Feb 12-13: Heat Wave

Finally some warmer weather!  Highs in the 30s both Saturday and Sunday made for ice-free rod guides and enjoyable fishing.  The previous weekend I talked to a fellow fly fisherman on a different stream who was just getting into fly-fishing.  I gave him a call Friday night to see if he was interested in hitting the streams together on Saturday.  He was all for it. 

                                Here's Henry hooked into his first fish on a fly rod. 

 

Colorful Brown Trout successfully brought to hand.

 

Now it was my turn.  I'm not used to having somebody there to snap photos that I'm actually in.  I guess it's time to start paying attention to my form.  

 

Little Brownie in no time.  When fishing, the camera subtracts ten pounds (from the fish).

 

After a good morning of fishing, we decided it was time to head into Rochester to get some food, beers, and watch some rugby.  We ended up staying downtown until around midnight.  I'd never been to Rochester before, so it was fun to see something new.  Henry let me crash at his studio.  I put my air mattress down on the kitchen floor and climbed into my sleeping bag.  It sure beat the snow cave.  7 a.m came pretty early, but I was excited to get out again.   Henry had other plans for Sunday, so I was flying solo again. 

Sorry to say Henry, but it was a bad day to sleep in.

 

The fish were feeding in the deep holes right when I arrived around 7:30 a.m.  I picked up 6 or 7 in just over an hour.

 

  As the bite began to slow in the first hole I was fishing, I began moving my indicator further up the leader.  Working the depths of the deep blue hole, I watched my indicator pause for just a second.  I pulled up on the rod and immediately felt strong resistance. This fish didn't come rushing right up to the surface, and the head-shakes where slower and more powerful.   I mentally reminded myself not to horse this one.  He stayed low and tried to stay in the strong current.  I quickly crossed the river, stomping towards some slack water where I hoped to have a better shot at landing the fish.  The water was extremely clear, and I caught a glimpse of the fish while it was still probably 6 feet down.  It looked to me to have a legitimate shot at being a 20 inch brown.  The fight seemed to drag on, and I was constantly afraid I was going to lose this fish.  However, once I pulled his head into the slack water, he came to me quite quickly.  In one fluid motion I pulled the fish towards me, then right up onto an ice shelf.  It wasn't until he was on the ice that I saw this ugly face.  

After a little research, I've concluded that this is my Personal Best Silver Redhorse!  Redhorse Identification.  Imagine my elation!  

Time to head upstream.  The rising temperatures had triggered midge and small stone fly activity.  Risers could be spotted in smaller looking runs.  The fish appeared to be dispersing throughout the stream instead of hunkered down in the deep holes.

Any entomologists out there care to enlighten me?

I was able to pull fish out of a variety of water types and on various flies.  I caught one on an olive wooly-bugger under an indicator.   Another came on a black stone fly nymph imitation.  Most were still caught on midge larvae and emergers.

I went on to have a little fun with the underwater setting on my camera.  This next picture gives you the "Trout's Eye View".

I could have fished all day, as the fish were biting and the weather was great.  But I had a long drive ahead of me, and not much could have made the day better than it already was.

Rudolph's First Day of School

This video montage is just some stuff from this Fall that I never got around to posting.  The first series of events is a group of deer I spotted around noon after leaving my treestand and truckin' for home.  There were at least 4 bucks in the group.  One dink, two average bucks, and one big-bodied king-of-the-hill with super tall brow tines.  The way they were acting I knew there had to be a hot doe around, but I never did see her.  I decided to try to go around them and slip down into the draw to try a stalk.  I managed to get into the dry creek bottom undetected, which I thought would be the biggest challenge.  It went downhill from there though, as I could no longer see where the deer were.  I ended up first bumping the dink out at about 15 yards.  After things calmed down I worked further up the creek bed and saw one of the average bucks coming towards me.  There is a short clip of him in the video, but I put the camera down when I knew he would be coming into range.  I thought maybe the big guy would be following him, and I wanted to be ready to shoot not film.  He came up to about 25 yards before realizing I was standing there.  He freaked out, blew at me, and took off.  I looked up out of the creek bed to see that all the deer followed him, including the one I was after. 

The next buck in the video was filmed from my Northeast treestand.  He was coming straight towards me along the same trail they usually follow.  Once he dipped down to cross the creek I took the camera off him and positioned it in the shooting lane I expected him to cross.  He hadn't read the script and decided to take a different route, passing about 35 yards North of me.

The end of the video is my favorite.  The footage is pretty blurry due to the fact that my camera is at full digital zoom at close to 1000 yards away.  It's the most intense buck fight I've witnessed, but the bucks are both dinks!

New Weekend, New Stream

  Another weekend of winter fly fishing is in the books.  With a promising weather forecast, I set out to try another one of Southeast Minnesota's winter trout streams.

Overcast weather and a balmy 22 degrees!

                                                                          Great looking water full of eager, but small, brown trout.                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

 Took a hike in the snowshoes up a tributary known to hold Brook Trout. I did see some Brookies, but not until after they saw me.              

I took it pretty easy on Saturday, just enjoyed being out there.  I probably caught close to 10 trout, but none significant enough to bring the camera out of the pocket.  Decided to stay the night in this cozy little downtown motel.

Room with a view!! Where economy meets necessity!

Sunday morning I popped out of bed, picked up a cup of coffee, and made the short drive back to where I'd spent the day before.  The fishing was quite a bit more challenging, but I was able to get this guy to eat.  Felt obligated to get a picture of the only fish of the morning.  

Stopped fishing around mid-morning Sunday and collected a few bugs.   Saw the Green Giant on the way home. 

               

Slideshow Archives

I decided to go through my pictures on my laptop and back them up online.  I posted the thumbnail links to the different albums on the right-hand side of the blog.  If you click on the album, it takes you to the slideshow on the source page.  I like to then click the "full-screen" tab to view the slideshows.  I'll be adding albums as I get time.

Winter Camping Trip

Headed East again this weekend to do a little fishin'.  The weather forecast called for cold temps, but little chance of snow.  This time I brought along my camping gear.  2 1/2 hours is too far to go for a day trip!

This spot looks just about right.

 As much work as it took to hollow out, it sure better be comfortable!

I think I need a welcome mat. 






















Living room with a skylight!

I think this is a type of Redhorse....a member of the sucker family?

Another small brown trout from the same hole I caught them in last week.  I also hooked a rainbow there today, but it popped off as I was trying to grab it.

  






In front of Big Springs, headwaters of Canfield Creek.

First Fish of 2011

  Today I took a little drive East into the Driftless Region of Southeast Minnesota.  Apparently, the area has numerous spring-fed creeks that keep the ice off year-round.   Oh, and they are full of trout.  Naturally reproducing populations residing in some areas, stockers in others.  I had my suspicions going on a fly fishing trip to an area termed "Driftless", so a little help from Wikipedia enlightened me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftless_Area

I settled on Canfield Creek in Western Fillmore County for my first trip.  It is a catch-and-release only stream, and only allows artificial lures.  I hoped this would give me a better shot at hooking up with a nicer sized fish.  Also, it was closer to home and further from the Twin Cities....a better shot at solitude?

As I had hoped, the angler access parking lot was empty and there were no human tracks going to the stream.  Without a map, this made finding the stream a bit of a crap shoot.  I decided to try downhill first. 
After about a quarter mile hike in the new snowshoes, I found the water.  The stream was actually quite a bit larger than I had expected, and the water looked perfect....gin clear and an ideal flow for the fly rod. 





I sat down on the snow bank and rigged up.  With 8 degree weather in early January, I didn't expect much bug activity.  Consequently, I started off with a #16 gray Flashback Scud trailed by a #20 Zebra Midge.  Initially, I set a white foam indicator about 6 feet up, but removed it after thoroughly working the hole.  Shortly after taking off the indicator I hooked into this whale, then another of similar size on the following cast.   It ocurred to me that this is the first time my "first fish of the year" has been a Brown Trout, so that's cool.  After fishing out the hole I walked up on a high bank directly over the deepest part of the hole.  There was a big slow eddy there that looked to be the best spot in sight.  Sure enough, when I looked down over the bank I spooked a nice fish.  As my eyes focused in on that fish, more and more fish silhouettes started becoming visible.  There was a big school of maybe 30 fish in that hole, with 4 or 5 of them looking to be in the 18 inch range.   I knew they had me spotted, but I couldn't resist dropping the flies in on them.  As expected they slowly eased back into the bottom of the hole.  I decided it was time to head upstream.  I would hit this hole again on my way back, with a better idea of how the fish would be holding.

Walking along a deer trail about a hundred feet above the stream, I couldn't help but think how great it was that there were still no other human tracks to be seen!  Judging by some of the older looking deer tracks, there hadn't been enough fresh snow to recently cover anything up either. 

I walked upon this great looking run with fairly deep slack water off the main current.  I fished it outside-in without any luck.  By now the shadows were getting longer.  I decided it was time to head back to the first hole (I decided to name "Trout in a Barrel") and see if the fish had settled down yet. 

I guess the fish have better memory than I gave them credit for.   I put a few perfect drifts right down the seam they were facing earlier and nada. 

I took a little detour downriver to do some scouting for next time before I cut back up towards where I hoped the car was.   I walked right to it, but for awhile there my confidence wasn't as high as I'd hoped.  Maybe I'll take a map and compass next time....and GPS. 

Puttin' the miles on the snowshoes is quite a workout.  I'm glad I planned ahead and brought along this guy.  A beer always tastes better after a day like today.  Can't wait to go explore a different stream soon!

Boatload o' Mallards

  Dec. 30, 2010

  

I was back in Manhattan for a few days around New Year's, so I decided to spend a morning duck hunting with a few local experts. 

  They had been scouting and found a bunch of ducks tucked back in a cove on the main lake at Tuttle Creek.  It was pretty windy as we took the boat across the cove in the morning darkness, but we eventually had the spread set out and got to quackin' at some ducks.  

  
The action was steady all morning, with lots of ducks in the area.  Any ducks that played the wind right when approaching our decoys ended up dropping right in.  Here's a shot of Bayes taking a quack at one.  

 


We took our time getting our four-man limit.  There were enough ducks coming in we could basically take turns shooting.  

Left to Right:
T. Shilling, Marty, Danger Bayes

    Had to get one with me in there.  It was my first and last duck hunt of the year.  Finally I brought the luck.

Bayes looking not so dangerous in his "hunter orange" life preserver.   He and Travis, being co-captains, argued over who should drive the first load of gear across the cove.   The wind had picked up considerably by late morning, and we were stuck on the wrong side of the lake. 

They set out from the calm water, but decided to hug the shoreline all the way around the big cove instead of trying to cut straight across.  Marty and I waited and watched.  Eventually we saw them come back into sight, heading straight up wind along the opposite shore.  It didn't look fun, and they said they had the boat completely out of the water at one point.  Marty and I were content to walk back around after neither one of them were too excited to come pick us up.