Woke at 3:45am on an air mattress with a dog snout in my face. Liz and I stayed at her parents house after a late evening dinner so I could be closer to optimum Trico water. I woke and readied my gear and mental state while Liz lay sleeping until 4:15am when I abruptly woke her with the line “Time to go, Trico’s wait for no one.” She dropped me of at Wendy B’s house at 4:35am then drove home to fall back asleep. Wendy B. and I left promptly for Trico rich trout water. Onstream at ~5:35am we rigged rods as the sun came up around us while drinking coffee and swapping stories. Once geared we assessed the creek and with no Trico’s about we headed downstream through head high grass wet with the morning dew. We hiked until it seemed we had put enough distance between us and the vehicle to make for a full morning. With the only visible bugs around being borderline microscopic and the fact that the Trico’s hadn’t made an appearance yet I rigged a #8 Olive SMB, third cast next to a small rock outcropping pulled a 10inch brown from the stream. Landing the fish I saw the first clear rise for a Trico. I took a water temp of ~62°F at 7:07am after the first rises were observed. Very few if any spinners were visible in the air, over the course of the next hour I tossed the SMB and a #8 Hairball with minimal success.

At ~8am the cloud began to form, this event is one to witness as photographs and video do the human eye no justice. Fish were surfacing in a regular rhythm but not at the boiling rate I was expecting to see. Wendy B. and I split up to fish runs with rising fish on them, shortly after I got my first of a handful on a #20 Trico Spinner I had tied last year for mornings just like this. From 8:30am until 10am fish were seen rising but getting a strike required precision and stealth, unlike the previous time I had witnessed this event the fish were skittish and would spook easily despite the bounty lying in the surface film. I could see them float past and yet the fish remained hesitant to take an imitation. I scooped a couple up for comparison and though my tails were a bit long and the body color Black rather than a Charcoal I thought my imitations were in the ball park. We moved further upstream after the cloud grew ever larger only to find another fella enjoying the spot we had planned to fish, the consequence was excellent. Forced to move on rather than disturb the other angler we fished upstream and saw water new to both of us. Trico’s were dying off in the upstream reaches but the handful of fish we found rising seemed much more receptive to our offerings, a creel was being filled in short order.

Somewhere around 10:30am the Trico’s all but disappeared, the only signs they were here were stuck in spiderwebs along the creek bank. A truly awe inspiring event to see a Trico spinner-fall. If you haven’t, I suggest setting the alarm clock and making this morning appointment, it’s worth it. With dry flies out and two fly nymph rigs in play Wendy proceeded to school me landing 5:1 easy on me, something was off and a particular tasty run gave up many fish to my friend but refused to let me land much more than a single 6inch brown despite my best efforts. The worst came when a dogger was hooked on my lead fly (#8 Hairball) only to escape when the 6inch fish mentioned above swooped in to tag the trailer (#16 Black PT), somewhere in the ensuing fight tension was released and the dogger swam away unscathed and un-photographed leaving me holding the 6inch fish. The consolation was that we both got to see the whole thing go down which more than made up for the lack of big brown stink on my hands. With the morning fading, the sun and temperature rising combined with creek chubs becoming ever more aggressive we called it a day and a good one at that. Thanks for the Trico trip Wendy, a good time as expected. This must become a yearly event, it is for the bugs and fish anyway, mid as well join in.

Slide Show

Goals for the day:

• Find Trico’s Hatching
• Catch fish on Trico Pattern
• Enjoy another day on a S.E. Minnesota Trout Stream
• Work Hoppers Later in the Day

With the goals laid out before me I set out at 5am. Getting to the spot I wanted to fish was going to require a longer drive than normal but this provided the opportunity to find some rising fish, fish new water and see a stretch of water that I rarely get to visit. I met Joel, who became my Brother-in-Law this past Sunday at 5:30am. This outing was his last as a single man and it felt good to get him out. Read the rest of this entry »

Started the day early, waking to coffee during the pre-dawn hours preparing to take on the day and hopefully a few trout on dry flies. As it were it was not to be this day. Think of three points A. The house, B. The Spot for the Day and C. Trico Possibility. C was smack between A and B so I pulled over and watched the water for ten minutes drinking my coffee. I spied enough rising fish to make me think it was worth the effort, 6ft tall weeds soaking in morning dew made for a very wet fly factory. I knew the difficulty based on the stretch of water, slow, very slow. No virtually still, especially in the early hours of dawn. I rigged a long leader and a bit of 7x tippet for my trico attempt and then waited for the sipping to begin, it never really did. I put the fly on several risers and struck out every time, my casts were alright but I’m sure I could have landed the fly a bit gentler a few times. After close to an hour I picked up and left for point B. Read the rest of this entry »

Fished early this morning attempting to find Trico’s hatching. Water temp was 56 degrees upon arrival and the stream was tea colored making for good conditions but no real hatch to speak of. I saw a rising trout and put a Trico pattern on it for a strike but a miss on the hook set. I was hoping for more from the trico’s but no luck so I swapped for a nymph rig. Caddis and Sparkle Larva on my line makes for a deadly fly factory.

I left the camera battery at home which may have been a blessing in surprise as the rain began at alittle before 9am and did not let up, I can see myself getting it soaked. I fished with my soon to be brother-in-law this morning who has only fly fished for trout once before. He did well and I only had to tie a few knots, for the most part Joel was on his own. The rain let up and the sparkle larvae out fished the caddis larva five to one. I took seven trout from a single run of twenty feet, that was sweet. I’m catching fish after fish and I look over and Joel has a fish on, and what a fish! He took the size prize landing a 15in brown for his second trout for the day. We left at noon walking out in the mud and rain, I loved it. The streams need the water, so does my garden. At home I checked the rain gauge at 6am when I left the house, nothing. By 2pm we’ve had more than a half an inch of rain which is more precipitation than we’ve had since I started taking daily measurements on July 1st. I will have to swing by my CSMP site tomorrow.

While out of town recently I visited a few fly shops in West Virgina and Pennsylvania, unfortunately my time was limited and I was unable to fish except for the last day, to my disappointment it rained pretty solid the three days prior causing the stream I planned to fish to become un-fishable. Every fly shop I visited had very nice staff and in particular a man by the name of Larry took the time to show me how he ties his Trico spinner.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the 17th we hit the spot, midge were emerging and the trout we found were in consistent feeding patterns. We decided to go back and pull another fish or two from the depths. My main reason/goal was to use what I witnessed the day before to test my abilities. We picked up James and hit the stream, I have to admit I had alot of fun fishing with two other like minded anglers. At one point the three of us were all casting to fish within a fourty foot section of stream and all catching fish.

I fished my PT nymph with a Black Midge Larvae trailer again and due to the midge activity it worked out rather well. I left the split shot off again noticing that the fish were striking close to or on the surface. I made two casts and pulled a nice rainbow from the stream, I managed to do this before James could even get to the stream. Heath snapped a good photo and we let the fish calm for a few minutes. I returned with the same approach only this time I was deliberatly casting to one fish, the big one in the pool. I managed to make several decent attempts presenting my fly and with a bit of patience watching both the fish, and my line at the point where it entered the water I set the hook on a larger trout. The colors were excellent and I was very excited, this was a bigger fish for sure. Unfortunatly I learned the hard way to relax and give the fish some space, after pushing the fish perhaps too hard he broke my midge off and gave me the fin. Oh well, learn from your mistakes.

The goal for Heath was to get a shot of a fish caught on a dry fly. James promptly stepped up to the challenge, he fished a size #20 Hi-Vis Trico pattern and after a bit was getting strikes. He caught a smaller one and Heath caught one so we let the fish relax again, pleased we hadn’t put the fish down. I kept seeing a rising fish hit the same spot over and over again every minute or so, I put James on it. A few moments later we heard a big splash and sure enough James had a fish on that #20 Trico and it would turn out to be the same fish that took my midge which was awesome because we got to see it out of the water, what a beautiful fish. With that we sent it swimming and decided to find a new stream to explore.

This first stream was a test to examine the fish and their behavior and modify my presentation to maximize my time on the water and it worked, this is trout hunting. I did pull one more small one from the stream before we left to new water. We hit bigger water and chucked streamers, I’m not the best at this and didn’t catch any fish but I got to see new water which I will return to another day. All in all I had a blast fishing with good company. I got to ask quite a few questions and received great advice and opinions, sometimes it great to fish with others.