Liz and I hit Iowa on Saturday and came across a spectacular emergence of fall Baetis. We parked the car at ~12noon and observed consistent rising almost immediately. The creek was running clear and maybe just a hair low, the air temp was in the low 50′s but a strong sustained wind of 20+mph was felt the entire time we were on the water. Despite the wind we opted to take advantage of the rising trout and put on dry flies knowing full well that casting a tiny dry in high winds can be a potential recipe for disaster. On a whim I stuck on a #12 Stimulator simply because it happened to be right at my fingertips, the second cast produced a ~13inch brown that sipped my fly. Convinced that as long as we could battle the wind, dry flies would be the best way to fish the afternoon. Several #18 BWO’s were seen drifting from the riffles many of which became trout lunch before they could take flight.

Liz needing to work on her backcast and dry fly presentation took the challenge of the wind in stride and opted to fish a #14 Adams at first. We chose that fly simply because it was a bit bigger and easier for her to see, it became painfully obvious after a dozen or more good presentations that the trout were not having the larger dry flies. We followed the dry fly creed and downsized the fly and went darker with a #18 BWO’s I tied in my fishing infancy. Most of the #18 BWO’s in my dry fly box looked pitiful and would not pass any sort of test, however, I did manage to find a couple that were worthy of placing in front of trout and it became clear after only a few presentations that the trout would accept these imitations.

Many of the rises we observed were in slower slackwater areas that posed a greater challenge with respect to dry fly presentation, we scanned the creek as we hiked upstream looking for a section of faster broken water with trout steadily rising to concentrate on. As we hiked I looked for specimens to document when I bent down near a small patch of water cress. When I knelt down became clear that we had arrived at the tail end of the hatch, looking at a one square foot section of watercress just downstream from a riffle I observed over fifty male and female Baetis duns sitting in the safety of the cress. The trout continued to rise and I sent Liz upstream to fish while I hung back to document as many Baetis mayflies as I could.

Moving upstream I saw exactly the spot I was looking for. After watching a faster broken run for a couple minutes I witnessed several rises in multiple spots, off to both sides of the seam, in the tail end of the run as well as splashy excited rises coming from the head of the run in the fastest water. I knew if she could get her fly up far enough without spooking the trout they would crush her imitation. I sat back and observed, she almost got hung up in a tree but working a side arm cast we avoided the first challenge. The second issue became the largest to overcome, the 20+mph wind. Despite her best efforts to produce a decent backcast the wind would blow hard and rather than allow a tight loop to form used to propel her line forward the wind caused the line to blow back at her taking all the energy out of line and rod. She kept getting her fly blown into her rod, tangled on the tip or at the fly line/leader connection. Frustration was mounting. I continued to assist her any way I could, often just untangling her line quickly so she could attempt another cast. After ~30minutes she hadn’t gotten a decent cast and thus presentation to the trout, she was stubborn and determined to sit there as long as the trout were rising. A few minutes later a colorful brown rose for her fly but a lack of line management failed to produce a good hookset and the trout was “quick-released”.

Her frustration continued and mine was building, I knew if we could just get one trout to hand she would relax and things would move along more smoothly. It took another ten minutes of trying and one more poor hookset before she nailed the first of a handful of nicer sized browns with the #18 BWO. After the first came to hand the second, third and fourth followed steady suit, all the while I sat back and sipped my coffee. We continued fishing to those rising trout until she had moved up the entire length of the run and either caught or put down every trout showing it’s face. Frustration turned into accomplishment, working a small dry fly in the strong wind was a good test of reslove. It should also be noted that even a 6inch fish would have been enjoyed but she managed to take two trout over 13inches with one pushing 14 and a half. I watched as it rose quickly thinking it was smaller than it actually was, not until it lept from the creek and came down with a deep smack did I have any idea it was as nice a fish as it was.

By this point the BWO’s had run their course, the trout ceased rising and we moved upstream. I stuck on a #8 Hairball and we proceeded to search close to a mile of new uncharted trout water. We never lingered long at any one spot but made a cast to almost every place that looked worthy of attention. I picked up a dozen browns and two rainbows within the first quarter mile of creek. We observed a dogger chase down my fly only to spook near the surface before it committed. We fished upstream until ~5:30pm then turned to hike out, I made a handful of casts as we did so but felt the day was a resounding success and as such I was content to enjoy another beautiful fall sunset rather than continue tempting trout.

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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: 8:46am, 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.

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Notes of Interest:

• Adult Winter Stones and Midge on Arrival (~11am)
• BWO’s at ~12:30-1pm as the Water Temp Rose to 49 Degrees
• Despite Higher Water Temps Minimal Rising Trout
• Saw Four Deer When I Usually See None
• Found 3 Deer Carcasses, One Way Too Fresh To Show Here
• Attempted Bug Photo’s with Reference Tape in mm, worth the effort, will continue this practice.
• Flies that worked: #20 Zebra Midge and a #18 Pheasant Tail Nymph
• New Water Today With a Nice Trail, Google Earth Estimates 2.4 Miles Travelled One Way

Slide Show

Making this a quick report due to two factors, 1 same stream from last report and 2 lack of time. I hit the stream at 9am and went through my ritual. I assessed the water temp and stream situation, the lack of rain here is keeping water levels low and crystal clear. I fished the leech almost all day but today was more about covering ground than fishing. I wanted to see as much of this place as I could. 

I fished as I went and picked up browns as I enjoyed the warm sun, I think fishing the leech has improved my casting. I ate lunch in the sun on a rock watching trout take what I believe were baetis nymphs from the drift. At noon the fish were active with water temps around 47 and the BWO’s were coming soon. 

I saw geological features that I didn’t know Minnesota had and saw beautiful fish as I went. Made it as far as I thought was good for the day and took a moment to take everything in, something about being in a place far away from others, far from cell phone reception. Interesting how something so peaceful can be almost freighting when you realize your so far from others.

I picked up these as I went and have a questions.

•  What is it?
• Is it native?
• Are the dots on its face/body/fins a disease?
• Why did I find them only in one section of stream?

My only opinion of these fish is they are a pain in the ass. Every time I get a strike and set the hook a little chub comes flying at me. It makes getting hit up less exciting I guess. 

The baetis came at around 1:15pm due to warmer air temp. It lasted until 3pm but I had a difficult time finding rising fish and I wasn’t spooking them. I fished a dry for a while and got no where but I still had a great day. I love this. Never did take a brookie but had another excellent day. Note: I do not take this time for granted, it is precious little and I look twice at everything so I remember it tomorrow.

“Sweet-As” is what they say in New Zeland when you jump out of a plane at 12,000ft or go over a large waterfall in a raft, this is how I would describe my time on Friday. I took off early (this summer I plan on spending a few days on the water at 6am) and got to the site at 9am, alittle later than planed but just fine. I hiked in and started, first an assessment of the situation. Water temp was 42degrees and crystal clear. Low flows and a breeze with the barometer at 28.82 (I’m trying to take note of changes in the pressure to indicate hatching conditions). With this I figured nothing much would be happening for a while, to be expected.

I took samples, a ton of Baetis just ready to blow, I also took a ph sample for my records. I rigged up the pink patrick with a smalled Baetis trailer and headed downstream to fish the section I knew. Made some good casts, really starting to love my roll cast and I’m looking forward to an 8’6″ rod when the time comes. Didn’t get much and decided to switch to a marabou leech and move upstream. First run I sent it through pulled a smaller brown, I knew I was onto something. The cooler water temps I think kept the fish from moving for a strike unless the meal was worth the effort. Going big was the ticket biding my time until conditions were right.

I moved upstream out of Dinosaur land and into the head water section of this stream. I’d been saving this for just this moment, my first day of the beginning of the rest of the season. Brilliant! So many excellent options for fish, runs, pools around every turn. I worked upstream fishing the leech pulling a few here and there, took a nice fat male brown and at least one over 16″. I made it finally to what I am going to refer to as “The Wall”. I just took pictures and looked around, I hadn’t seen anything like it and my pictures don’t do it justice. I could have fished it but I just figured I’d save it for another day. I hiked back out.

Picked trash on my way and made good time. I decided to stop at a favorite spot and I tried the leech again, nothing. Again, nothing. Hmmm….oh yea…water temp. 48 degrees, Baetis. Sure enough just as I was pulling the thermometer from the drink I saw one float past. The trout had keyed in on the Baetis and knowing they could get an easy meal sitting in feeding lanes there was no incentive to strike my leech anymore. This was awesome, I stood and watched them wriggle out of their shucks and float on the surface. I took some excellent photo’s and just watched the bugs, both midge and Baetis coming off, this was at exactly 1:23pm. I spent too much time standing in the middle of the hatch taking pictures and samples I actually ran out of time to fish it and headed out but I was very pleased with the day. It was fun enough to stand in the middle of the hatch with fish surfacing around me. I hiked out at 2:20pm, felt good to fish this again. Sweet-As.

On this day I woke with a smile knowing after I took the dogs out for a long run I would have the rest of the day to fish. Sershen took me to a spot of his that he has been frequenting for quite a while I would imagine. South we travelled in my beat up rusty pickup. We arrived at the stream at about 1pm. Upon seeing rising trout I rigged up a #18 BWO dry flythat I tied recently, Sershen rigged a #18 Parachute Adams with a Zugbug trailer. We took turns casting dries to feeding trout and we both came up successful. After about thirty minutes the trout seemed to hold up and stopped rising. Taking an initial water temp of ~50 we waited and watching hoping that as the sun helped raise the water temp that we might catch a few BWO’s coming off.

While we waited for a water temp above 52 we picked rocks and strained the contents. Flipping two small rocks over exposed many Baetis nymphs ready to emerge. We waited and watched enjoying t-shirt weather the entire time. As time passed we stood in the water able to see the shucks from emerging flies floating past. We found a few BWO’s and Hennies as the afternoon progressed. At 3:30pm the water temp was 52.5 degrees making for ideal conditions for hatching BWO’s. Unfortunately we did not see rising trout and so we both decided to switch to streamer patterns. I chose my trusty Marabou Leech and moved from run to hole. After casting a #18 dry fly the streamer seemed clunky but it worked. I pulled a few more brown trout from the depths including a nice 16in trout that fought like a log. 

As we fished we were accompanied by an old beagle that was content just to sit and watch. He followed up the entire length of the stream we fished. As we returned to our original spot we noticed rising trout again, I quickly switched back to my BWO dry fly and on the second cast picked up another brown. I worked my way up the stream but in my haste I think I spooked the trout. I fished until I was confident I wasn’t going to pick up another trout. I really enjoyed studying the water anticipating a hatch. 

The Swimmers

The Darting Swimmers Families Baetidae, Siphloridae and Metretopodidae.

The two main species found in S.E. MN are two forms of the ever popular BWO. We have the Baetis and the Plauditus punctiventris. These are both found in the Baetidae family when identifying these nymphs from the other two families size is the best indicator. Siphloridae and Metretopodidae fall into the Large Swimmers while Baetidae fall into the much smaller size category. All have gills on the abdomen sections 1-7. One more overall comment about the Swimmers, they are the most varied group in the mayflies and emerge in cases all year round based on water temperature. One will find swimmers in almost every stream.

Little Blue-winged Olive (Plauditus punctiventris) 20-22 Pale yellow olive Late June-Oct.

In Hatches 2 this is listed as Pseudocloeon anoka but has changed since publication. These are still swimmers and so they will have similar nymphal traits to the other swimmers but one quick way to distinguish these from other Baetis is the tail. Plauditus punctiventris has only two tails while Baetis has three, also the abdomen is thicker on these nymphs. These nymphs are 4-5mm in length, I’m noting this size for my own reference. These nymphs will most likely crawl on grass or other items to get out of the water during a hatch. They are less likely to swim to the surface and then hatch. Fish downstream of extensive weed beds.

Blue-winged Olive (Baetis) 16-22 Grayish olive to dark olive March-May & Sept.-Oct.

These nymphs will be found in underwater foliage. The slender bodies as well as legs make them ideal for swimming through aquatic plant life. The baetis nymphs have three tails like most other but the center tail is much shorter than the outer two. Note that the baetis will emerger early in the season and late in the season. One thing I’m finding is that the exact species of Baetis is not listed and as there are several this will be a task for me this coming year to determine which exact species inhabit the waters around me. The greatest numbers of these nymphs are found in alkaline waters with a ph. of 7.5 or greater. Hatching will occur between 11am and 4pm in March-April when water temp exceeds mid 60′s. Typically one will see these on overcast days and as a general rule overcast provides some of the best BWO fishing.