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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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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For me trout addiction isn’t a problem just a reality, ok it gets me in hot water every now and again but it also gets me out of the house and takes me to far off lands where the animals live and few men travel. Trout addiction has gotten the best of me. Case in point: 8am trout stream in-sight. Looking for brookies I decided to head to the headwaters of a typical S.E. MN stream. How far would this rabbit hole go? What is through the woods? Trout addiction. I knew before I left that I might find nothing but I needed to see for myself. Water was cold (~52) degrees and gin clear, despite the recent rain this section looked as if none had fallen. I had heard a report that otters have become well established here causing the trout population to decrease, including the brookies, maybe especially the brookies? I saw one scoot away from me as I started, shortly afterwards I cam upon a whitish matter floating in the stream, looked to me like flesh maybe from a trout.

Didn’t touch a brook trout today, should have but none were to be had. Traveling upstream staying in the 2ft wide path of stream that wasn’t covered in water cress I moved upstream.  I kept trudging until I found the first trouty looking spot that offered a decent casting lane and drift. I picked a Stimulator I tied recently just for the Brookies and got to swinging. Little did I know not much was holding under the root wad hanging off the edge. A few poor casts and I thought it was over but then a flash, there was something holding in there. One more cast without the poor drift and that fish came up, a smaller brown trout. Not a brookie. Moving on I kept going further upstream, the water seemed to get smaller around each turn but then it would plateau and open into a wider section each of which was pretty shallow and those that weren’t had a tree or a few trees right on top and were un-fishable with a fly. I continued further upstream…trout addiction.

After an hour of hiking I rounded a bend and watched the stream open up but I couldn’t see it? Covered 100% by water cress. This is the first point when I questioned turning back for something more realistic but I saw a hole cut through the cress further upstream and decided I had to see. I could hear the sound of a waterfall but I couldn’t see it? Covered in water cress, during this time I counted at least six springs flowing into what I had been wading through. I followed the main flow further until I came to a flat shallow section blocked by weeds and logs.  To pass I climbed up and on top of several tree limbs blocking my way, as I stood on top looking out I realised I was standing on a log jam that had been covered in so much foliage I couldn’t see the massive amount of debris in front of me. Looking above I saw what you see here and decided I had gone far enough in search of the magical trout hole hidden in the deep jungle, Indiana Jones style, this is my trout addiction.

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My brother called me up again wanting to know if I was interested in taking him out again, I obliged thinking that an interest may be developing here. He drove to Winona the night before and hung out again, even if the fishing stinks it’s still a good reason to hang out with family. The night before saw Winona getting .54 inches of rain which isn’t much but has been known to throw a few systems near by off, picking the location for the day wasn’t going to be easy. In this situation I went with my gut and we drove South. Jake got a bit lucky again, the stream we picked was just stained from the rain making the mistakes and fumbles of a beginning angler less noticeable to the wary trout.

On stream at ~6:30am rigged and ready to go. I set Jake up with a two fly nymph rig consisting of a #14 Black Wet Fly for the lead fly with a #18 Pink Patrick trailer. Knowing that reports of fish eagerly taking terrestrials have been posted I felt it appropriate to tie on the BWF as the summer season and all the activity that comes along with it is here to stay for a while. The night before Jake and I tied leaders and worked on knots a bit which ended up helping throughout the day. Good to teach him how to do it so I can fish a bit while he is learning the ropes the hard way. That’s not to say I didn’t help him but today was a bit less instructional than the first time we went out, although I stayed by his side and watched I offered advice when necessary otherwise I stayed out of the way.

At the first spot we worked on getting the feel for a weighted two fly nymph rig, going over all the potential disasters that come with tossing this set-up especially when you consider the ever-growing jungle around us. Jake was working a smaller run with weeds on the side, the stained water allowed us to get in pretty close for a shorter cast. What he took away from this first spot was the notion of a good long drift. Casting across slower water holding vegetation can pull your line causing your flies to be pulled out of the deeper part of the run, to help extend the drift we worked on mending line. I turn around to grab my coffee mug and Jake is playing his first fish of the day, after about fifteen minutes stream-side. A smaller brown on a #18 Pink Patrick. Well the fear of a skunked day was set-aside, the sun was out and it was going to be an excellent day.

Water temp at 7:51 am was reading warm pushing 58 degrees, I wasn’t expecting it to be that warm before 9am. Between a few knots/tangles, one or two trees and the occasional snag Jake was getting the hang of casting this rig, trying to make sure he opens the forward cast enough to allow the flies, weight and indicator to land on the water correctly. He picked up a few dinkers, a couple of 10-12 inch Brown trout that were taken home for dinner and a Brookie all before 10am. The #14 BWF was taking more fish than the #18 Pink Patrick but enough were taking the pink attractor fly to keep it on and put a second one on after Jake busted it off on a fish setting the hook too sharply, alot of this comes with time and getting used to the feeling of it all.

The morning wore on and Jake was consistently able to pull a few trout out of each spot we stopped at, the stained water and active trout made for excellent day to nymph. A few rises were seen but nothing too exciting. Jake hooked into a larger (14-15in) Brown at the head of a run in the shallows, he had a great time playing the fish around the weeds and right as he got his hand around the fish to land it the fly let loose and the Brown knew it, forced a tail whip and away he went. By this point we were both fishing, I stayed behind offering a bit of advice as I watched but Jake was on his own for a good portion of the morning. I landed a few smaller Brown’s here and there as we went.

We pushed further upstream looking to get to a particular feature I wanted to fish, on arrival we noticed a shallow back water area that held the highest concentration of tadpoles I had ever seen. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of immature frogs. A sign of the water quality, frogs are good. Jake hooked into and lost a second larger trout as a result of just not being used to the rod/reel and entire feeling of hooking and dealing with a running trout. A few throughout the day were lost when excitement took over and the line was pulled to hard or he didn’t give the trout enough room but we couldn’t have been happier. Hooking fish every ten minutes for a beginning fly angler is good progress and practice. On the way out we stopped at a run we fished earlier, to my surprise Jake was able to hook and land six trout out of this one spot and once again as my back was turned he hooked the larger trout of the day. A nice 14in Brown nymphed from the deeper part of the run after he had already landed 5 others, not too shabby. I sat back and watched, again grinning. Photo’s were taken, the trout was released and we left certainty for uncertainty at a second location. The day had already gone well so I wasn’t going to be disappointed if the second spot was a bust. On the way out we were trudging through a mucky half-marsh section and Jake looks at me saying “is that a Turtle?” I turn around and sure enough Jake had seen me accidentally step on the shell of a snapping turtle pushing him down into the mud. Jake picked him up out of the mud to get his picture taken and then to be left alone.

Spot 2 wasn’t a total bust, Jake landed a few smaller rainbows while casting in the sun. We were looking for something easier, open casting lanes and the chance to fill the dinner table with stocked rainbows. There were a few about but all smaller, one as small as six inches? We fished in the sun until it was time to leave for home. A second great day fishing for trout in Southeast Minnesota, with a bit more time Jake will be a fly angler. Helping another learn to fly fish is a good way to test yourself, perhaps make you think a bit more about why you do some of the things you do onstream. All in all we couldn’t have asked for better, yet again. Thanks Jake, glad you had a great time. Again soon…

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How did that happen? Lord, seems like this season is blowing by, not enough time to fish and still take care of responsibilities. Got out for a couple hours before a responsibility that brought me streamside for a meeting. Not a ton of time to fish but enough for a guy to tempt a few, looks like the stocking truck has been here. Rainbows abound, everywhere. Kind of crazy to see it packed the way it was. Saw fish rising on arrival in the mid-afternoon. Didn’t see much in the way of adults to key me to what they were taking and the rises were inconsistent. A few would be splashy almost leaping rises that I would associate with the presence of caddisflies, others read mayfly with the gentle take just barely giving the trout away. I opted to try my luck with a #16 EHC. Landed one, lost two strikes before the trout were on to it and would have no more. Swapped to a #16 P&P and swung it down and across letting it rise as the current pulled my line. This resulted in some excellent fun with the fat stocker rainbows and a few went home for dinner.

Cleaning the first of three nice rainbows I noticed something bright red and spotted in the stomach contents. The shell of a lady bug, mostly digested but just enough remained to provide photographic proof that the trout here eat Lady Bugs and probably more likely the Asian Beetle. After seeing the one in the stomach I decided to look a bit at the plants around the spot I caught the fish, sure enough I found several just waiting to be blown to the trout dinner table. I moved upstream, fished the P&P as I went and it just reinforced why I love this fly. Cast it upstream and present it like a dead drifted nymph and it will take fish, do a down and across and it will take fish and the new method that happens to be very handy…. remove all weight from your line and fish it like a dry. Fishing longer slower sections I picked the trout rising the most consistently, put my fly just upstream of the target and without much hesitation it was picked off time and time again. My obligation pulled me from the stream as Lt. Hendrickson’s were hatching, pretty late in the day and they were VERY bright lending me to think the hatch I saw was Ephemerella dorothea otherwise known as out “Sulpher” hatch. I got a few craptastic photo’s before I had to go but I’ll take what I get, when I can get it. As I finished my meeting we noticed the spinner fall bring trout to rise in a steady rythem. I wish I could get more later evenings on the water.

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Liz asked a week a go if I wanted to spend the weekend camping. We both had the holiday off and thought it would be a good chance to ignore just about everything. Liz is a damn good sport when it comes to my idea of camping, this usually involves fewer people (not a single other person), more bugs and no bathrooms or running water, well there is running water but the trout live in it and it requires boiling or filtering to drink. We arrived Friday evening after getting a few things ready at home. To my dismay the spot I had initially wanted was taken forcing me to put the backup plan into play which was simple and required a small detour to a site downstream from my ideal location. I was pleased to get a spot, to camp in the woods with the bugs, the animals, the stream and the trout. No cell phone service signals our arrival.

Day 1:

Woke to make coffee almost cowboy style filtered by the napkins I had handy. Ran the dog hard through the woods and prepped breakfast, simple eggs and ham over toast made on the fire. Liz and I noticed a few Mayflies amongst a myriad of other insects around our camp, ticks and mosquitoes were present in large quantities. Saw many random specie of caddisflies throughout the day, something to think about with the occasional rise heard in the background as I lose yet another hand of Gin Rummy to Liz. With a good presentation I think this is the time to use that searching caddis pattern, change the size, mess with the color until the trout respond. On this stream all day long I could watch a row of upto a dozen smaller browns chase each other and prey as they sat within an inch of the surface, all day long.

I did no real fishing on Day 1, watched the crazy spinner swarm swell from ~10:30am-2:00pm with the highest density between 12noon and 2pm. Spinners began showing up dead around camp around 3pm but the trout didn’t seem to react to them as aggressively as I expected, few rose for these flies. I can’t explain that at all. I took a ton of photo’s to try and gather enough information to make a determination at home later, turns out that it was Leptophlephia nebulosa a lesser known Mayfly specie that I would imagine is limited to specific streams and it just so happened that I would be camping on a stream infested with them. Thanks to Jason at Troutnut.com and our local experts on the Coldwater Conservation forums for confirming my suspicions.  The heat was on beginning before noon and lasting through 5pm, we were camping in a valley on State Forest Land that was very tight making the hours of direct sunlight shorter than other areas which was nice for us. To pass the time in the heat we played cards, played with the dog, cooled off in the stream, basically just existing in the woods. As the evening came we prepped fire for dinner and did up pork chops, potatoes and veggies. I played my mandolin and relaxed taking in the environment, ever aware of the group of brown trout I kept hearing slamming random bugs through the evening hours. This trip was a camping trip, not a fishing trip and I knew that going into it. The low gin clear water combined with very active trout in thick vegetation with the dog that loves to get in the stream and it was clear that fishing was going to be limited but I was good with that. Liz and I wound the day down by taking a walk and hiking a bit through the woods to wear the dog down more, only here in this environment does my dog tire before me. The last thing we did before bed was take a photo of the stars, not bad for the simple point and shoot Lumix TS1. The Starry Sky setting allowed me to take a 60 second exposure on my tri-pod, not bad at all.

Day 2:

Woke a bit later, slept in and enjoyed that. Warm in the sun with the girl and the dog. Got up and did the morning routine, got the fire going to make coffee, checked the fish out, basically my ideal morning…. After breakfast and a short walk we decided to head to a nearby town to grab a bit more ice for the cooler and more drinking water as we had plowed through the amount that I thought was going to be needed for the weekend. The dog drank most of the water, town wasn’t far away and it gave us a reason to take a nice drive through the Driftless area. We got back to camp with our supplies and sure enough the few Leptophlephia nebulosa flies I had seen when we left had swelled into another swarm that hovered over the stream until about 4pm again. Interesting that these flies mate during the hottest part of the day. Day 2 saw more of the same from us as well, more cards, pretty sure by Sunday afternoon Liz was up over a thousand points ahead of me in our on going Rummy battle. We enjoyed a few beers in the sun and let the dog do her thing, chase the ball, run down a butterfly or two. It was all fun and games until we heard the dog haul off at full speed through the creek, then the sound of yelping. Not sure what happened but I think  my hound got on an otter, maybe a beaver but no harm came to her. I am pretty sure the yelping came out of complete excitement wanting to find her prey, when I came up on her she was scouring the banks trying to find whatever she was chasing with no regard for me what-so-ever.

After that we kept a slightly tighter eye on the dog, I didn’t need her getting hurt because she couldn’t control herself. I’m glad she was fine and hadn’t run into a skunk or another animal that might have made things miserable. After that Liz gave me the go ahead to take off without the dog upstream a ways to find a trout or two. I fished the P&P pattern that I’ve been use as of late and the brookies on this stream loved it. Granted they were all dinkers but a fish is a fish to this fisherman. I stayed out just long enough to swap to a SMB to tempt one larger brown who struck once but my anxiousness got the better of me and I set the hook too early, this is the release part without the catch in front of it. No sweat, and I headed back to camp. As night approched Sunday it became clear that rain was coming. Liz and I drove up the valley to get cell phone reception to check on the weather conditions for the area, sounded like rain starting at about 9pm and lasting sporadically through the evening. Once back at camp we decided to tear 90% of our stuff down and put it in the truck for an early departure in the morning. I hate packing up a soaking wet camp. Liz and I did well, started a decent fire before any rain hit and had everything put away except for the tent by 8pm on Sunday. We left the stream early Monday morning to head home and tend to the house, the cats and the garden. A good weekend spent on a beautiful Driftless Area trout stream.

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