the water and split for the next phase of the plan but found a road closed sign staring me in the face. A choice, abandon the rest of the plan and make a snap choice on a second option or drive the round about way and loose a good thirty to forty-five minutes to the road. I chose the road and MPR as a result of the wind and my goal of finding my way to brook trout. I drove until a series of events signaled the continuation of the day, turning down a gravel road, passing a steep grade road-sign and hitting the brakes on the truck. The untouched stream is my favorite, no paths and the only sign of humanity is the occasional piece of trash or debris from rain events. The rainbow stop off was good for moral but lacked many elements of the journey that I need. The hike, the woods, wilderness, wildlife, the unknown.

Water conditions here were good, clean and clear running in the low fifties for a temp. I continued with the new mini leech pattern but left off the split shot, casting to smaller shallower water with spookier fish. The second cast I realized that I had left backcast land with the rainbows and turned into roll cast country when I hit the gravel road. On a shorter ~7-8ft leader and fishing no indicator just watching the water I lost the first two fish I came across. I’m watching my fly line connection for a strike or any signal from the trout, a roll, flash, anything. The second fish I lost was maybe a 12-13inch brookie that got off shortly after I hooked it, no big deal. I stayed out of the wind and was very comfortable the rest of my time here. Checked the rocks, minimal mayfly activity but plenty of caddis with the occasional riffle beetle. I fished upstream a ways using a variety of flies. A #16 Pink Squirrel, #16 WD-40, #18 Orange Scud’s all took trout along with the new mini pattern that I fished most of the day with. I got my brookies and got to see a new stretch of Driftless water but due to my detour I had to access this water at a different point than I had originally wanted causing me to run out of water to fish a bit too early, go home? No, a pit stop to see if I could find a few larger browns was in order.

This spot provided deeper water that in the last month had seen a rain event clearing a wide channel through swatches of thick vegetation making the conditions perfect for streamer fishing. I’m learning more and more that choosing wisely to take advantage of the current conditions will make for a better day on the water. My approach here is a cast straight across or slightly upstream with a mend if nessecary to encourage my weighted flies to sink deep then as my line begins to curve and tighten with the current I either: watch for a strike and just tight line it until my line straightens out behind me or add a retrive after I have allowed the flies to sink. The excellent thing here is that I often get to watch a fish come darting out of the depths to nail my flies making for a good show and the best strike detection possible. I managed to land a few nicer browns with one topping 16+. Not a bad way to end a day on the water, good to be in this place again.

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Not in Kansas, Not in Minnesota. Funny how I manage to find my way to trout even when I’m not trying. We happened to be in Washington for the week and although fishing isn’t an option due to our tight schedule a bit of hiking and a great view was in order. The park ranger here said that Lake Tipsoo was last stocked in 1970 with Rainbow and Brook Trout and since then they have been reproducing on their own. Park rules prohibit fishing but it was pretty cool just to see the trout splashing over the mosquitoes and midges that happened to be around. Gotta get to something like this someday with a fly rod, damn I could have hooked into so many fish here.

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A little late is better than never, with that in mind here is how I tied my recent batch of Stimulators. I should note that I did glue the head of every fly but when tying 60 of these flies I waited until the entire batch was done before busting out the glue to finish each fly. Peace.

-the w.f.f.

I tie alot of flies and I tend to tie dozens of the same pattern, due to this fact I’ve run across a problem at my bench that is solved with a Chip Clip, a few inches of 1/4in weather stripping and a piece of Velcro. When I’m tying Scuds, the Black Wet Fly or any other pattern that requires several strands of a material to remain together and preferably the same length such as with the flash tail on a scud or the over body formed by a dozen or more strands of flash, I used to have to try and peel up the strands of material from my bench and either waste some to even the length out to tie it in correctly or I’d end up wasting time trying to even the length by hand all this provided I remembered to drop the stands of flash in the same spot each time. After a bit of annoyance I raided the junk drawer we keep in the kitchen and came up with a simple solution that I use often and is one of the hidden treasures on my bench, the C.C. Tool.

Simply this is a chip clip with padding added to the jaws to keep your materials safe and secure. I added a spot Velcro on the back and have it stuck to a good spot on my bench and now when I go to tie a dozen Scuds I even the lengths of three strands of Krystal Flash place them in the C.C. Tool and hang them from my bench. Each time I need that material I remove it from the clip, tie it in and when I clip it free the ends are even and I place it back in the clip maintaining the even length. My working area stays cleaner because I don’t have strands of flash laying everywhere and the don’t  lose the even length (you waste less and have a cleaner looking fly). Placing the Velcro on the clip allows me to train my brain to reach for the same spot time and time again to retrieve the materials, this will save you time especially if you don’t have to go searching for that third strand of flash that got away from you after you placed it on your bench. I estimate the cost of this bad boy to be approx. $.50. A package of chip clips from the dollar store, 3 for $1.00+$.10 of Velcro and about the same amount of weather stripping and your in business.

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Thanks George…

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Went out for a few short hours knowing the conditions are rough, weeded up water with minimal casting lanes and places to catch a decent drift. With that said I checked out this spot to see if the rains had shifted any of the obstructions around or if it removed enough of the instream vegetation to open a hole or two. I rigged a #8 Sprinkle Me Baby (Black) and left the added splitshot aside banking that the trout would come up to me. Most deeper water was so weeded it was difficult to get your fly in for even a second or two. I stuck to the edges fishing broken water that was maybe 6-18 inches deep. I got a few nice responses one of which saw a brown leaping completely out of the water in pursuit of the SMB but the weeds complicated things and I ended up not landing a single fish in three hours. Not a big deal though, I enjoyed the time in the sun taking in everything around me. Ho-humming it as it were. As I was heading out I ran into a group of deer, just one of many cool things around the stream, more than just the trout around here.

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Notes and Observations:

• Size and Prep ALL Dry Fly Hackle Before Tying!
• Be Weary of Elk/Deer Hair that contains Broken/Damaged Hair. It is a pain.
• Practice, Practice, Practice.

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Recent rain events from the last two weeks have kept most area water off, stained or muddy and a bit higher than normal for quite a while now. Clean water can almost always be found but it sometimes takes a bit of research to locate the best potential streams. Get to know a few shorter systems that are maybe difficult to fish when water levels are low and gin clear, it is after rain events that these spots pay off. If it stays gin clear 90 percent of the time it will likely fair well and will be in good condition for fishing after rain events, slightly higher and a bit stained makes it a bit easier to sneak a cast in to weary trout. I hit such a stream not long ago, enjoyed my time. Most streams I’ve seen in the last week suffered some amount of flooding. Debris and in some cases large trees were moved and re-deposited. This cycle that nature has worked out for itself by protecting one spot with a tree for a year or two then moving that tree downstream to the next hole only to protect and cover the fish there for the next year is one reason I love fishing streams. They change and evolve providing opportunity one day and stripping it away the next, just one more reason to be out as much as possible to take it all in. I fished four streams on the 29th, first was a tiny creek that was slightly stained and fished well. Browns were picking off a #18 Orange Scud. The second stream was muddy and high. I fished it for about 15-20 minutes and decided little would come of my efforts. Third was a short stop off to see a few rainbows and despite my efforts few were having anything from a #18 Orange Scud to a #14 EHC to a #6 SMB nothing was working so I blew out. Last spot saw the close of the day, the recent rain had caused a log jam but also up rooted a good portion of the instream vegetation making drifting a fly a bit easier in places. Saw Long-Horned Sedges on stream at about 7:45pm, beautiful Caddisflies with the longest antennae. Very cool, hard to catch. Home around 9:30pm.

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