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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 [singlepic id=1883 w=260 h=180 float=left]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 [singlepic id=1889 w=360 h=280 float=right]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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