Bugs…Beer…Browns…. My yearly excuse (birthday) to take some vacation time occurs during one of the best times to be a trout angler in S.E. Minnesota. The end of April, typically rather nice, bugs about, hungry fish too. This year I lucked out, three days sandwiched between two seven day long periods of nastiness. The 25th was a quick precursor, more of a warm up my casting arm, to be followed by the 26th and then the 27th. The 26th involved a four mile hike on the way in to turn around and fish my way back out. I wasn’t in any big hurry, I parked around 9:30am right behind a fellow who sat in his truck sipping coffee waiting for the urge to go catch a fish. We chatted a bit, I asked if he minded if I parked behind him and I assured him if I did so that he wouldn’t see me again the rest of the day, he did not. I hiked, then hiked some more. I took a water temp at the first riffle I crossed, 48degrees on the dot at 10:15am. I checked rocks, saw a decent number of free living caddis larva and a few Baetis looking ready to pop but not a ton. The recent high water events had scoured most of the creeks pretty well and I’m wondering if a fair amount of the invertebrate population went downstream in the Wonka river. That translates into two thoughts, the first…fewer hatching insects, the second…hungry trout.

Downstream four miles (give or take a tenth of a mile or so) and I was staring at near gin clear water and to make it even better I only passed one other angler on the hike in, a bait fisherman who was contently perched on his bucket. The entire hike in I was looking for rising trout and saw nothing, I thought I saw one rise but I can’t be sure of it so I’m going to go with nothing. I started swinging my usual, streamers. Why? Because I wanted to move quickly. I felt like hitting every nook and cranny for almost four miles of creek, that’s hard work and you can’t linger too long in any single place to make it happen. I’d take a few trout from each spot, toss to where I thought the big one was and move on. I tried a handful of different streamers in various sizes including a new smaller streamer I think is finally ready to be released for public viewing. All in all things couldn’t have gone better, fishing upstream I was stripping layers off and down to a t-shirt by 1pm.

At 1:30pm I saw the first rise and then another and a moment later another. I put on a good stretch of 5x tippet and a #16 BWO, I then removed one of two Ranger IPAs from my bag and sat down. I watched the fish while I drank the first just happy to be outside in the sun again watching trout do their thing. When that bottle was emptied I started swinging, the wind didn’t help any but trust me, I wasn’t complaining one bit. I managed a good dozen trout from that spot over the course of the next hour and a half. When I was satisfied with dry fly fishing for the day I pulled the second bottle from my bag and sat back down to watch those trout keep on going. I didn’t see much more for rising after about 3:30pm and I didn’t see much for bug activity other than the few BWO’s that came off during my time on that single run. I should note that while fishing those dry flies I heard a bunch of rocks slide down the bluff above me, I looked (expecting to see nothing or a squirrel) to see something I’ve never seen before, what I believe was a coyote. It was up a good ways and watched me the entire time, it was tan and had a long bushy tail. I’m not an expert but it was bigger than what I imagined a coyote to look like. That animal climbed to the top of the bluff watching me as it went then stood on a rock for a good two minutes before leaving my sight, very, very, cool. I should also note that I did see several deer carcasses around that area and two were pretty fresh, one still had meat on a section of a hind leg that had been removed.

Upstream a good mile I’m back to swinging meat and the trout are darting, charging, and slamming it. It was a damn good day and by the end of it I questioned if that wasn’t the best use of vacation time I’ve ever had. It might have been the sun and the scenery, that combined with the eager trout, either way it was a day to remember. So I’m fishing across from a cut bank when I hear mud dumping into the creek, not unusual in any way except it continues and continues. I look back to see a basketball (or larger) sized snapping turtle dig it’s way out of the bank and drop into the creek then promptly dive to the bottom of a seriously deep hole. Shortly there after a TON of fish went shooting out in every direction. Sweet sight number two. Several hours later and my day was coming two an end, my pedometer logged me at over 9 miles by the time I got to the last stretch of creek I fished. I hadn’t caught anything huge all day, maybe a 16in fish around 4pm but nothing super small either. I was broke off once by a fish that felt strong but I didn’t see so much as a flash from that one, it wasn’t until the last cast of the day did I get to touch a nice 18 1/2 inch brown. I took one crappy ass photo of it too, low light and I didn’t dink around with him too long but hey, not a bad way to end a seriously excellent day. The birthday presents you give yourself are often the best especially if it’s a day fishing for trout.

It begins tomorrow as it has for the four years prior. The winter season opener and as usual Minnesota never disappoints with a high air temp predicted around 12 degrees, looking at the hour by hour the temp when we arrive should be just passing 0. I’ve spent the last few days getting used to the weather, taking the dog out and running up and down the bluffs around me. Consider it the pre-ritual ritual. If your out tomorrow good luck, dress warm and take care.

To quickly address the lack of content, lack of motivation and lack of fish. This winter season, despite the above average air temperatures, below average precipitation totals and number of days spent on the creek has produced little to write about. I felt my motivation slipping in the first two weeks of February and from there I’ve just been biding my time grumpy that everytime I go out the waters been low, the trout seem spookier than normal and I’ve just been catching less. That doesn’t make going to the creek any less enjoyable but it puts spending a Saturday on the water, paying for the gas and putting the miles on a vehicle come into perspective a bit more when you’ve only been catching one or two fish an outing. Maybe I’m slipping, maybe the low water/spooky trout is just an excuse to cover my month and a half dry spell, either way it doesn’t matter anymore. The fish are there, the bugs are going to be showing up in larger numbers and I’ll be there, waiting.

The 4th of March, 26 degree air temp on arrival at ~11:30am. Sunny skies, very minimal wind with low and gin clear creek water. I picked a spot I’ve been missing for some reason, maybe it’s pink line syndrome that’s been getting to me, driving past miles of creek that I can’t touch just to get to a short reach of a stream I’ve seen dozens of times. This spot is obviously a pink line (because I don’t violate our trout regulations) but I hadn’t seen it in quite a while. I knew it would be a bit more difficult due to it’s size and water levels but I was in the mood for a hike and if catching one or two was my last months average then I figured seeing something fresh and maybe catching one along the way would suffice my appetite. Carl came with, we started lower than I typically do and fished upstream farther than I’d ever gone, ~3.5 miles each way.

Trout were seen almost immediately, one rose while we put our gear on. I went straight to a #18 Pink Safety fly knowing that I just wanted one trout and sometimes the Pink Safety fly is the way to get that job done so the skunk is off and the rest of the day can be spent enjoying the Driftless area, searching the creek, spying for bugs and watching your friend have a kick ass day on the creek. My first cast on a hole I hiked directly to was poor and I planted my fly on a branch just above the group of trout I was targeting. Not good. Somehow I managed to kick my fly off and get it back in the creek before the trout spooked, instantly the first brown that saw it hit and hit hard. Finally a strike worthy of a quick hookset. With 10inches of spotted fish in my hands I knelt in the creek, it was going to be a damn fine day.

I continued to fish the #18 Pink Safety fly for the majority of the afternoon while Carl fished drys for a bit, a small nymph for a while and ultimately ended up tossing a lightly weighted streamer of his own design. Honestly it wasn’t much to look at (sorry man) but it did make me think I need something like it in my box. Things that caught my attention, it’s smaller size (maybe a #10 or 12), lightly weighted with a significant amount of flash. I think the size and weight made it perfect for this small creek with it’s low water and spooky trout. My SMB would have been too heavy and too big, the KML might have worked but again even the smallest size I tie that fly in would have been big compared to what Carl was tossing. The fly I ended up putting on later in the day was a #8 Hairball, I tie it on a 2x short scud hook so it’s over all appearance is pretty small for a streamer but has a nice large hook gap. Learn from those who fish, ask questions, have a dialogue about what’s going on while your out. I can’t fish with just anyone, it’s been proven over the years. I like fishing with someone, actively fishing with someone else gives you their perspective, bounce ideas and thoughts off one another, it will make you a better angler.

I’ve spent quite a few hours on this creek, I love how each time I visit it seems that mother nature changes the game plan. You’ll arrive to find a spot that was once blocked by a downed tree now open and free to drift a fly through and at the same time just upstream the hole you were itching to fish will no doubt be clogged with debris of some sort. It’s a challenge. Carl and I strolled up to a hole that was previously open to clean clear casts from fifty feet but due to a newly downed tree we had to sneak up from behind. Ironic how the tree downed across the tail of the pool provided cover for the fish but also allowed Carl to sneak up closer than he would have been allowed before to slip a short cast in to pull out a 13inch brown. As he was lifting the brown from the creek I watched a dogger come from the depths, she looked right at Carl’s fly hanging from the smaller trout’s mouth. Without spooking she watched the smaller fish get pulled from the creek and proceeded to move back to the feeding lane. I watched this happen while Carl missed it, I knew that fish wanted that fly. I was awe struck for a moment, after spitting out the details to Carl I watched as he tossed his fly in for a second time. A short drift and a tight line produced that trout, all 18inches of her. Some creeks grow brown trout quickly but they tend not to grow as large and often die younger while other creeks grow brown’s slowly, they often grow larger and live longer. I believe this creek to be a “slow grow” creek, this trout could be over 6 years old. She’s not the dominate predator around either, the severe dorsal fin damage and the large hit on her top side make me question what would consider her dinner.

We let her go and smiled in the sun. I love the fish of the day, often you know it when it’s happened and it makes the rest of the day that much more satisfying. Carl and I spent the rest of the afternoon hiking further up the valley in search of brookies but to my surprise found only a scant few. What we did find however were large numbers of brown trout surrounded by beautiful spawning substrate and plenty of cover. Everywhere we looked there was a spot with 20-30 small browns and a couple nicer ones lurking off to the sides. Cover rocks and tree limbs have been good to these trout. I watched Carl sneak cast from behind an obstruction to pull out a small brown on his knees. That is the definition of a driftless angler, casting hidden on your knees to pull a wild trout out from a four foot wide creek and he made it look easy. We fished to the end of the pink line and turned around for the ~45min hike out. This was what I needed, the motivator, the day when the trout didn’t require force feeding, conditions were modest yet very comfortable, and the hike through the valley void of other humans…necessary.

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Video by Heath Sershen. Doofy Looking Subject, The Winona Fly Factory.

It was a busy month. We used our time before snowfall to get used to the new place and prep for the eventual reality that is winter in Minnesota. We survived our first bought of nastier weather after a category 3 hurricane struck most of Minnesota. Seems weird to hear but the barometric pressure registered that of a cat. 3 not too long ago setting a new record for the state, had the winds been over water they would have been much worse. I got a good idea of everything that could move, wasn’t nailed down or secured somehow. Liz and I began exploring the state park that happens to be rather close to where I sleep. Hiking trails with a beautiful view of the Mississippi river are not far and I’m thinking the snowshoes will get a good work out this winter. Despite the busy schedule an Iowa run was seen almost two weeks ago. A short run arriving earlier in the morning and fishing until 2pm. Beautiful weather with Brown’s actively feeding, most took my #18 Orange Scud. I was a bit disappointed to see two new beaver dams slowing things down on a stream that had none last year. If time permits I may find myself crossing the southern border again before too long. My tying room is coming along, I basically get an entire room to house my madness. Things need to be pulled from boxes but a few evenings and I’ll have the factory up and running again. Look for more from the fly factory soon, I’ve got some off-season tying to catch up on. Thinking dry flies for next season…

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Parked 10am. 1/3 of a mile hike in some fluffy deep snow to get to the water then another mile upstream and the entire distance back out again. A total of close to 4,050 yards according to Google Earth. 40 football fields in 3-4 feet of snow. Reminds me of the crawling through sh*t line in Shawshank Redemption. Along the way we happened upon many sights, a pair of hawks flying above with a screeching mouse in tow for example. The hike in was slow, through some serious snow with nothing more than an animal trail over an old set of truck tracks from months ago to aid us. This would be worth it though. I expected to find warm gin clear trout water and that is in fact what I found. First water temp more than a mile downstream of two major springs held a temp of 46 degrees at ~10:30am.

Midge were already peppering the snow more than twenty feet from the stream when we began fishing. We nymphed, myself a #14 Pink Patrick with a #20 Beadhead Midge Larva. Simple, standard and effective patterns. The sun waited until late in the day to show itself, the photo’s reflect that aspect of the day well. We fished old H.I. work as we travelled to the source of this stream. We each managed a few takes on the way in but  water levels were down considerably through the section we fished. I wonder if the massive amount of instream growth this stream supports in the summer that shrinks in the winter might have something to do with it. The more instream vegetation, the more stuff to fill up the channel, thus making the stream look as if it has more water in it. Anyways just a side thought. We fished to source, hiked half the distance back out and fished up again.

At 1pm as we hiked downstream the midge began doing it, literally in the snow they would link up and the larger of the two would basically tow the other around in the snow. Interesting. We saw thousands of midge through the course of the day, with an initial water temp of 46 degrees and the fact that so many were already crawling around several feet from the stream I have to think a majority had hatched before we arrived, maybe before we woke to start the day. At 1:25pm I saw the first one float towards me. I had to stop for a second and really look to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was, as soon as I was sure I was diving in close to my waist to catch a few WINTER BWO’s? Yep. We watched as a good couple dozen emerged on the run I was fishing, float downstream and take off. Very cool, good day for bugs. Now to find a few trout.

We did eventually find a willing pod of fish that readily took a #20 Miracle Nymph like it was candy but it took nearly the entire day to find it and after swapping fish for an hour we were frozen and ready to head home. Heath had a nicer +16in fish on but as the net came out it spooked and bolted forcing a limp line and an empty net. I managed a few browns as well, typical winter fishing. It isn’t easy and sometimes you’ve got to work pretty hard to see your line tighten up but it makes those days in the spring and summer when it jumps upon a strike that much better. With frozen feet and smiles we hiked the last leg out quickly. It was 4:30pm. Potentially a top 10 day for 2010 and it’s not even March yet.

Notes: So we found Midge had already been hatching before we arrived, and BWO’s hatching as the water temp got up to 47-48 degrees at 1:30pm. The Miracle Nymph worked wonders today while the Pink Patrick did nothing and could have been split shot for all the trout cared, actually I think I’ve had trout more readily strike my splitshot than they did the Pink fly today.  Sometimes this thing can whack fifty trout, others it is a curse and is best left in the box. I learned this lesson today and will not forget it. Especially when the rocks showed about a million tiny nymphs, I was determined to feed them something twice as big and pink. I would have been better served fishing a WD-40 or a PT with the Miracle Nymph trailing. The BWO nymphs that were hatching were a yellow/cream color and were very apparent, I’m surprised and a little disappointed I didn’t take any pictures of them. Finally at the source of the stream we found a dead deer that was something’s dinner, when we hiked to a second spring we found a second carcass that had also been well fed on. I wonder if something large isn’t dragging them down into that valley, interesting… I apologize for the quantity of images but it was a day of things to see. Check the slideshow out on fullscreen.

For the winter season that is. A tip was passed on to me that some great gear could be purchased ridiculously cheap if one was punctual and willing to drive half an hour. The stop in La Crosse to pick up these snow stomping treads worked well with our migration south of the border to catch a few trout. I won’t say exactly how cheap these were but I will say I sprung for a smaller pair for the female of the house, a good winter activity together with the dog. Depending on the conditions these can drastically change a longer hike especially if your trying to get to your favorite winter hole with a bit of daylight to spare. I plan to bust these bad boys out for more than getting stream side in four feet of the white stuff though, it will be fun just to be outside with the dog and the girl.  Warranty against defects, light weight, rugged and meant for the winters around here these kick snowshoe a**. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend Liz and I camped with my sister and her family. We arrived, set up camp and got to it knowing the weather was going to be unpleasant the rest of the weekend. Last summer Liz and I stayed here and had a great time, this campground is great for families. 

We set off for the source of the stream that flows through the campground, this is an access eased stretch of Southeast Minnesota trout water that runs through a cow pasture and ends at the source flowing from a cave in the side of a bluff. I hiked with no rod or reel, just my niece Chloe on my back, my strainer for riffle contents and a thermometer for gauging water temp at the source.

We hiked and saw trout rising to Light Hendrickson mayflies, the section that runs through the cow pasture has habitat improvement along both banks keeping the stream safer from the cattle. The stream has several deep runs holding trout, I’ll admit I wish I had a rod but I was happy to be outside in the sun. I took riffle samples and water temps along the way, at the source the temp was 52 degrees and I would imagine it doesn’t fluctuate much. This is a beautiful place to visit, Chloe had a good time enjoying the hike.

Interesting how the life in the stream diminishes closer to the source, I couldn’t find much on the limestone other than a few caddis fly larva. I did have one of the “Little Black” Caddis land on me standing right at the source but it flew off before I could get a picture. The life in the riffles grew as we went downstream of the source. I plan to fish this yet this summer, but for now I didn’t have time, we decided after 10 hours of rain the next day that it would be best to pack it in early with no end insight to the rain. None of us wanted a sick one year old on our hands, it was a beautiful 1st day though.

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