Fished a creek with Sershen yesterday, we’ve been able to get out a handful of times lately and it’s been good. I’ve advocated creek dueling with a friend before. I dig talking trout, tactics and everything else while fishing with a good friend. Everyone has that person who matches their style well and things just work, simple. Simple is good. Once onstream we hit the creek hard and hiked close to a mile downstream without stopping or checking the creek out much. We moved far from the banks and took in the forest around us. Cooler air temps have created excellent afternoon fishing this August with hoppers hopping and BWO’s popping.

I fished a #8 Yellow Hopper first hoping that the pasture we found ourselves in had seen its share of these creatures and the fish would readily rise for a big meal opportunity. My instincts were right on, shortly after dressing my fly to ride high I was into wild brown trout. We fished a larger creek offering with it the opportunity to spend an afternoon in knee deep water tossing flies, I typically avoid standing in the creek but if done properly one can take quite a few fish from a single run even standing next to your prey. A bruiser took a swipe at my fly as I drifted it through a small piece of pocket water, it came riding by quickly and I think he simply missed the mark. I enjoyed seeing his backside flashing me before he dove for the depths.

We took a handful of trout with Hoppers and Stimulators as we worked the pasture up, splitting runs apart back and forth was common place, we also randomly drifted apart at times to get entire riffle/run/pool sections alone. The depth of the water was pushing me to see what a streamer might produce but the lure of the rise had me and it took a while to put the SMB on. Eventually working through a forested section I switched flies and roll casted my streamer to the opposite bank as we moved upstream. A handful of BWO’s ranging from #18-22 were seen and netted in my hat but few fish were surfacing. Working a deep hole a couple brookies chose to give up a picture with the Sprinkle Me Baby, I love catching brookies and I love seeing it go down even more. I watched as my fly drifted deeper and deeper until a white mouth opened wide and with that a tight line.

We pushed on but the setting sun forced us off the creek and to water closer to home before the day would be done. The first stop gave up a brown and two rainbows in ten minutes while a swarm of mosquitoes took their toll on exposed flesh. These super skeeters cut through shirts, pants and even my buff. Normally bugs don’t bother me but this was the exception. Ten minutes was all I could handle and we were off to the last spot of the evening. On location we peered through the weeds to see a scant few stocker rainbows, my dinner stop. I knew a few were around and with previous experience at this spot I slapped on a #8 Hairball and a single splitshot. A nice roll cast to sink the fly as close to the weed line as possible follwed by a short dead drift into a swing resulted in a handful of rainbows for dinner. Bows take the Hairball all day long. I found a smaller 8inch fish that took my fly as I dapped it on its face to get hooked and off only to get right back in line for another round with the Hairball. I figured this fish would only give it up twice but a decent drift with a twitch at the end put him right back on my Hairball for a third and final time. With dinner in one hand, my rod in the other and the sun setting behind me we took off for home. Brown, Brook and Rainbow, damn Southeast Minnesota has been good to me.

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Each summer Liz does an audit of several stores for the company she works for and I travel along hoping for the opportunity to see some cool sights, to keep an eye on my girl and perhaps if I’m lucky get a chance to touch an out of state trout. This year we hit Virginia and although there is trout water here none of it was very close to the locations we had to travel to. The last day, however, put us close to a tailwater in Tennessee that offers some of the best trout fishing East of the Mississippi. The catch… I only had two hours to get a license, get to the water and find fish. I weighed the pros and cons of the situation and went for it regardless of the time constraints. With my license in hand and geared at the waters edge I waited for the flow from the dam to lower to a wade-able level then hiked a bit downstream. Gin clear water over a hundred feet wide, casting freedom. My first look at the water and I saw rising trout smacking Sulphers here and there. Being a bit stubborn I tried an SMB but got nowhere quickly. Running out of time I put on a stretch of 6x tippet and tied on a #16 Free Range S.H. and got to swinging. Talk about an awesome stretch of water, I watched rainbows swim past as I waded a bit upstream. After a handful of drifts I got my first rise but I lost it when I allowed too much line to foul me up. A bit more effort and I managed to fool one of the pressured Rainbows. These fish see alot of flies and I was glad I sucked it up and put on the 6x and a small fly rather than try to force them to eat my big streamer. The only bummer? About three seconds after I landed the first I got the call…I had to leave. Such are the rules of the audit, when she is done I have to leave. If I get back here again I’ll be spending days on this river. Soon…home to the land of the spring creeks and my dogs. I’ve got a yard to mow and a garden to tend.

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The 1st of January opened catch and release season for stream trout in Minnesota and for me began my 3rd full season fishing the Driftless Area creeks that surround me. Although I did manage a trip to Iowa in the off-season it truly felt like it had been forever since I tied on tippet, flies or made a cast. At ~11:30am we arrived at the spot that you can find myself and a friend of mine every January 1st no matter the conditions. Last year saw a high air-temp of 5 degrees and this year was similar with estimates topping out at 9 above during the height of the day with a fairly strong wind. The proper gear was prepared and we hiked to the spot to get comfortable.

Gin clear water with rising rainbows is what was expected as we peered over the bank, however, the ironic and perhaps fickle Minnesota winter had given us a few days of above average temperatures topping out over 40 degrees at my house just prior to the opener, this prompted the melting of close to a foot or more of snow pack muddying the creek and likely lowering the water temp a bit. We only saw two or three rises all afternoon and only a scant few midges on the surface, with the muddy water and minimal midge activity I opted for a recent winter tie. The #18 Orange Hot Spot Scud, a single fly at the end of my 9ft leader. I fished without an indicator due to the varying depths I wanted to reach without having to play with my line and thus freeze my fingers any more than necessary.

Within the first half an hour each of us had managed a smaller rainbow to the net, with air temps this cold we don’t mess around, a simple photo or two quickly and back in the drink. Fishing no indicator on a slower section of water often means loosing over 50 percent of the strikes and those are just the ones you think you see. The fish were slow, a strike was often just your fly line slowing in the column rather than bouncing or jolting. My advice is set the hook often, when you think your line has done anything to indicate something below lift your rod tip in a quick but not sharp manner. Trout activity increased through ~1:30pm and began to slow after, clouds rolled in and the wind began to pick up a bit as you can tell by the grey winter photos. We nymphed for a while yet picking up a few more as we explored a few other options on this creek. When my #18 OHS Scud failed to produce any strikes out of a deeper pool I made a decision to swap to a #8 Olive Sprinkle Me Baby.

This fly is a favorite of mine and it should be noted that a fat streamer even in the winter should not go over looked. I wait until I’m finished nymphing my winter holes, before I move on I send a streamer through once or twice maybe more if fish react. Sometimes those larger fish just refuse to move on your #18 Scud but when faced with a #2-8 Streamer you might be surprised. A few passes and I rolled a 14in Rainbow only to lose it at the last moment, I tried a few more times and came up with a 12in and another 14in Rainbow for my efforts both came out of the darkness to slam my #8 SMB as it rose to the surface on the swing. With my hands cold and smelling of trout we hit the road for home at ~3pm, fish were seen, lines were taught and another excellent season of fishing opened. I love winter season in the Driftless Area.

p.s. Thanks to Heath for the excellent video below, it contains footage from our outing on January 1st and a bit from the 2nd of which I’ll write about a bit later.

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Saturday was the 8th Annual Pet Fly-Smackdown. This is a tournament between friends just looking for a good reason to spend an entire day fishing for trout. This year was held in S.E. Minnesota again, the group met in a rented house that the out-of-towners arranged for the weekend. Breakfast was made hastily as fly boxes were passed around. The entry fee: contribute a pair of flies to the MVP box, these flies must be exactly the same except the size. The entry fly must contain a material harvested from a pet you own. You are allowed to have a team fish a single entry in which you divide the total score by the number of people on the team. You fish the entry pattern, count each fish brought to hand and record the length. You are not limited to a number of flies for the day just the pattern. Total the length and subtract the number of fish caught and you have your daily total. This year I decided on a newer pattern I’ve been fooling around with, a mini leech type pattern called the Hairball made with fur from my cat Patrick. I tied it in sizes 8, 12, 16, and 18. I’ve been fishing the larger patterns as streamers for a while now, I tied the smaller ones hoping they would nymph well adding versatility.

A fairly significant rain event hit the area a few days prior and most water was recovering well but showed stain with some of the lower reaches on longer systems being down right dirty. I fished along side a friend of mine and the one who invited me to this tournament last year. For me this is a day to work on presentation, perhaps the most important aspect of your fly. Size, shape, color, all matter but without presentation mean nothing. I watched Heath work a #20 tan “larva” looking fly to trout feeding on Trico’s landing a large number of fish in a short amount of time because he took advantage of a situation and presented his flies to the fish in a way they were comfortable accepting in that moment.

We found some very stained, bordering on muddy, creek water early in the morning. I landed my first brown about 10 minutes in after working a #8 Hairball through a single run several times. The water was high and running fast, a large amount of weight was required to get the flies down and the rest was hoping I could get the fly right in front of a few trout. We fished the dirty water for a while but we moved on quickly not wanting to waste the time. We gambled on a plan I had to find a brook trout holding spot, came up empty handed and lost a bit of time but provided adventure for the morning. We decided to look around the same system for a while to see if a bit clearer water could be found which would avoid burning time to the road, downstream and a few springs later we were fishing in cleaner water but still stained making for decent nymphing and streamer conditions.

Around noon the wind picked up a bit and every so often for an hour a semi-thick wave of Trico’s came drifting past.  White wings gave me the impression that these were not spinners, maybe a late batch avoided hatching during the last few warmer weeks and instead waited until cooler weather hit, either way they were causing trout to rise in shallower cleaner sections of the creek. As I mentioned earlier the guy I fished with new better and immediately began presenting his fly to the fish as if he had a #22 Trico on the end of his tippet. My #18 HB took a few trout this way but the bead was keeping my fly a bit deeper in the water resulting in fewer strikes.

We ate lunch and blew off the stained creek for a shot at sight fishing to larger browns, twenty minutes later we were hiking through a mess of 6-8 foot tall vegetation. From the banks a large number of trout could be seen, a bit more stain would have done us well here but we took the opportunity just the same. I made a few overly anxious mistakes tossing my #8 pattern to a few lengthy looking browns, got a few good looks and one attempt but nothing to show for it. I think I was trying too hard to pick up the larger fish, landing the fly about a foot in front of them in slower water wasn’t working. After dissecting the stretch we were on for a while with the larger pattern fished as a streamer resulting in minimal success I opted to swap to the #16 HB and fish it as a nymph under an indicator. Twenty-four inches down with a very slow dead drift and I began picking up trout after trout, the presentation. Meanwhile I can see out of the corner of my eye that my friend is continuing to target the few surface feeding fish, placing the fly right on them and it was working.

We migrated to a last stop to see if catching stocker rainbows in muddy water was possible. This was a gamble, late in the day we had no more time to pick up and move if this didn’t pay off, if it did it meant a larger number of fish to hand in a short amount of time. With the borderline muddy water we both began indicator nymphing but pass after pass came up with nothing, not a single strike. I knew the trout were there, in fact I knew the exact place they should be holding. I dropped the indicator rig with the #16 pattern and instead opted for the #8 Hairball with a splitshot and a down/across presentation. A few passes later I felt a sharp strike, a small brown trout. A few more passes and nothing. I decided to add a second splitshot. I got two more strikes out of maybe a dozen passes. With the down/across approach the current tightens your line allowing you to detect a strike but also pulls your flies up from the bottom. I added a third splitshot, on top of the#8 weighted pattern with a beadhead. A few minutes later I was roll casting this heavy rig to rainbows hunkered on the stream bed. After the first one I knew I had figured it out, it was just a matter of repeating the same roll cast down/across, tighten up the line and let it open all the way downstream, repeat and land rainbow after rainbow. Twelve trout later and the sun was setting. I was beginning to get cold for the first time all day, I was waist deep in cold trout water and had been there for over an hour. Splitting time came and we hit the house to wrap up the day, eat a bit of dinner and see how everyone else did.

Everyone found clean water, most did quite well. We ate delicious pork with pineapple slices and a side of potato casserole while counting and tallying the totals for the day. The last stop with the rainbows helped pad my score out a bit allowing me to basically tie with Heath for second place, not bad considering I had a short lull during the day landing nothing for close to two hours. Randy pulled out the big win landing over fifty trout and the longest trout at 17inches. It sounds like next year the PFSD will be held in Wisconsin, looking forward to a good reason to get over there and fish for a weekend. Thanks to those who worked hard to get everyone together, this was a damn good time.

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It’s been way too long since I had myself a day with the cold water. Conditions: 55-60 Degree Air Temp, Overcast, WNW Wind at ~20mph after 8am. The S.E. MN region has had it’s share of rain this summer season this last week was no different. Three out of five days saw rain in the gauge. I had some concerns about finding clear water but my fears were eased at 6am when I stepped up to the bank at dawn. I could see the rainbows stacked thick just waiting for me. My goal for the day was a two part mission. One, nab a stash of stocker rainbows while the wind was low during the morning hours. Two, migrate to a much smaller system in search of the Heritage strain, our native brook trout and avoid the wind that would get brutal as the day wore on.

The semi-stained water I saw at 6am gave me confidence that my plan was going to make for an excellent day despite the early morning wind and thick clouds. I rigged a new fly I’ve been mulling over in my head for a while now that is essentially a short, fat mini leech. A downstream and across approach with a decent amount of weight to keep the fly a good 3-6inches under the surface produced fish after fish. Hard to argue with 13-14inch rainbows readily taking just about everything presented to them. I fished the new pattern until a series of rises forced me to swap to a Devestator with a #16 WD-40 trailer. A few minutes later and I was working a few more rainbows and a tiny brown to the net, all in all I would say I got close to 2 dozen to hand and another 2 dozen hooked in the two hours I spent here.

I pulled off the water and split for the next phase of the plan but found a road closed sign staring me in the face. A choice, abandon the rest of the plan and make a snap choice on a second option or drive the round about way and loose a good thirty to forty-five minutes to the road. I chose the road and MPR as a result of the wind and my goal of finding my way to brook trout. I drove until a series of events signaled the continuation of the day, turning down a gravel road, passing a steep grade road-sign and hitting the brakes on the truck. The untouched stream is my favorite, no paths and the only sign of humanity is the occasional piece of trash or debris from rain events. The rainbow stop off was good for moral but lacked many elements of the journey that I need. The hike, the woods, wilderness, wildlife, the unknown.

Water conditions here were good, clean and clear running in the low fifties for a temp. I continued with the new mini leech pattern but left off the split shot, casting to smaller shallower water with spookier fish. The second cast I realized that I had left backcast land with the rainbows and turned into roll cast country when I hit the gravel road. On a shorter ~7-8ft leader and fishing no indicator just watching the water I lost the first two fish I came across. I’m watching my fly line connection for a strike or any signal from the trout, a roll, flash, anything. The second fish I lost was maybe a 12-13inch brookie that got off shortly after I hooked it, no big deal. I stayed out of the wind and was very comfortable the rest of my time here. Checked the rocks, minimal mayfly activity but plenty of caddis with the occasional riffle beetle. I fished upstream a ways using a variety of flies. A #16 Pink Squirrel, #16 WD-40, #18 Orange Scud’s all took trout along with the new mini pattern that I fished most of the day with. I got my brookies and got to see a new stretch of Driftless water but due to my detour I had to access this water at a different point than I had originally wanted causing me to run out of water to fish a bit too early, go home? No, a pit stop to see if I could find a few larger browns was in order.

This spot provided deeper water that in the last month had seen a rain event clearing a wide channel through swatches of thick vegetation making the conditions perfect for streamer fishing. I’m learning more and more that choosing wisely to take advantage of the current conditions will make for a better day on the water. My approach here is a cast straight across or slightly upstream with a mend if nessecary to encourage my weighted flies to sink deep then as my line begins to curve and tighten with the current I either: watch for a strike and just tight line it until my line straightens out behind me or add a retrive after I have allowed the flies to sink. The excellent thing here is that I often get to watch a fish come darting out of the depths to nail my flies making for a good show and the best strike detection possible. I managed to land a few nicer browns with one topping 16+. Not a bad way to end a day on the water, good to be in this place again.

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Not in Kansas, Not in Minnesota. Funny how I manage to find my way to trout even when I’m not trying. We happened to be in Washington for the week and although fishing isn’t an option due to our tight schedule a bit of hiking and a great view was in order. The park ranger here said that Lake Tipsoo was last stocked in 1970 with Rainbow and Brook Trout and since then they have been reproducing on their own. Park rules prohibit fishing but it was pretty cool just to see the trout splashing over the mosquitoes and midges that happened to be around. Gotta get to something like this someday with a fly rod, damn I could have hooked into so many fish here.

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My brother called me up again wanting to know if I was interested in taking him out again, I obliged thinking that an interest may be developing here. He drove to Winona the night before and hung out again, even if the fishing stinks it’s still a good reason to hang out with family. The night before saw Winona getting .54 inches of rain which isn’t much but has been known to throw a few systems near by off, picking the location for the day wasn’t going to be easy. In this situation I went with my gut and we drove South. Jake got a bit lucky again, the stream we picked was just stained from the rain making the mistakes and fumbles of a beginning angler less noticeable to the wary trout.

On stream at ~6:30am rigged and ready to go. I set Jake up with a two fly nymph rig consisting of a #14 Black Wet Fly for the lead fly with a #18 Pink Patrick trailer. Knowing that reports of fish eagerly taking terrestrials have been posted I felt it appropriate to tie on the BWF as the summer season and all the activity that comes along with it is here to stay for a while. The night before Jake and I tied leaders and worked on knots a bit which ended up helping throughout the day. Good to teach him how to do it so I can fish a bit while he is learning the ropes the hard way. That’s not to say I didn’t help him but today was a bit less instructional than the first time we went out, although I stayed by his side and watched I offered advice when necessary otherwise I stayed out of the way.

At the first spot we worked on getting the feel for a weighted two fly nymph rig, going over all the potential disasters that come with tossing this set-up especially when you consider the ever-growing jungle around us. Jake was working a smaller run with weeds on the side, the stained water allowed us to get in pretty close for a shorter cast. What he took away from this first spot was the notion of a good long drift. Casting across slower water holding vegetation can pull your line causing your flies to be pulled out of the deeper part of the run, to help extend the drift we worked on mending line. I turn around to grab my coffee mug and Jake is playing his first fish of the day, after about fifteen minutes stream-side. A smaller brown on a #18 Pink Patrick. Well the fear of a skunked day was set-aside, the sun was out and it was going to be an excellent day.

Water temp at 7:51 am was reading warm pushing 58 degrees, I wasn’t expecting it to be that warm before 9am. Between a few knots/tangles, one or two trees and the occasional snag Jake was getting the hang of casting this rig, trying to make sure he opens the forward cast enough to allow the flies, weight and indicator to land on the water correctly. He picked up a few dinkers, a couple of 10-12 inch Brown trout that were taken home for dinner and a Brookie all before 10am. The #14 BWF was taking more fish than the #18 Pink Patrick but enough were taking the pink attractor fly to keep it on and put a second one on after Jake busted it off on a fish setting the hook too sharply, alot of this comes with time and getting used to the feeling of it all.

The morning wore on and Jake was consistently able to pull a few trout out of each spot we stopped at, the stained water and active trout made for excellent day to nymph. A few rises were seen but nothing too exciting. Jake hooked into a larger (14-15in) Brown at the head of a run in the shallows, he had a great time playing the fish around the weeds and right as he got his hand around the fish to land it the fly let loose and the Brown knew it, forced a tail whip and away he went. By this point we were both fishing, I stayed behind offering a bit of advice as I watched but Jake was on his own for a good portion of the morning. I landed a few smaller Brown’s here and there as we went.

We pushed further upstream looking to get to a particular feature I wanted to fish, on arrival we noticed a shallow back water area that held the highest concentration of tadpoles I had ever seen. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of immature frogs. A sign of the water quality, frogs are good. Jake hooked into and lost a second larger trout as a result of just not being used to the rod/reel and entire feeling of hooking and dealing with a running trout. A few throughout the day were lost when excitement took over and the line was pulled to hard or he didn’t give the trout enough room but we couldn’t have been happier. Hooking fish every ten minutes for a beginning fly angler is good progress and practice. On the way out we stopped at a run we fished earlier, to my surprise Jake was able to hook and land six trout out of this one spot and once again as my back was turned he hooked the larger trout of the day. A nice 14in Brown nymphed from the deeper part of the run after he had already landed 5 others, not too shabby. I sat back and watched, again grinning. Photo’s were taken, the trout was released and we left certainty for uncertainty at a second location. The day had already gone well so I wasn’t going to be disappointed if the second spot was a bust. On the way out we were trudging through a mucky half-marsh section and Jake looks at me saying “is that a Turtle?” I turn around and sure enough Jake had seen me accidentally step on the shell of a snapping turtle pushing him down into the mud. Jake picked him up out of the mud to get his picture taken and then to be left alone.

Spot 2 wasn’t a total bust, Jake landed a few smaller rainbows while casting in the sun. We were looking for something easier, open casting lanes and the chance to fill the dinner table with stocked rainbows. There were a few about but all smaller, one as small as six inches? We fished in the sun until it was time to leave for home. A second great day fishing for trout in Southeast Minnesota, with a bit more time Jake will be a fly angler. Helping another learn to fly fish is a good way to test yourself, perhaps make you think a bit more about why you do some of the things you do onstream. All in all we couldn’t have asked for better, yet again. Thanks Jake, glad you had a great time. Again soon…

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How did that happen? Lord, seems like this season is blowing by, not enough time to fish and still take care of responsibilities. Got out for a couple hours before a responsibility that brought me streamside for a meeting. Not a ton of time to fish but enough for a guy to tempt a few, looks like the stocking truck has been here. Rainbows abound, everywhere. Kind of crazy to see it packed the way it was. Saw fish rising on arrival in the mid-afternoon. Didn’t see much in the way of adults to key me to what they were taking and the rises were inconsistent. A few would be splashy almost leaping rises that I would associate with the presence of caddisflies, others read mayfly with the gentle take just barely giving the trout away. I opted to try my luck with a #16 EHC. Landed one, lost two strikes before the trout were on to it and would have no more. Swapped to a #16 P&P and swung it down and across letting it rise as the current pulled my line. This resulted in some excellent fun with the fat stocker rainbows and a few went home for dinner.

Cleaning the first of three nice rainbows I noticed something bright red and spotted in the stomach contents. The shell of a lady bug, mostly digested but just enough remained to provide photographic proof that the trout here eat Lady Bugs and probably more likely the Asian Beetle. After seeing the one in the stomach I decided to look a bit at the plants around the spot I caught the fish, sure enough I found several just waiting to be blown to the trout dinner table. I moved upstream, fished the P&P as I went and it just reinforced why I love this fly. Cast it upstream and present it like a dead drifted nymph and it will take fish, do a down and across and it will take fish and the new method that happens to be very handy…. remove all weight from your line and fish it like a dry. Fishing longer slower sections I picked the trout rising the most consistently, put my fly just upstream of the target and without much hesitation it was picked off time and time again. My obligation pulled me from the stream as Lt. Hendrickson’s were hatching, pretty late in the day and they were VERY bright lending me to think the hatch I saw was Ephemerella dorothea otherwise known as out “Sulpher” hatch. I got a few craptastic photo’s before I had to go but I’ll take what I get, when I can get it. As I finished my meeting we noticed the spinner fall bring trout to rise in a steady rythem. I wish I could get more later evenings on the water.

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