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

I’m guilty of jumping the gun. I have the information available to me but with zeal I just sat down and began tying. I’m pleased I found tying these flies more enjoyable, it came a bit easier this time and makes knowing that I have to do it all over again that much more tolerable. According to those in the know my hackle is far to light for these to pass as Dark Hendricksons. I may end up taking a razor blade to them to save the hooks or I may attempt them anyways just to see, maybe the lighter bodied flies will pass as Lt. Hendricksons. They may end up in a box somewhere, I’ll pull them out 10 years from now and exclaim its the “Dumbass Hatch!” Anyways, learn from my mistake as I must. Do your research before you reach for your nice dry fly cape.

Slide Show

I woke yesterday with options. I saw Liz out the door and off to work. I had the choice to fish but the strong winds and already pretty cold air temp of ~4degrees by 8am made up my mind for me. I have my limits you know. So what to do with the morning off but brew coffee and tie flies. The question…what to tie? I’ve been watching this video again and again and it’s getting to me. The only problem here is the standard dry fly, I suck at tying these damn things and I’ve got a mental thing going on that has allowed me to avoid them. I spent the first hour of daylight sipping coffee and sucking it up. I whipped out 1/2 dozen in a reasonable time of ~40minutes and was actually a bit surprised. I think they will do the job and they don’t look all bad. The hardest aspect of this fly for me is getting the wings positioned properly. I have to admit I kind of enjoyed tying them and will be at it again soon, as I ‘ve been told practice makes perfect…

With the remaining portion of my morning I took care of business. I cleaned the kitchen. The stove, microwave, counter tops, vacuumed and even did a bit of laundry. My home is primarily heated with a wood pellet stove of which it consumes a few hundred lbs of hardwood pellets every week, especially when it’s cold enough to keep me home tying flies rather than fishing. I finished the morning by hauling 400lbs from the barn to the porch. Gotta keep the lady of the manor pleased with me, she after all allows me to fish like a non-stop fool, attends TU meetings, fixes my clothes and puts up with trout talk all the time. She deserves it for sure. Next thing she is getting is a pair of breathable waders though. Not a bad morning save the lack of trout smell on my hands.

Slide Show

Day 2. Met with Sershen, drove to the spot and took the water temp. I was hoping for an opportunity to toss dry flies but to no avail. On arrival at 10:30am the temp was easily 42 degrees and by 1pm it was past the hatching temp for BWO’s and few were seen. What was seen however was a massive amount of Dark Hendrickson nymphs that are close to popping, I’ve never seen the quantity of nymphs holding as I did this day. Fishing faster deeper water hoping to take the larger fish we both stuck to streamers almost all day, my first cast landed my nicest fish of the day, a fat Rainbow pushing 15 inches. I remember thinking as it lept the first time, what did I hook? A pan fish? Something about the way it lept made it look exactly like a fat sunfish, I don’t know how but it did.

Not too much to report other than the fact that the bugs are coming, soon on some streams for sure and despite the recent rain combined with snow melt the streams are doing well, with a bit of knowledge finding a fishable one should be easy. I found the random sampling of invertebrates and then I found what Heath refers to as the “poo” fly which I knew immediately to be a Caddis fly larva named the Little Black Sedge (Chimarra aterrima). I knew because I had done the research and the image of this bright yellow larva was forever ingrained in my memory. I saw it and was amazed, found a serious amount of them as well. We fished the rest of the day into the early evening catching the occasional trout here and there, despite good water conditions the trout were biting very lightly making landing a fish a bit trickier as we both hooked, lost, and cursed several fish out, maybe me more so than my friend. A second day fishing all day in the sun in a t-shirt, it felt like June without the weeds or vegetation around to complicate matters, as they say in New Zealand “sweet-as”.

Slide Show

During April the Hennies should be coming off in large numbers. In anticipation and preperation for this I am re-visiting both my online resources and the books I have to re-aquaint myself with one of the areas, and one of fly fishings most well known hatch, the Ephemerella subvaria.

1st lets discuss water temperature: ideal hatching conditions will, according to my sources, occur between 2-4pm when the water temp rises between 50-55 degrees. It should be noted that on hotter days the time may extend to later in the day when water temps decrease back into the 50-55 degree range.

2nd when imitating the nymphs of Ephemerella subvaria the size is important. The naturals that I took from streams in our area averaged about 11mm, this may be 1mm short, my book states 12mm and that sounds right seeing that these nymphs still have time to develop. The book source I’m using is Hatches 2 by All Caucci and Bob Nastasi which recgonizes that within Ephemerella subvaria there are several color variations and that you should tie yours according to the naturals you find in your streams. The ones I’ve collected recently were dark brown with hints of red, also these nymphs are much wider and thicker than say the Baetis nymphs that you might find.

For dry flies I’ve read and been told that size 14 is the most common size for the Dark Hendrickson in S.E. MN. They are tied in various colors with different wings/post. I tied these with a golden brown Antron wing, other options are lemon wood duck or dun antron. I’ve seen the body as dark brown, grey and the hackle as dun or brown/both. I used dun. I hope these serve me well.