I love tossing them. I love the rise. I’ve been caught in the “I want a fish and I’ll just stick to my streamers or nymphs” rut to make sure I get my fix in and as such I’ve been trying to force myself to fish dry flies a bit more when there isn’t a hatch occurring to guide me to them. Tossing a #14 CDC and Elk (Olive Body/Grey Wing) I crushed close to twenty tiny browns from a single run. I took my time and worked the run slowly and managed to keep the fish rising for my fly without disturbing them as I kept pulling their friends out on after the other. The low flows, humid weather, tall weeds, standing in the creek…all made things difficult but the rise for a dry fly made it worthwhile. P.S. 1pm in July is not the best time to fish, with that said I take it when I can get it even if it’s 90 degrees and humid.

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A while back I was asked to submit any photos I had fitting the description of an angler with a “tight line” to the DNR Area Fisheries Office for a potential cover to the 2011 Trout Angling Opportunities Brochure for Southern and Central Minnesota. I thought about it for a bit and looked through a few options but nothing was jumping out at me, then it hit me. I can recall the April day clearly, we arrived earlier and happened upon an excellent caddis hatch that provided many “tight lines” and with it the opportunity for some good photos of which many were taken. I have to thank Wendy B. for a memorable day catching so many fish that I was able to get several of these shots easily. These brochures will be finding their way to places anglers frequent soon, this years edition contains new and updated easements on quite a few area streams as well as central state maps that were previously not included with the southern maps. Thanks also to the staff at the Lanesboro Area Fisheries office for considering and ultimately choosing to use this photo to represent trout angling in S.E. Minnesota, for me this is very cool. These books belong in your vehicle and should be a reference to ensure anglers are confident of the easement locations and regulations for various area streams. The DNR does a great job laying the streams and regulation information out in an easy to understand way for anglers of all ages. Now, time to find a new place to fish. There are so many of them…get out there.

The close of trout season in Minnesota is nearing, the leaves are changing colors and beginning to foul up your drift. It’s a good time of the year to hook into trout down here and as usual I’m trying to get near cold water as often as I can. Managed to sneak away between obligations just before the massive rain event that blew most streams out a few days ago. The air temp was in the low 70′s and rain the night before added a bit more stain to already off water. My plan was to swing streamers.

Net in hand, I began with a #8 Hairball. I love this thing. Had a few follows but after 15 minutes I hadn’t hooked in to anything. I gave it a few more passes through a very deep trouty looking run with and on the lift of my rod I managed a twelve inch brown looking rather rotund. I stuck with the Hairball for a bit longer but after a few more non-committing trout I stuck it back in the box. At this point I distinctly recall about a dozen violent rises just upstream, one within 7-8 feet of where I stood. I ignored them thinking I had no visual clue what they were taking and the water was so stained I didn’t think a smaller caddis or general dry fly would be spotted. I swapped to the SMB and kept swinging ignoring the rising upstream.

I managed a couple smaller trout on the SMB but not what I was expecting it was slow going with lighter takes. I landed another couple of browns and a brookie by the time I decided to listen to the trout. I added an 18 inch section of 5x tippet to my leader and tied on a #16 Tan EHC, old faithful. I’ve heard stories of guys who fish only this pattern all year round and do quite well on it. I sometimes have a hard time trusting that the presentation and presence of one fly will attract the response I want. I greased up my fly and my leader and cast upstream through a tight deep run. I could barley see a foot under the surface.

A few passes later and in the blink of an eye a trout snatched my fly, sweet. I managed a nicer rainbow and a few brown trout working the EHC pattern through the murky water. I greased it up a few times and landed a few with a down and across swing over a riffle, I am thinking this is the act of “skittering” a caddis dry fly. After landing four fish the water calmed and nothing rose for a good long while. I decided to swap back to the Hairball and tempt fate: an ugly looking log jam that was likely to result in a lost fly. I let the line slack and the fly sink deep into the cut then stripped it back out quickly which prompted a very nice looking brown to show up. We danced and I sent him on his way back to that deep dark looking hole. I split shortly there after managing about 3 hours on the water. I guess the moral of this story would be to trust and listen to the trout and yourself. Next time when the trout are telling me they want something on the surface I will be taking note.

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Hit a stretch of the cold clear stuff last Friday morning, had a bit of time to kill and with the rapidly rising daytime air temps getting out while it is still cool makes for a much more enjoyable time on the water. I arrived at just after 7am and fished until about 9:45am, fished only a #8 SMB on a shorter leader trying to tempt anything willing to bite. The point of this morning was not to fish hard, no, more of a different kind of coffee to start my day. The smell of wet morning woods as I go hiking through the mud. I kicked up three Blue Herons, one was so close to me I jumped quite a ways.

Third cast and I was hooking into one of a few fish for the morning. The trout are becoming more active and willing to strike or think about striking a streamer than they were a month ago. Each pass on a new spot with the streamer induced several strikes but by the fourth pass if you hadn’t stuck the hook you were done. I lost a fair share of them but what I’m taking away from this one is that with the warmer weather the trout are becoming much more active and willing to smack anything that looks like it might be food. Take note of the water temp by 9:30am, 54 degrees, it reminds me to think early when it comes to the Light Hendrickson hatch that is either here or on it’s way soon. If it’s 9:30am and already pushing 54 degrees then it won’t be much later before it’s 58 degrees and those bugs are hatching. I ho-hummed it upstream and landed a few smaller trout and a couple of decent ones, enjoyed the rainy morning weather in comfort as I fished back up to the truck before taking off for work. The summer feels like it is here to stay.

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Notes of Interest:

• Adult Winter Stones and Midge on Arrival (~11am)
• BWO’s at ~12:30-1pm as the Water Temp Rose to 49 Degrees
• Despite Higher Water Temps Minimal Rising Trout
• Saw Four Deer When I Usually See None
• Found 3 Deer Carcasses, One Way Too Fresh To Show Here
• Attempted Bug Photo’s with Reference Tape in mm, worth the effort, will continue this practice.
• Flies that worked: #20 Zebra Midge and a #18 Pheasant Tail Nymph
• New Water Today With a Nice Trail, Google Earth Estimates 2.4 Miles Travelled One Way

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edit: JP at Roughfisher.com made me realize that the proper picture for this day belongs with the White Sucker that snagged my Marabou Leech, thanks JP.

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To take a trout with one of these. I picture it going down something like this… After a good long day of fishing the Driftless Area during spring/summer I will migrate towards home, along the way I will make a mental note of any and all areas I know to hold larger trout. I’ll pull up right as the sun is setting behind the bluffs, rig up and head to the spot. I’ll get there earlier than needed but that’s the kind of guy I am. I’ll scope the situation out, put myself in the right spot and wait until the light fades.  When the time is right I’ll plop one of these guys near the head of a pool, throw in a big upstream mend to counter the pull of the strong current. I’ll let it drift a bit maybe half way through the pool, then I’ll twitch one of these furry beasts to my feet hoping for the opportunity to take a Driftless Area trout on a mouse. This should pose a decent challenge, I’m sure I’ll let you know how it goes but first it’s got to warm up a bit around here.

These last few days have seen me grasping at every moment to be near fishy water. The aggressive fish that begin to show spawning habits and the beautiful colors bring me to the water daily until the end. I stopped off at a spot I visit every so often for a short romp with the trout. I was looking mainly to get into something larger and not necessarily many fish. This spot just a month ago was so choked with weeds that it made getting your fly to the fish rather difficult, now as the cool nights make everything stay colder the weeds have receded leaving plenty of room to sink the SMB. Read the rest of this entry »

I agreed to watch my neice Chloe yesterday and with the nice weather I decided that we needed to get out of the house for an hour or two. Being realistic with my expectaions I picked a place that was easy to traverse, close to a public restroom and a park so we could play around for a bit should she decide that staying in the pack was not what she wanted to do. We arrived and I rigged my rod with a Caddis larva and a Pink Patrick prior to getting the little one out of the car seat and into the pack. I was smart to think that once in the pack she would not want to sit still so I prepared everything I needed prior to getting her out of the car. In the pack we quickly set off, I brought the rod but really didn’t think I would be fishing that much. Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow I will be seeing for the first time what a section of stream that I drive by on occasion holds between its banks, this is private land and I’ve been thinking about calling this guy for a while now. I finally did and the landowner on the other end was more than willing to allow me access to his property and the stream, he gave me a place to park and granted access from two points on his property. I asked for his name and if he would be around tomorrow so I could introduce myself and meet him in person.

I stopped by the bridge just upstream of the water I was granted access to and took a water temp and samples from the riffle to give me an idea of what I might find tomorrow. First thing I noticed was a lack of any Mayfly nymphs other than Ephemerella Rotunda/Invaria, I might find some hatching Light Hendricksons tomorrow. I caught my first Caddisfly pupa today, looked exactly like some of the pictures I’ve seen, pretty interesting, other than that the riffle contents were to be expected mostly free-living caddis larva, scuds, and the Ephemerella nymphs. The water temp was kind of interesting, only 54 degrees at noon over my lunch, on most other streams the temp would be in the higher 50′s. It might take this stream longer to warm, might find bugs hatching a little later tomorrow than I’ve been seeing.

I need to continue to work on these situations, there is plenty of water even closer to my doorstep to fish if I can continue to build relationships with landowners. I have two other streams that I have been granted access by landowners but I have yet to fish in those locations, tomorrow will be the 1st private section of Southeast Minnesota trout streams I’ve fished. Wish me luck, if it is as good as I’m hoping it might be I will have a wonderful new place to visit close to home and if it turns out to be a bust then at least I won’t wonder about it every time I drive by.