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

I had the day off, the girl did not. Only one thing to do during trout season with time like this. Fish, hike, fish, hike, then fish some more and be thankful for the time in front of you. Plans were loosely organized and a friend of mine and I met to see a new stretch of winter water. I arrived a few hours earlier, with air temps predicted to be close to 20 degrees by 10am I saw no reason to sit at home waiting for it to get warm enough to fish, it was already plenty warm outside by the time I finished my second cup of coffee.

I arrived on-stream around 10:15am, rigged my rod and hiked just over a third of a mile through a few feet of snow to get streamside. After looking for and observing no signs of any rising trout or midge in the snow I opted for the same fly that has seen, touched and brought to hand a trout from every trip so far this year the #8 Olive Sprinkle Me Baby. I started by dead drifting it through a deep run hoping that something near the bottom would stir but nothing. I moved upstream and spied a riffle that was no more than 8inches deep. Ignoring all the winter trout fishing rules I blindly swung my streamer through the head of the riffle and right as I was about to pick my line up to continue on I saw a swell in the shallow water and sure enough a 14inch Brown was chasing my streamer through water so shallow I could see the tail sticking through the surface of the stream. He bit and we danced until he came to my feet. I took note of the location of this fish, the head of a shallow riffle. The air temp was approaching ~25degrees when I let this fish go. I could see midge crawling in the snow now but still no rising trout.

I moved upstream to a deeper run again, slapped a trailing #16 Orange Hot Spot Scud on and began dead drifting. A while later I had little to show for my efforts. I made a poor roll cast and planted my flies in a tree across the stream. I sat looking at my dangling #8 SMB thinking I was prepared to get wet to retrieve that fly, it has caught so many this year already I wasn’t ready to part with it. Accepting that getting wet would ruin the rest of my day I sucked it up and pulled my line tight enough to brake it. I expected a limp line, I got the # 8 SMB back. It turns out only the trailing fly was snagged in the tree, super sweet, it will live to see another trout. I slapped an indicator on my line and proceeded to land a few more smaller 10-12inch browns dead drifting the streamer pattern through a shallower (<3ft) run.

I hiked the third of a mile back and met my friend just after noon. We made a short drive to a second stretch of water and a new access. After greetings and a bit of gearing up we began another third of a mile hike through the deep Minnesota snow. We fished under grey cloudy skies with no wind for the next couple of hours. Midge were peppering the snow as we walked, I counted them as we hiked and observed them crawling over fifty feet from the waters edge. Still no rising trout, damn I want to see a steadily rising trout.

We each caught a few here and there but we don’t get to fish togather all that often so a fair amount of the afternoon was spent conversing, taking turns casting to fishy lies and enjoying the woods around us in a slow, the world will still be there when the sun goes down soft of way. We kicked up a couple of fat turkeys on our way and I remember feeling hungry as they took to the skies. We hiked upstream until we spied a notable landmark, fished just a bit more then decided to turn and head back to fish the first run we saw earlier in the day before splitting for home. After hiking just over a mile (according to Google Earth) in the snow we were plenty warm, so warm infact we both ended up complaining about it to some degree, probably not a bad thing during the winter season though, with that we parted ways. It’s been a good start to the trout fishing season but today made me think, this is just the beginning. Thanks again Wendy, good time as always. Think of the season to come…again, just the beginning.

Slide Show

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.