Fishing the Whitewater when it settles down ?

I guess this is a moral question but I thought I would throw it by for the rest of you. In past experiences after floods on the WW I have great fishing when I find the fish. I am now and have been for 15 years a hook and release fisherman. I am thinking that since I really like to trout fish with the fly rod that if I walk the streams and find some fish should I catch and release them or should I just walk the stream and observe? One part of me says, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\”have some fun\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”! The other part of me says, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\”the fish are stressed and if you catchg and release them at this time of the year after the floods without feed they will die for sure\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”! What do you think? I know that I will find some! I just want to do what is right. The problem I have is that if they will die during the winter months why not catch and keep them to enjoy at the table? I am guessing you know my problem of what to do. I know that I will find them. I fish trout streams going 3 miles up and then coming back. Again what do you think?

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The problem I have is that if they will die during the winter months why not catch and keep them to enjoy at the table? I am guessing you know my problem of what to do.

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While I understand that the flood most likely stressed the fish out pretty well, in fact it probably killed an incredible amount of fish (or at least washed them into the Mississippi), I don\\\’t understand what this has to do with the trout dying in the winter. Trout streams are well oxygenated. They won\\\’t winter kill like ponds or small lakes. The only winter kills on streams that I have heard of are on shallow rivers that can freeze all the way to the bottom (like the north shore tribs). All of the streams in SE Minnesota are spring fed so they won\\\’t freeze up completely.

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All of the streams in SE Minnesota are spring fed so they won\\\\\\\’t freeze up completely.

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They freeze over in some places where they aren\’t great \”spring\” creeks, but they don\’t freeze solid as can happen up north.

You\’d be surprised at how well the trout have bounced back since the flooding. This is from Sunday afternoon:

21\” on a #12 Prince Nymph.

Not all areas were hit as hard as the WW, Rush, and garvin. Many areas just got hig water, up and over the banks for a bit, got dirty, and then cleared…really, that\’s no different than a typical spring runoff.

Not as many trout die in the winter as you might think. if they have opxygen and stable stream temps, they\’ll survive even the harshest conditions. Winter kill is really pretty minimal.

D.A.

Well, my reply to you about winter kill is because the food source is gone! This has nothing to do about oxygen supply! I just walked the NBr above Baihlys Crossing and the stream above it was diverted about 60 yards to a posible new channel flow. This is on the NBr which was the least hit! Now do you understand! JJ

I don’t think you can assume that ALL of the food base is gone; certainly a great deal of biomass has been blow out, but trout are pretty resilient. They’ll move to where the food is, or suffer a little bit more than usual, but I doubt you’ll see tremendous fish kills in the winter months due to starvation.

D.A.