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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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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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