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MN Winter Trout Season


WxGuy

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Since it was so nice this past Saturday and snowmelt hadn't yet a chance to muddy up our streams, I absolutely had to go fishing. smile.gif

Water temperature at 11am was 46 degrees and dropped a couple degrees by 2pm, but the bite was good. No big browns, but some piggy holdover rainbows from last year's stocking were caught. Between my buddy and I we caught quite a few fish, got a nice sunburn, and almost ran over a few wild turkeys on the drive to and from the stream.

All fish were caught on size 14 orange scuds, size 18-20 Pheasant Tails, and size 20 zebra midges and/or midge larva. The water was slightly stained and the bite was best from Noon to 1pm.

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Randy, you dirty dog. You sure know how to make a guy jealous! wink.gif

Looks like you had a good time on the water. Soon enough it will be my turn.

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Nice photos, Randy. I took the cap off the WI season on Sunday. I fished just hours ahead of the big flush that's going on now. In a couple of hours of fishing slightly stained water, I hooked four smallish browns and landed one. The little guy did have a lot of energy. I fished a size 14 Pink Squirrel, kind of a punked out, glammed up pink scud in this case. It did feel great to get out and try to get my wading legs back under me. I also fished with a brand new fly line, a real pleasure. It just flew through the guides compared to the used up line I had been using at the end of last year.

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What are the rivers looking like today? Are they coming down? I know the root is coming down since the warm up, but what about the smaller creeks. Do they look fishable this weekend?

thanks,

Jay

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Fished locally today for about 4 hours.... not too shabby. Still pretty colored but visibility was probably up to about 8-12 inches. Brought out both the fly rod (I'm a newbie) and the spinner rod. I've been out about 3 times for a total of maybe 8 hours with the fly rod before today.... lo and behold, I finally caught my first fish on that rod... about a 5 inch brown... smile.gif LOL!! still I'm glad to no longer be a virgin. Got him on a size 14 orange scud... more luck than anything as I have little to no idea what I'm doing. The last couple of times out though I've spent more time fishing flies in the water than in the woods. So that is definitely an improvement.

Brought the spinner rod along thinking that the spinners might be better seen in muck... caught 4 between 8-11 inches. So that paid off. In regards to fishability of the streams... I think there was a little more snow and runoff south of here, but still should be in ok to decent shape tomorrow and Sunday. Who knows? Good luck!!

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keep piecing those bits of "luck" together and before long you'll be an old hat and "think" tongue.gif you know what you're doing out there.

I've found out that no matter how much you think you know, there is always something out there that you can learn from, or just blows your mind and changes the way you fish forever.

Don't feel bad and try to hide under the term of newbie; we all were there once and know what it's like. Be confident out there and have fun! laugh.gif

and like my signature says, "If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're doing something wrong." That John Gierach is a genius grin.gif

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Quote:

keep piecing those bits of "luck" together and before long you'll be an old hat and "think"
tongue.gif
you know what you're doing out there.

I've found out that no matter how much you think you know, there is always something out there that you can learn from, or just blows your mind and changes the way you fish forever.

Don't feel bad and try to hide under the term of newbie; we all were there once and know what it's like. Be confident out there and have fun!
laugh.gif

and like my signature says, "If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're doing something wrong." That John Gierach is a genius
grin.gif


Exactly.

There are only a few people who I would consider "experts", and I know that they still walk away shaking their heads.

It's the way it is, and that's why it's so grand. What fun would any of it be if it were easy!?! smile.gif

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