Anyone been out lately?

[Quickstrike]

I've been on the shelf with pnemonnia for the last week, so has anybody been out? Any good hatches going on for you guys, I usually put the small sticks away until the hex hatch starts and concentrate on bass, but....... i am sort of getting a trout bug and can hopefully get out to the brule or some upper stretches on the north shore this week. I just figured that with this forum being quiet over the last week or so that everyone is out fishing!

[thistlekicker]

sorry to hear you were laid up. At least it wasn't drug resistant TB, right?

I hit a couple of the Veggies last week but nothing was going on. Surface temps were in the mid 70s. That's not good. Greenwood was much cooler but I didn't fish.

The upper Brule was good early last week. Lots of brookie action and one nice bow actually broke my buddy off (he was fishing 6x for some reason). Not much for hatches but standard attractor dries were moving fish.

Any reports from the Cloquet?

[WxGuy]

I hope you're feeling better Kent.

I fished this past weekend in SE MN and the fishing was decent. Water temps were good, but it was warm and steamy so a bit uncomfortable. Cold beverages did come in very handy though on both Friday night, Saturday, and again on Sunday.

I'll try to post some sort of report after I get some pictures uploaded...

[so haaad]

I did really well on smallies the last time I was out on the upper St. Croix. Top water deer hair flies.

I have a "free pass" this weekend, so I'll be flyfishing all weekend. FYI- Quickstrike, I'll be in your old stomping grounds on Friday trying out those two trout steams that I discussed in my email. Maybe we can "trade" stream reports again.

[turiprap]

Quickstrike, heal up! Soon! I'm transitioning from trout to smallmouth right now. In the last couple of weeks I've had some real nice fishing using sulphur patterns, despite the fact that I never really hit a heavy hatch. My daughter (who just graduated from college in May. Yahoo!) and I went fishing for smallmouth in a little river on Father's Day. We've both been a little under the weather, too, and while we're pretty much recovered, the heat, wind and humidity kind of beat us up. We both caught some fish (Clousers for my daughter, a sort of crayfish-looking modified woolly bugger for me) and we had a fine time cruising around northwest Wisconsin.

[-Marc V-]

Was out last weekend on a warm water stream for a short outing. Used polar fiber clousers, and white cactus chenile woolies. Didn't fish very long, but ended up with a few mooneye, couple white bass, and bunch of smallies. Largest smallie didn't go all that big, probably 10-12", but still fun on the fly nonetheless.

Reel decided to malfunction. Ended up casting without the reel on most of the time, and carried about 45ft of line in my hands. Was a pain, but the fishing still got done.

[thistlekicker]

nice! Some species diversity.

What are those fish like once you get 'em on the reel?

We've been catching some smallmouth here around Duluth and once in a while a decent sized rock bass will suck down the popper - you know right away because they don't launch themselves two feet into the air. Compared to smallies it's like reeling in a boot.

[thistlekicker]

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I did really well on smallies the last time I was out on the upper St. Croix. Top water deer hair flies.

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we'll be paddling Thayer's to Soderbeck next weekend - any tips on locating the smallies? I realize it's probably not rocket science but this part of the Croix is new to me.

I'll be bringing foam poppers, dahlbergs, clousers, woolys...anything obvious I'm overlooking?

[so haaad]

I usually fish the "Upper St. Croix" in the area from Taylors Falls down to Log House Landing. I usually do the best by fishing the shorelines, working the current breaks or structure just like "big water" trout fishing. You'll get the occasional northern that way, too. I'll also caught carp in the shallows if it's an area void of too much current. As for colors and flies, I have always been a natural color guy. I tie a green deer-hair frog variation that's produced really well for me. I also like anything with white or silver in it.

[-Marc V-]

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What are those fish like once you get 'em on the reel?

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I typically don't try to get the fish on the reel, usually just pull them in by hand. If it's a bigger fish, then I'll try to put it on the reel. These didn't constitute "bigger" fish. First time out flying in a while, so it was still a good time.

Caught these guys in a slow eddie, then they'd bolt to the main current. They would have taken some line if I would have reeled them.

Warm water river flying is fun, never know what you'll end up with...

[so haaad]

Hit a few west-central Wisconsin streams over the weekend with hit-and-miss results. The streams that I hit were not the common ones, so I won't post creek names here. There was a light-colored hatch coming off a particular stream that looked like about a size 10-12 white wulff. (which of course I didn't have) It was really big, and looked to be a mayfly but couldn't catch one. I couldn't figure it out. Anyone have an idea?

[thistlekicker]

yellow drake?

[turiprap]

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The streams that I hit were not the common ones, so I won't post creek names here.

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Thanks so much. That's always an excellent policy.

The mayflies may have been American March Browns (Stenonema sp.), but I've seen Hex get confused and come off in the daytime as well. The Hex would likely be larger, however. The most important part of the March Brown hatch is the spinner fall. If you're ever confused by heavy feeding activity at last light, look up. You may see large spinners dancing in the air.

[DEADhead]

I finally managed to get out, but it was on a warmwater lake. I was dredging wooly buggers, clousers, and the mini-pike fly I tied for the fly swap, with a type V sinking line. I was fishing a break along cabbage beds for crappies, in hopes that a top level predator (i.e. pike or walleye) would occaisionally take my fly. I managed to catch a few crappies, several decent sized large mouth bass, some rock bass, and plenty of the ubiquitous hybrid sunfish and bluegill.

It was my first time in a boat this season. Time on the water has been very scarce for me this year. To make matters worse, the rivers here in NW MN are still blown out above flood stage, and nearly unfishable. I've only gotten to fish the Otter Tail about 7 times so far this year.

I still have yet to step foot in a cold water stream this season... from the looks of it, it may not happen at all this year.

[Quickstrike]

Well I got out for the first time yesterday since getting sick. It was a blast, we floated the cloquet river for smallies and caught a bunch. I started out with a wooly bugger variation that has squirril dubbing and rubber legs added to it and pulled a few fish and also got a few on crayfish patterns. Then i switched to topwater, both gurglers and waterdogs (variation of a dahlberg with a long bunny tail) and the action was hot. Biggest fish wasn't much more than 16 inches, but it was a great day to be on the water and it sure felt good to get out of the house.

[DEADhead]

QS, good to hear your back on your feet and on the water again

[sodajerk]

Hi everyone! First post from a short-term lurker here.

I'm getting back into fishing again after a several-year break, having done a lot of shore fishing and ice fishing on the Mississippi River and it's backwaters and some dabbling in SE Minn trout streams with spinning gear some years back. I seem to have forgotten most of what little I knew about fishing during my decade-long break, so I've been doing tons of reading and a lot of fishing (no boat) the last couple months with mixed results, but I'm having a blast and wondering why I ever gave up fishing.

The reason for my post today is that I caught my first fish ever on a fly rod this past Sunday evening. It was a pretty lil' 9" brook trout. I caught and released four brookies (8-10") in all out of a pod I found hanging out in a 4-foot hole created by a silver maple that had been standing mid-stream and then fell over, pulling up the root ball with it.

It was a great experience and I'm still feeling great about it! The only problem with the whole deal is that there was a mighty big brookie (I kept thinking 16" when I was looking at him) in that pod and he wouldn't bite. The water was gin-clear and I could see him, off by himself a few feet from the other fish in the pod, holding about a foot under the surface in the slow current about 20 feet from me on the other side of the hole.

Of the 20 or so fish in the pod, the big one was the only one feeding on the surface. Every couple minutes there would be a mighty sploosh as he nabbed a snack from the top of the water. I couldn't see what he was eating, and the only bugs around the surface of the stream were tiny little black flies about an eighth of an inch long and very narrow. I had nothing in my fly box anywhere near as small as these bugs were.

The four I caught were all taken on a #18 olive scud nymph, but when I tossed the nymph at the big one and let it drift his way, he would slowly shy away from it by lazily drifting sideways to cover about a foot away, and lazily drift back out 30 seconds later and hang in the open again, mocking me. I can still hear him laughing.

When I tied on the smallest dark dry fly I had (size 18 black gnat) and drifted it over him, he stayed where he was and appeared to pay no attention to the fly, though a couple of the smaller trout swam toward it, checked it out and turned away a few times.

Any tips or advice on things I may have tried to entice a bite out of this likely mount-worthy trout? I've ordered some size 24 midges and gnats, but am stumped beyond that. Thought about gettin me a harpoon gun too, but decided that wouldn't be sporting.

This is a long first post, and if you've read this far, thanks! I'm here almost every day and I've learned a lot from the people on this site. Thanks for your time!

[DEADhead]

sounds like you had a great outing. thanks for your post soda jerk!

[I'llTakeWhatiCanGet]

I think it was John Gierach who said, "There will always be casts you can't make and fish you can't catch." I guess that's just one of the charms of the sport. All you can do is go through the fly box and see what happens. Even if you didn't catch that big boy it sounds like you learned a little about how he was feeding and what he was taking. Little bits of info like that add up and eventually become 'sage fly fishing wisdom' You can rest assured that in 20-30 years you just might have most of it figured out Welcome to the addiction!

[so haaad]

Ah yes, the addiction claims another victim. Like Porter said, you should try to take away some knowledge from your experience. Next time you're out there, the big gal might just outsmart you again. And again. And of course, again. But maybe, just maybe- if the prevailing winds are just right and the stars are properly aligned, perhaps then the big ol' gal may just decide to challenge you to that cherished one-on-one duel.

Don't feel bad. I pursued a huge Wisconsin brown located in a "secret hole" for three years without putting her to net. I had her hooked, but she's much better than I. But I'm ok with that, cause I'll try, try, try another day.

[sodajerk]

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely be frequenting that hole to see if I can have another go at that trout.

And yes, I'd say I'm addicted to fly fishing already. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it or not, but the reading I've done on it intrigued me, so I bought a starter outfit from Cabela's (9 ft/5 wt Cabela's Genesis) and gave it a shot. Now I'm catching myself daydreaming often about flies, casting, and places I can go and try to catch some.

Jumping in with both feet as I'm known to do, I've also ordered two (count them, 2) more fly rods, both TFOs; a 7'6" 3wt for the close quarters of the streams I like to fish and to use on panfish, and a 9'6" 8wt, which I plan to use to go after smallies in the Zumbro and after northerns/walleyes/sandpike on the Mississippi. I'm patiently waiting for both to arrive, along with the wire tippets, sink-tip line and pike flies I ordered.

I have a 5-day weekend coming next week after the 4th, and it's safe to say that my spinning gear will stay dry the whole weekend!

[Quickstrike]

Cool! Sounds like you already have a good start in the equipment category!

[so haaad]

Have a great weekend and holiday, everyone. Tight loops.