Anyone been out ?

[Sarge]

Fished Forestville for a couple hours today. The trout where very active, caught about a dozen on spinners, and had the whole park to myself. The water still had slight color to it perfect for bright flashy lures. Might go agian tuesday morning.

[fish4life]

I was out on beaver saturday and the fishing was pretty good with spinners, but they were especially spooky that day. water conditions were clear.

[Guest]

Been out to Forestvill the last few weekends. Caught trout every time. (using Panther martin spinners, also I tryed a new Blue Fox spinner worked well) Caught 17in brook bout' a month ago nice.

Anyone got any bait tips (no spinners)

[Jim W]

eph78,

Are you talking about live bait? IF you can wait a little Crane fly larvae(water worms) will begin to show up. They are deadly in the Spring for trout. Tipped on a small hook with a small split shot, drifting them with the current as natural as possible!

Water worms sometimes get the less active fish to bite, coming out of hiding places.

If you come to Trout Day more will be discussed!!

Jim W

[Sarge]

Wow, a 17inch brookie!! When can you take me out EPH78? I'd love to get a picture of one of those!!

What kind of tips are you looking for?

[Guest]

A 17 inch brookie is a two pound plus fish - pretty impressive to have a fish in the Forrestville area that is that large and hasn't been harvested yet, especially brook trout that are notorious for not being overly wary.

A friend of mine fished Forrestville yesterday and did OK - remnants of a BWO hatch was there (it will really get going in a week or so if spring ever shows up). Camp Creek also has had some steady BWo action while WW has seen some decent gray midges.

I was in East Beaver Creek State Park on Sunday looking around after I helped a landowner out in Yucatan. The waters were gin clear, plenty of watercress, and spooky fish - probably not ideal water to be throwing spinners into.

Those who spinner and Rap. fish may run into too much clean and low water this spring, which could result in some spooky fish. The bait fishers may have to go with some real light line and very discreet presentations. I talked to some DNR guys who agreed with me that the water table is down considerably, and we literally have no snow for run off, so creeks will undoubtedly remain low until we get some rain.

Clean water would be quite a change from the last few years...looking forward to April 1, the BWO's and Dark Hendricksons......

[Jim W]

Hopper,

Good info as always! Thanks!! I guess I always thought the Blue winged Olive hatch was more in full force a tad later than APril??

Regarding the gin clear streams, I am hoping that the long range forecast holds true. LAst I heard they are calling for a wet and cool Spring into early summer, then a heat wave come July. Wait and see I suppose eh?

Jim W

[Guest]

BWO's are typically an early hatch and run through April, specifically when the clouds and rain are present - sort of like caddis in some cases, which is typically later in April. I've hit awesome caddis action when it's been warm and sunny, and crappy and rainy both. It seems in my experience that BWO hatches are better whent he sun isn't shining.

I'd rather fish when the water is a bit tea colored, but not dirty. Crystal clear is OK, but you have to be pretty cautious and careful not to put the fish down after a few casts. I guess fishing in clear water is all a part of the challenge, but I think catch rates are better when the stream isn't something resembling tap water.

[Guest]

Im, sorry guys the trout I caught was a Brown not a Brookie my fault. (prob. 1.5-2lbs)But still it was nice.
I will head down there today (FSP), I will let you all know how it goes.

Good fising to all!

ps:
when is trout day?

Ed

[Guest]

Fished Camp Creek today from after 10:00 to 1:30. Plenty of people around, so I went downstream and worked up away from the crowds. To my chagrine several anglers (one flailing a fly rod in the NE wind, the other with a bright red hat on spin fishing) eventually worked DOWN stream towards me. I leap frogged them and kept working upstream,like I thought most anglers did....

Anyway, caught plenty of fish using an orange sucd with the Simpleton Midge tailer. There was a midge hatch on steady from 12:00 to 1:30 with fish rising to take them. Landed two trout in the 13 inch range and had my best fishing after everyone left.

The water temperature at 1:00 was 46 degrees, but the wind iced up my guides all morning. It was plenty cold to be out. Again, the area streams are clean, low, and use extra caution when sneaking up on your holes or runs.

[Sarge]

I fished Forestville Saturday from about 4pm to 6pm, used spinners and raps with moderate success. The water was very clear(could see bottom to about three feet down), and I moved quite afew fish down and out of runs when I got to close.

Best action was in fast water near heads of the runs. Had "Jaws" come up and roll one time but he never came back. Talked to a couple flyguys who said that they had done very well earlier in the day.

[Guest]

Went to FSP, sat. and sun.
Caught 5 trout on sat., one on sunday.
Gold Panter Martin 1/4oz. The water was very clear, almost to clear.Were do all of you folks fish? (in Forestvill)

[DARK30]

I USUALLY FISH THE PRESTON AREA BUT WHEN I HEAD OVER TO THE PARK, I LIKE TO GO DOWNSTREAM FROM THE OLD STORE BY THE BRIDGE. NICE HOLES BACK THERE AND IF YOUR REALLY GETTING INTO IT, YOU MIGHT END UP AT CARIMONA."SNEAK N CAST"...THE PERFECT TREDMILL!

I'D LIKE TO SEE THAT RIVER BACK WHEN THEY FIRST BUILT THAT OLD STORE BUILDING!

WET NETS!

------------------
cast,cast,cast,cast......

[MnSportsman]

Sounds like some of you are having a great time, spinning, Bait fishing, & some Flyfishing also!
I'm a little envious. Gues I'll wait until the 1st/Apr. myself, for some C7R & scouting.

BTW Dark30,
the MnDNR regs don't alow for fishing below Meighans store during the winter C&R season. but you're right about a few nice spots. I like upstream more myself tho'.

quote:

---

TROUT STREAMS OPEN TO WINTER ANGLING SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 90:

South Branch Root River (Fillmore County)

From the mouth to the dam in Lanesboro (3 miles) and from the historic bridge (Meighen's Store) in Forestville State Park upstream to park boundary (3.8 miles).

---

from :
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/information_center/news_releases/nr1008976444.html

Good Luck all!
& I'll see ya out there!

------------------
Good Luck & Watch your bobber!
MnSportsman
Proud to be a member in good standing, of the
"Church of the Divine Wilderness"!

[This message has been edited by MnSportsman (edited 03-27-2002).]

[DARK30]

HI MNSPORTSMAN,

I GUESS I WAS THINKING DURING REGULAR SEASON ONWARD THROUGH THE FOG!

I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO MAKE IT DOWN TO LANESBORO FOR SOME EARLY ACTION BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. WALLEYES FOR NOW! THE CAMPGROUND IS OPENING ON THE 12th AND I'LL BE THERE! HOPE TO SEE YOU AROUND!!??

WET NETS!

------------------
cast,cast,cast,cast......

[Guest]

Why is there only winter seasons on a few streams? Seems to me that if you C&R it should not matter what stream.

thanks,

Ed

[Guest]

Fished a variety of streams today - it was plenty windy so using the three weight like I did probably cut back on accuracy.....

Anyway, fished Forrestville (water temp: 44) for an hour and a half and did fine. Caught fish on orange scuds, #18 olive PT nymphs, Shillinglaw Emergers...the usual stuff. There were some fish in about 8 inches of water taking emergers. There were some midges around when I was there but not any full fledged BWO action.

Fished Camp (water temp: 49) after that and caught some really nice looking fish on scuds, midge emergers, and small olive PT's. There were a few Dark Hendricksons here and there so I did well with a #14 hare's ear tied with pearlescent krystal flash for the wing case. It wasn't a full DH hatch, but there were some flying around.

Fished the Root (water temp: 46) and surprisingly did well using the Leisenring lift method at the end of the drift - why I don't know because there was no hatch on. Caught a few on Princes and black stonefly nymphs, and a few on buggers as well, including perhaps the ugliest rainbow I have ever seen in my life - pale and washed out.

Streams, including the Root, are all clean and pretty low. Keep a low profile, long leaders, and make good casts.

[Jim W]

Hopper,

I had an interesting conversation with
Wayne B today, especially about your posts.
He thought that was you and I confirmed it!

Jim W

[Guest]

Jim,

I hope the conversation went well......if these clear conditions keep up, you may have to put 2 pound test on your spinning reel.....

[Sarge]

Long casts, really long casts!!

Hopper could you explain the "Leisenring lift"?

Thanks!

[Guest]

The Leisenring Lift is a term used for fly fishing when you drift nymphs or wet flies through a run and at the very end of the run you lift the tip of your rod. What this does is lift the fly up from its natural drfit. It's a grat tactic when insects are emrging - going from nymph to adult stage and heading towards the surface.

I was surprised that it was hooking up fish yesterday because there was no apparent hatch on. In fact, I did it by mistake just to see what my nymph looked like underwater and a trut came upand hit it, so I stuck to fishing by mistake.

[Jim W]

Hopper, I guess you re-discovered why most of us love fishing so much! We often get stuck in our
approach, then something happens on the water that opens your eyes to new tactics and presentations!!! I LOVE IT!

Always be prepared to think "outside of the box"!!!

Jim W

[Guest]

Fished Camp Creek again today looking for some prolific BWo hatch, but I never saw one. Did catch plenty of fish on an orange scud with a #18-20 Shillinglaw Emerger. There were people everywhere - upstream and down. One guy was even standing in the hole he was fishing, jigging a few feet away from where he was - not surprisingly, I didn't see him land a fish. The waters are extremely low and clean, so caution is a must. I fish from the bank as much as I possibly can, only wading when I have to.

Talked to resident Fillmore COunty angler Mel Haugstad and managed to solve all of the Minnesota Fisheries related issues in 20 minutes

Stopped into Duschee for a bit inthe afternoon. the BWOs there were larger than on Camp - more in the #16 range.

The wind made it a tough day casting, especially later on. Looking forward to April 1.....

Jim, you never mentioned what you and Wayne talked about. I owe him a great deal of credit as I took a basic fly tying class from him; the rest is history. I try to give him as much of my fly fishing related business as I can, but selection hasn't been outstanding there in recent years.

[Guest]

Snuck out after school for a bit today in search of large trout. Threw buggers into some pretty clean and low water, but the browns were on them. Landed 8 fish and had numerous other hits and follows - one advatage to clean water is that you can watch the fish come up and investigate your fly. The largest trout were 16 and 17 inches each and very healthy looking - not washed out or skinny at all.

The streams are very clean and low, so use caution if you go out, that is if you can afford the rising gasoline prices!

[Guest]

Spent the entire day on the water - in the morning it was too cold for any DH emergance, so I stuck to scuds and some Shillinglaw Emergers. There were a few midges around, but I didn't see any rises, so I didn't fish any imitations.
Later in the morning I pumped a trout - found numerous caddis larvae, so I switched over to mixed results. Caught fish later that AM on caddis larvae, krystal flash Hare's Ear (for DH's) and Root River Specials. On a sidenote: I caught numerous rainbows, so I assume they won't be around much after the next few weeks.

In the afternoon I did some hiking and stumbled upon a full fledged DH hatch - fish everywhere taking dries. You want to get an idea of how many trout are really in the stream - watch while there's a hatch on; simply amazing stuff. I fished #16 Adams dries and switched over to the CDC Hendrickson, that was the fly of choice.

The largest fish of the day were a 17 1/2 inch brown on a scud, and a pair of 16 inch browns on Hendrickson dries.

The Hedricksons are coming off now, so if anyone needs a guide.

PS To all the turkey hunters, I saw a group of 23 birds with at least 6 toms puffed up and strutting, and then another group of 8 with no toms.

PSS On a sad note, I saw not one, but two dead road killed dogs today. To see one is uncommon, but to see a second was a bit disturbing.....

[Guest]

I love days like today - overcast and cool with no wind, so I decided to look for some large trout and I was not disappointed.

I fished from 8:30 to 11:30 before I departed to go and find another Dark Hendrickson hatch, which I did.....I landed (landed being the operative word - I'll get back to that) around 15 fish with a threesome that went 21, 19, and 17 inches respectively. Now to the not so happy part. I did hook up a fish that I saw last year when it came and out and took a shot at one of my flies. The good side is that I hooked him and had him abot 6 feet from the bank; the bad part is that he threw the hook. It was by far the largest trout I have ever tangled with -conservatively, at least 25 inches as I got a good look at him and he was so close to being landed. What do you do??

Anyway, went to a different stream this afternoon and fished Dark Hendricksons again. The hatch got going around 1:00-1:30, but not as many trout were taking them on top - many were at the heads of the riffles just hammering emergers, but how long does decent dry fly action come along?? So, I didn't change flies. Caught too many trout to count, but the largest was 14 inches. Perhaps today's cooler weather was to blame?? The hatch shut down at around 4:00, which is when I left and didn't stick around for any spinner fall.

Streams are still clean despite some rain. Get out while you can, the opening day madness is this weekend.....

[Jim W]

Hopper,

It will make a guy step back a moment and analyze what in the heck happened! It is good to see large fish, especially on the end of your line! To catch or not to catch, that is the question!!!

PS. I personally have been cursed with "lose the big one"!! Others can verify, that I lose too many nice fish each season, from trout, smallmouth to walleye!

Thanks for the reports!

Jim W

[Guest]

Jim - you're right. I get out a lot to trout fish because it is my outdoor passion, so perhaps I become a bit indifferent towards 14-17 inch fish because I run into them with more frequency than the average weekend angler. However, losing a 24 inch plus fish will make your heart race, your hands shake, and prompt some curse words when they aren't landed.

I've been fortunate to land some large trout, but losing a fish like that makes me cringe - I think I dreamt about it last night......

[Jim W]

Hopper,

I had a fish very similar to yours last year during the Catch and release season. I battled it up and down the run I was in, eventually losing it!

I didn't sleep well that night! However, that fish hopefully is still in there and has put a little length and weight on, to do battle once again!!!!!!

Jim W

[Guest]

If every fish I intended to release got off just before landing it I think that would be perfect. I am always concerned that handling
could bring about their demise. Smallmouth concern me the most. They always slam the bait especially if it is or looks like crayfish. Having to release fish that I think may not recover really bothers me.