The opening of all streams to Catch and Release angling in Southeast Minnesota arrived last Friday. I made it out to a couple local spots I’ve been wanting to see since the season closed last October. Plans were subject to change at a moments notice and they did, a couple of times in fact. Some general notes for the day: fished the SMB #’s 6 and 8 in colors Brown and Black all day long from 7:30am to 7:30pm without hesitation, trout crushed this fly all day long. I wanted to find hatching Beatis and spend some of the day nymphing or tossing dry flies but if you want to catch trout, don’t argue with them. No hatching bugs were found and I was content to put the SMB in every fishy, dark looking piece of water I could effectively cast to. This approach, the one, two, three drift and move on resulted in many fish taken keeping the action high and my rod bent a majority of the day. Even the very head of shallow riffles got a pass, if I had to I would drop the SMB down through a riffle on the swing which resulted in a handful of hook-ups. Water clarity ranged from slightly off to gin-clear between the four streams I saw, every one very-fishable.

Sandy Bottom Creek: 7:30am-10am

This particular creek holds significance for me, I spent many hours in my fly fishing infancy on this water and I’ve seen it change over the last couple years. On the 1st things were looking decent, fish were active and a slow dead drifted SMB resulted in several fish approaching 14inches and another dozen or more under, nothing smaller than the 10inch fish that began the morning. Rivers, streams and creeks are all sediment transporters, that is their function and Sandy Bottom Creek is no different. I was surprised to see the amount of sediment collected on the stretch I fished, large islands of sand formed seemingly overnight and will likely disappear or change during the next high water event, something I enjoy seeing, the progression of nature. The trout are still here despite the change the creek has undergone. One particularly striking change occurred in one of the largest holes I know about, prior to this visit I would have estimated the hole to be some 20feet wide, 35feet long and atleast 6feet deep, mammoth for this area. Now a channel is forming and the hole that once was is gone, filled in with sand. It’s easier to fish now but maybe not as jaw dropping. Consider this: 20ftX35ftX6ft=4200ft³ which equals ~156 cubic yards of sand to fill the hole, my estimation is that half of it has been filled in by close to 78cubic yards of sediment. One thing to note with the sand, go slow, be careful, alot of those sandy areas will sink you to your knees if your not cautious.

The Driftless Grab-Bag: 11am-3:45pm

After finishing the morning on Sandy Bottom Creek I planned to fish another watershed near by but en-route my phone rang with Sershen at the other end wondering what my plans were. We discussed our options and chose a different creek a bit further out of the way, a crap shoot. Disappointment followed as we arrived to find gin clear water but the stream was a small, shallow, sandy bottom mess with few trout, rather than linger we hit a close by system that I hadn’t seen before. We fished the second location for a couple hours hoping to find hatching BWO’s after initial riffle inspections showed alot of Baetis hanging around but as the afternoon would have it none were to be found. Fish on this creek were again aggressively taking the #8 Brown SMB I had been fishing all morning. We progressed upstream until the creek diminished to a trickle and the prospects of finding water holding trout went with it. We busted ass back to the car to make a run for one last spot before our time was up. Back to Sandy Bottom Creek, I knew the water and knew it would fish well through the afternoon. The SMB continued to slay fish as I managed to hook into another handful of Browns pushing the 14inch mark, again with the slow dead drifted presentation close to the bottom, so close that I managed a white sucker on the SMB in the afternoon, by 3:45pm it was time to take off. I was satisfied with the conclusion of the day, many trout to hand, good day seeing some new water, what more could I ask for? Little did I know that I would get in just a bit more time with the water before the end of the day.

Log Creek: 5:45pm-7:30pm

After arriving home and getting dinner set I was informed that Liz had plans to goto a movie with a friend. I saw an opportunity to hit the creek I had planned to fish earlier in the day before Sershen called and flipped my plans around. I took off after slamming my dinner down, thinking that I had a solid hour maybe a bit more with the water before dark. I fished the same #8 Brown SMB for the majority of this run but lost it to a snag resulting in the #8 Black SMB being put into action. Again very aggressive fish smacking the SMB on the dead drift, all in all I must have landed close to thirty fish in the hour and a half I was fishing. The vast majority were 6-8inches in length with a couple pushing the 12inch mark but what they may have lacked in size they made up with bright red tails, yellow fins and beautiful markings, some streams just put off more colorful fish, this is one of those creeks. I fished upstream until the light faded, I dropped my glasses and fished until it was almost too dark to hike out without a head lamp. Brown trout hit the SMB at every turn. Last fish of the day was a chunkier brown pushing 13inches, the best I had gotten this creek to give up.  All in all I landed well over 50 trout between the four creeks.

Slide Show

I don’t even know where to begin with the 18th. First off I left my camera at home which would have normally soured my mood but on a day when most of the trout bearing water in S.E. Minnesota was blown and brown Heath and I managed to find gin freakin’ clear flows so I couldn’t be upset, I was content to fish and borrow my friends camera from time to time. I took an initial water temp of ~47°F at about 11:15am on arrival. We were looking for BWO’s hoping that a handful of the fourth instar nymphs would hatch, we hiked downstream and planned to fish back up once the water temp had risen a couple degrees. I fished a #8 Tan Hairball in a couple spots heading downstream but came up empty handed. Once downstream a mile or so we hung on a run swarming with midge in the air. I took a handful on a #20 Jujubee Midge, we swapped fish back and forth.

At ~1pm the BWO’s began hatching, we spied two larger trout taking surface flies. I tied on a #18 BWO dry fly and took aim, the third or fourth cast and the larger of the two fish struck, I set the hook too fast, anxious. I got another attempt at the same fish even after it tasted just the slightest amount of hook. The second strike came and the hook bent (what I get for using a 2X Fine Dry Fly Hook) the fish got off within a second of being hooked. I was sure my chance had been blown but he surfaced again just moments later. Mind you we are standing less than twenty feet from this fish and it kept coming back for more, the power of the hatch. The third time it struck I lost the hook set again, I shouldn’t have used the same fly. I should have swapped it out after the hook bent rather than bend it back with my forceps but eager to get the trout before it took off for the depths I had to keep going and it cost me the final chance. I should have been happy enough being able to try but unfortunately I got frustrated and allowed my mood to slip, this normally doesn’t happen when I’m trouting. The rest of the day was a half-assed botched attempt at casting combined with poor fly selection, I just wasn’t trying. Sershen fishing a #18 Bead Head Nymph pattern crushed trout after trout. That’s about all I have to say about this one.

• AT: ~8:30am DT: 3:20pm
• AAT: ~30°F  DAT: ~39°F
• WT: 9am 39.5°F, 11:26am ~42°F, 2:09pm    ~46°F, 3:20pm ~46°F
• S. Winds 10-12mph
• Clear Water on Arrival
• Midge in the Snow on Arrival #20-24

March 11th was removal day on Trash Creek. I arrived early, took my usual water assessment, geared up then got out the 50gal trash bag I brought with for the day. My plan was to hike downstream from my access point, spend the cooler morning hours leisurely fishing upstream while collecting various human debris I found along the way then dump it off around noon at the truck. Dragging around a trash bag is kind of a pain but I would set it aside, fish a run for twenty minutes or so then retrieve it to move further upstream. Water temps were cooler than I’ve seen as of late for 9am, the fish were sluggish and slow to strike. I fished a #8 Brown SMB and a #8 Tan Hairball with minimal success in the morning, landed a few browns under 12inches, that was about it. At 10:30am the trout began rising to midge, I would note I saw more subsurface rising today than ever before, the hump of each brown just barley splitting the surface as they ate. I fished to risers for an hour or so, got a bunch to hand then split for more trash removal. Note: I specifically let my dry fly sink when casting to these fish, it was so evident they were not taking surface flies, a slimmed dryfly presented just under the surface worked very well.

The rest of the day was pretty much a swap between a #20 Jujubee Midge Adult and a #8 SMB. I’d fish the midge when trout were rising agressivly enough to make it worth my time to swap flies, the rest of the time I targeted specific spots with the SMB and did pretty well. Nothing over 13inches but I hooked into two 12inch fish that faught like they were 20inches long with an attitude, a pretty good time there. Made it quite aways upstream, took water temps throughout the day and spied rocks for bugs. Baetis may be coming sooner than later, this weeks warm weather may cause the full on melt but provided minimal flooding occurs the invertebrates look good for this spring. BWO’s, Dark Hendricksons, Light Hendricksons then the Gray Caddis. Get your dry flies ready, they are coming.

Slide Show

• AT: ~8:45am DT: ~2:37pm
• AAT: ~32°F  DAT: ~39°F
• WT: 9am ~42°F, 11am 43.8°F, 12:53pm 44.2°F, 2:37pm 46.5°F
• Steady N. Wind 11-14mph
• Clear Water on Arrival
• Midge in the Snow on Arrival #24

Typical late winter season day here. Earlier arrival time, midge hanging around but no rising trout. A bit colder out but I knew it would warm up. I slapped on a #8 Hairball and set loose on the first deep run, from there I moved upstream sending my fly through every fishy lie I could spy. If it looked good it got a pass. Consider this, every larger fish I hooked into was taken in water less than 2ft deep some less than 6inches. Longer hiking distance, maybe five miles travelled. I landed a few fish on a #20 Smethurst’s Under-Feather Midge but snagged it twice, the only fish picking it off were 5inch dinkers so I dropped it and continued fishing the #8 Hairball upstream. I managed my first Rosey Cheeked Creek Chub of the year, it faught like a 12inch brown. Just after 11am I hooked and landed a 15 and 1/2in Brown, that felt good. I continued upstream and spent close to an hour  hiking through the snow. Snow pack amounts show 12inches yet to melt off.

The first fish were rising as early as 10am and continued on and off through out the day. I stopped twice to pick a couple fish off but I didn’t fish to every rise, I waited and fished only to the fish that were consistantly rising. The rest of the day I tossed the Hairball. There is something about looking at water, knowing the fish is there 10inches down and the cast, executed properly completes the equation resulting in the strike. This occured a handful of times, fish all the way to the head of the riffle, if your not snagging flies on the rocks in the head your not fishing up far enough. I ended the day with another long hike, upstream stopped in three spots for 15minutes each, saw a bit of new water then turned to hike close to 2miles back out. Again the arrival and departure water temps were taken in the same riffle close to point where I accessed the stream. A good day with a handful of larger hard fighting browns, fishing in the sun, with a handful of dry flies mixed in. Couldn’t ask for more, well maybe no wind but either way this was a solid day.

Slide Show

• AT: 8:46am, DT: 3:50pm
• AAT: ~36°F, DAT: ~37°F
• WT: 8:46am 42°F, 11am 44°F, 3:50pm 46°F
• Wind Nil until 2pm
• Clear Water on Arrival
• Midge in the Snow on Arrival

I planned to assess the water where I parked then hike downstream but after taking initial water temps and checking the rocks, the trout rising at ~9am were too much for me to walk away. I told myself one or two then downstream, a dozen or so later and it was 10am. I was fishing a longer (11ft) leader and had some trouble getting it to open up completely with the slight breeze coming at me. I moved maybe 6ft in the first two hours, thinking to the recent reading regarding the speed of sound through water. Trout less than twenty feet away and my clunky boots grinding the gravel. The midge in the morning were larger,  #20′s with a few #22′s mixed in. As the day would have it the trout did not stop rising.

I fished the first two hours in the same spot in just my long sleeve shirt with the net handy quickly landing trout and cleaning up my fly. Landed quite a few fish with a single #20 Jujubee Midge, nothing over 12inches and nothing under 7inches a steady hard fighting group, most were picked off by sight, waiting, fishing to the rise in rhythm. A handful came as pleasant surprises when a poor cast was allowed to drift long or an unintended target swooped in for the take. At 11am I had fished the run through and either put down or caught every fish that was rising, some remained striking the surface in upstream reaches but they had slowed and were in slower slack water. I put on my coat and hiked downstream.

Swung a #8 Black SMB for quite a while getting nowhere. Looking for a bigger brown or rainbow but neither were seen. One long distance release on a brown that looked to be roughly 14inches. I rigged a #8 Hairball and trailed it with a #16 Black Swimming PT, my Dark Hendrickson (E.Subvaria) nymph imitation. The PT took more fish than the Hairball but it got a couple in. The afternoon was kind of slow, hiking back upstream fishing a pocket here or a run there picking up a bit of trash as I went. Sad to see such an excellent fishery with such life littered with aluminum and plastic, in my time visiting here this seems to be the rule and thus the name Trash Creek.

I rounded the day out hiking further upstream than I had planned but I saw aggressively rising trout and didn’t want to waste the opportunity. My #20 Jujubee Midge fooled three but the rest weren’t having it, size does matter. The majority of the afternoon midge were much closer to #24/26. I swapped back to the #8 Black SMB and fished a couple more deep holes managing a handful of 12-13inch browns. Hiking upstream I took note of brown puddles created by perhaps a concerning amount of cow manure coming from a pasture area upstream. Piles of manure all the way to waters edge, this can’t be good for the water quality. Trash Creek, bummer. I finished and hiked out taking a final water temp (46°F)  in the same riffle I took the morning assessment.  Final Note: Ephemerella Subvaria and Baetis were here in large quantities, Baetis in the slightly slower water upstream from faster riffles and the Subvaria all over the rocks in the fastest part of the riffles. Get ready, provided things go well with the melt April looks to be excellent.

Slide Show

• Onstream ~12pm to ~3:15pm
• Arrival Air Temp ~25°F, Departure Air Temp ~31°F
• Wind ~10mph from the SSW
• Overcast with No Sun
• Midge in the Snow on Arrival
• Rising Trout  Observed at ~1:15pm

Sunday I made it out for a few hours, my goal was to take it easy, enjoy the stream and hopefully the fish. Some days I plan to hike forever and I end up hiking maybe more than casting, that’s just the way I am about this place. I have a desire to see every bend, every run, every fish knowing full well that I’ll never get close. The desire this day was to see all the fish. I just wanted to catch a bunch of fish, didn’t care what size, I just didn’t want to spend the day hiking or casting. With midge in the snow shortly after arrival and with a higher predicted air temp it was inevitable that the trout were going to be rising as the afternoon wore on. I prepped my leader (8ft long tapering to 18inches of 4x tippet), then prepped two rigs. The first a #8 Hairball with a #16 Hot Spot Scud (Pink) trailing it with 16 inches of 6x (I’d ran out of 5x). The second was a simple #20 Midge Dry Fly with 18-20inches of 6x tied to it. I did this so I could easily switch back and forth between the two, just clip my line at the 4x knot and either tie the nymph rig on or go straight to the 6x tippet with the Midge dry. I left the one I wasn’t fishing in my chest-pack with a bit of tippet hanging out.

I fished with and without an indicator, I know some who swear by an indicator and others who would never touch a “bobber.” I on the other hand let the trout, the water and my fly selection dictate my choice to use an indicator. With that said I sat on a handful of decent runs I knew and picked off trout after trout. I was trying to create a numbers day. By the time I saw the first serious risers I had already touched a dozen brown trout mostly in the 8-13inch range. At ~1:15pm I saw consistant rising from several trout up and downstream from my location. I cut my nymph rig off at the 4x tippet connecting my #8 Hairball and trailing fly, packed those away and pulled out the #20 Midge Dry with 18inches of 6x tippet. This made for a quick and efficient transfer allowing me to pick up three more with a dry fly. Fishing a midge dry in the winter months with gin clear water producing committed strikes, few experiences top that.

After I took the few with the dry fly I swapped back to my nymph rig rather than hike in search of more rising trout. I worked one run for a long time pulling out brown’s every couple of minutes. The smaller fish took the smaller #16 Hot Spot Scud in larger numbers and the larger fish took the larger #8 Hairball, it was a pretty even 1:1 ratio between the two as the afternoon wore on. Around 2pm I opted to head back out to fish the spot I began with, as I peered over the bank to the stream I could see chasers, risers, the midge. I love watching a trout run around picking off randomly located surface flies or items from the drift, I refer to these fish as chasers. I played pick your fish for the next forty minutes or so. With one poor back-cast I allowed my #20 Midge dry to remain in a weed behind me about twenty feet. Rather than move and risk putting the trout down I tied on a #20 Jujubee Midge. The CDC is kind of a pain in the ass but this fly produces, period. I used it to pick off close to a dozen trout including one that continually rose every couple of minutes on the far side of the stream. I watched that fish rise over and over again until I had pulled all his friends behind him out then I played the timing game, on the third attempt I had him, that smaller 12inch brown was as satisfying as any fish I’ve caught. Pick your fish, dry fly fishing. Not a bad way to round out February.

Slide Show

It’s back. After a week long thaw that woke most of Southeast Minnesota from winter hibernation and got everyone outside to enjoy the 50°F air temp the cold has returned. I just have to remember to layer well, stay out of the creek as much as possible and don’t drop your gloves in the stream. I failed to meet two of these three winter requirements on the 21st. I wore waders knowing I wanted to be able to cross the creek without issue, this was do-able but honestly not the best choice. ~4 hours of fishing and my feet were frozen. I also failed to keep my glove (just the left one) dry when landing a smaller brown about ~2 hours in, I shook my glove off to preserve the trout’s slime coat (I basically threw it into the creek not knowing) when the guy fishing with me hooked it in a plunge pool downstream. Had he not been fishing and had my glove not acted like a sluggish thick brown trout I wouldn’t have a pair as I write this. Note: next time remember not to throw your gear in the creek when it’s ~25°F out.

I met this guy at ~11am for a couple hours of mid-afternoon trouting. I showed up a few minutes late and he had already gotten into trout by the time I was geared and ready to go. We hiked downstream roughly a mile to work a few nicer spots heading back upstream to the vehicles.  The wind was whipping from the NE at ~15mph pretty steadily throughout the afternoon. We kept our backs to it as much as possible but it still complicated matters.

Cam’s Olive Jig just crushed trout through-out the afternoon. Every second cast he was setting the hook, the wind hampered that a bit and he lost a few between landing close to 2 dozen in the few hours we fished. Normally this creek like many around the region runs gin clear especially in the winter months but for some reason it was running a bit murky. The blowing wind helped obscure the water surface perhaps helping us avoid spooking the trout. The combination of the two made this a numbers day, we each landed quite a few fish. I fished a #8 Hairball (black) the entire day. I did so mainly due to the wind, I know I can chuck this slightly heavier fly with an added splitshot alot further into the wind without knotting my rig up than I can say tossing a two fly nymph rig with smaller flies. It just happened that the trout were really into the slightly larger food offering and minimal flash of this fly.

Cam continued hooking into and landing fish from just about every spot his jig was cast. I have to admit it was enjoyable learning a bit more about the tactics of a spin angler, the method of jig fishing for trout in our area and how the spin angler deals with different obstacles. It also gave me a chance to maybe observe and reproduce certain aspects of spin angling with my fly rod. Along with learning a bit about what a spinning rig can do I also learned what it cannot do, it cannot drift a fly along a sheer rock wall unless you are casting straight upstream. The jig once cast can only be retrived in a straight line to some extent. I’m sure Cam could let the jig sink and allow the current to pull it from place to place then retrieve but for the most part I saw a straight line between the location of the cast and the angler. These are just observations not meant to discount or discredit any aspect of spin angling, just observing what I haven’t really experienced. Cam set the hook on a couple trout sending them flying, basically when a year old trout hits a jig it becomes air-born for a few seconds. Looking at the size of Cam’s jig compared to the size of the predator I could only think of something I read a while back, that by the time a brown trout gets to 10inches it must begin consuming food items one inch or longer to survive and make it past 12inches in length. If your ever questioning tossing a larger fly think about that fact and remember this photo.

We worked back upstream to finish the afternoon out. By this point my left hand was fairly cold, the glove that went swimming was frozen solid in my pocket and my left foot was getting cold. I had hooked into and landed a few decent sized trout, all very healthy, thick well fed brown trout. We were looking to get into some larger brookies but none were had though several times the bright colors on the browns looked pink at times making us question the fish until it was closer. Near the end of the afternoon I dead drifted my #8 Hairball down a deep run and with one strong strike followed by a nice flying leap I had the fish of the day on the line. A beautiful kype jawed male looking somewhere between maybe 16-17inches. He ran me around a bit and bent my rod nicely before coming to hand. We finished the day fishing to a big hole in the wind, we each landed a couple more and parted ways. My foot was really cold and the wind was refusing to let up even alittle, although I could have stayed out longer I took off for home smelling of big ugly brown trout. Awesome.

Slide Show

Enjoy a minute from the Feb. 14th outing. Remember to change the video settings from 360p to 720p in the lower right corner after the video begins playing. It will take alittle longer to load but well worth the wait. Thanks Wendy B. for another excellent day on our Driftless Creeks.

The Field Report

• Arrival: ~8am, Departure: ~4:30pm
• Airtemp: Arrival ~35ºF, Departure ~42ºF
• Wind: NW 18mph at 8am slowing to 8mph at 4pm
• Water Temps: ~12:30pm 39ºF, ~2:45pm 41.5ºF
• Midge in the snow at 10:30am, Rising trout at 1:15pm

Wendy B. and I met roadside a bit before 8am under sunny skies. The wind was predicted to be a beast for the early morning hours dying down as the day wore on. We chose a spot that did not compliment the wind well, right in our faces for most of the day. With that said it posed minimal comfort issues but made casting a pain in the ass. After hiking in a ways we broke up and began casting nymphs. I played around with a #12 Hairball (tan) trailed by a #16 Pink Hot Spot Scud for a majority of the day. I know we sent most the fish at the first few places scattering, the wind was a hindrance the first hour or so. Winona County was under a wind advisory until 9am on the 14th. Just ask my 50ft white spruce that came down while I slept the night before.

Fishing was a bit slow the first couple of hours, we hiked and fished looking for good places to get out of the wind and into the sunshine, had their been no wind I would have been in a t-shirt most of the day. We sat on a few runs and I eventually landed a fish around 10am. Picking up a couple nymphing, the #16 Pink Hot Spot Scud out fished the #12 Hairball 2:1 easy over the course of the day. Wendy B. was successful with a #14 Orange Scud earlier in the day. We hiked upstream, the plan was to fish a while then access a second stream to finish the day out.

At site two I took an initial water temp and checked the rocks. Interesting how one stream will put off midge like crazy and the next puts off tiny black stones in large quantities. We had hoped to find a reason to fish this second site as far as the winter regulations would allow but after half a mile we hadn’t found what we were looking for. At 12:30pm we stopped in the sun and out of the wind to make lunch. I often want to bring lunch and stop to eat but rarely do, today the longer hours and distance travelled through thick wet snow almost demanded re-fueling. I managed to bust out a crude fire in the snow with a lighter and what nature had to offer around me in a reasonable amount of time. Wendy prepped kindling while I prepped the site and got the tinder needed to get flames roaring. Fifteen minutes later we were stuffing hot dogs topped with all the fixings down enjoying the moment in the snow. Trash packed away and fire covered with a foot of snow we busted out to find a trout, a decent lunch in less than thirty minutes.

We thought for a bit about hiking a ways and fishing something we both knew but decided instead to peek around the corner, glad we did. Once back on-stream we noticed rising trout almost instantly, consistently rising trout, launching trout. After watching a handful of brown trout propel out of the water we dropped our gear to rig 18inches of 6x tippet with a #20 Midge Dryfly. A few minutes later on my second drift a smaller brown came up for my #20 Jujubee Midge. We thought about splitting up but if done properly back to back trout dry fly fishing can be fun with a friend. The one who wasn’t fishing was taking pictures and landing trout with the net. I continued with the Jujubee midge but found that once the CDC wing was slimed the fly was useless. I believe it has its place in my box for finiky trout that demand the look and behaviour of this fly, the first two drifts showed why CDC can be so effective. I opted for a #20 Midge that had hackle rather than CDC for the wing/legs. We continued catching nicer back to back browns ranging from 10-13inches over the course of the next hour or so, we would have landed more if the wind hadn’t fouled a fair number of casts up. Nothing like watching your leader and tippet blown straight back at you as your line is laying down on the creek, it could have worse though. The dry fly hour can make a day, it did this day. The trout ceased rising at ~2:30pm, the water temp was 41.5ºF. We continued upstream swinging streamers through a few deeper sections with minimal results.

On my suggestion we opted to hike 95% of the way back out and round out the day sitting on a few runs. This was maybe not the best choice, we busted ass through the snow and by the end we were both pretty beat. We split up and each took a spot. I swapped my rig to the #12 Hairball (tan) trailed by the #16 Pink Hot Spot Scud and began picking off brown after brown. The nymphing was almost as good as dry fly fishing, I couldn’t keep the fish off my line had I tried. A couple of times I lost a fish as it struck my flies emerging from the water as I prepared to cast again. In forty minutes I must have managed close to dozen brown trout from 8-12inches and one pushing 13inches from the single run. I lost twice that for sure, takes ranged from aggressive to sluggish making it difficult to anticipate a strike, sometimes your line would twitch and others it would come to a very slow stop. The sun began to hide behind clouds and the air temp seemed to drop a bit signaling the end of the day.

The Bug Report:

With the warmer weather I spent a bit of time checking rocks, beginning the count and assessment of the hatches for the coming season. I hope to get out to a few places I’ve caught decent mayfly and caddis hatches the last two years to check the rocks and see where I should concentrate my efforts come spring. I can tell you now that the Dark Hendricksons are on the rocks. Ephemerella Subvaria were pretty thick on the creek we fished, the wing pads still have a ways to go before they are mature enough to hatch but provided we don’t get major flooding the Dark Hennies should be good to go. Other bugs spied…everything! This creek is alive. Caddis larva of all kinds, Maccafertium nymphs (either Light Cahills or March Browns), Giant Water Beetles and Leeches all clung to rocks I examined. 

Slide Show

• Arrival Air Temp: 12degrees Departure: ~18
• Onstream Arrival: 11:15am Departure: 2:30pm
• ~10mph Winds from the SW
• Zero Midge Activity, No Risers
• Ice Shelving Created Issues
• ~15 Brown Trout Landed
• #12 Hairball (Both Black & Tan)

We arrived onstream later than planned but the weather hadn’t warmed like it was supposed to and even at 11am it was pretty chilly with a decent breeze coming from the SW. Fingers were pretty cold the first hour or so. We spied the creek and almost drove to a backup location but already geared up and not wanting to waste over an hour we opted just to play the hand we were delt. The previous weeks cold temperatures allowed this section of creek to freeze up quite a bit. Most slow sections were completley froze over and the spots that were open had significant shelving complicating any drift to be had. I opted for a smaller #12 Hairball (Black) on a shorter ~8ft leader thinking it would be a bit easier to manage with the ice shelves.

We fished only a couple of spots but managed more fish than I was expecting given the shelving and temperature combined with no midge activity. The trout were hunkered low but several did end up chasing down our flies as we lifted them out to cast. I lost atleast two nice fish as a result of this, perhaps bringing my fly up too early. Strikes from the larger fish were subtle and harder to detect, pretty typical for these conditions. Smaller <12in trout were fairly aggressive smacking my #12 Hairball pretty consistently. The ice shelving caused me to lose atleast one fish and maybe another due to a poor hookset as a result of my line getting caught on a bit of ice.  Before we left Sershen spied a bait container left in the snow with the left over contents strewn about. A few things about this bothered me, 1st the trash, don’t leave your trash here. 2nd, this is an artificials only section of creek, bait is not allowed. 3rd, this is the 3rd time in the last six months I’ve seen this in the same location. On top of that, why not just throw the worms leftover in for the trout? I called the Winona County DNR Conservation Officer when I got back to my truck to inform him of the infraction. Winona County has only one officer to monitor all our streams and our half of the Mississippi. Due to use alone the Mississippi will always get more of his attention so I try to let him know what’s going on when I can. It was pretty apparent this had occurred recently as the snow had yet to hide the evidence.

All in all it was a good day in the Driftless area, the sun eventually peeked out for a bit but didn’t hang around for long. The 30 degree airtemp we were hoping for did not materialize even after we had left the creek. Warmer weather is coming this next week, could be good, it could be bad. If night time air temps stay above freezing I could see the average stream water temp dropping as the snow melts. This will put fish down, midge will cease to hatch and the fishing could get more difficult. The trade off? It may get rid of a fair amount of snowpack which is needed around the state as well in this area. Hope for the best and that melt issues are minimized.

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