How did everyone do this year?

I had great year but not my best. I caught alot fish this year, well over 500. I only managed to land two fish over 20′. One of them 23 1/4′ and the other was right at 21′. I think the streams are in good condition but could be alot better. Well see what the DNR does to help out, I’m sure they will. Now we wait till Jan. 1ST until then good luck hunting.

MED

I was well over a thousand last year and around 400 or so this year – mainly due to being a new dad and not having the free reign to fish 50 times in a season like the past. I didn’t tun into too many bruisers over 20″ as I have in the past, but I caught a fair amount of fish over 14 inches, especially on dries. It was a good year for hatches: gray caddis in April, Light Hendricksons in June, and tricos for the past two months.

I hope we get lots of rain this fall, lots of snow this winter, and steady rain all spring. To say areas atreams are low would be an understatement. Some are in severe to critical shape considering lack of rain and steady higher temperatures. Most of the trout I ran into over the past two months were podded up in deeper runs or pools. The water just got too dang warm for them to sit in their normal feeding lies and runs.

As far as the future of trout management, I think the H.I. tour done by TU in September awakened fisheries at the state level, so hopefully you’ll see some changes for the better in the future, like the DNR doing H.I. that is actually a benefit to the stream, not a hindrance. Plus, the implementation of LTM and more restrictive regulations on some of our streams.

400 trout and a Dad??!! That’s crazy! That’s awesome that you had a good year Dave. I have two kids now. Invest in a baby backpack and you can increase your outings. There were many trips this year that I have broughy her along and she loved it.

I started out strong this spring catching a ton of browns in the winter season. Most days we were out, there was a ton of snow falling and 20 degrees. It was a beautiful experience. We caught trout too. We fished Garvin, Pine, Hemmingway in the early season. These are great early season streams.

Early summer rolled in it was good. I enojyed the BWO hatch and the black caddis as well. I found some great spots on Trout Run (Chatfield area).

My most memorable day occured a few weeks ago. I stopped by a bridge to see if there was any fast moving water. There wasn’t where I parked the car but I heard this roar. So I kept walking and sure enough there was a big old waterfall underneath a train tressel dumping into a 30-40 wide pool, with more riffles and pools downstream. I was pretty excited. Plus this stream is not designated so that intrigued me even more. I threw on #16 Beadhead PT, with an #14 Orange scud trailer and pulled a 12 incher out right away. I caught two more before I ended up at the “Tressel”. Once fish I was on and broke me off, I never got him off the bottem. A few more casts and I hooked a 14 incher. He ran from one end of the pool to the other. I would have been real nervous if would have ran downstream. I would have died trying to run him down. For me that was the fish of the summer. I try and get out once a week but often times that doesn’t even happen.

So it was a great year. I am excited for the blizzards and waving my stick next year.

Craig

I have had a lot better seasons in the past, but it still wasn’t too bad of a year. I dont know the exact number of fish that I caught but it was between 300-500. Most of the fish that I caught were on rapala’s and the bow spinners. The reason for the lower numbers this year is because of 2 reasons, 1 being that I only got out about once or twice a week and the other being that I tried a lot of new spots with limited success. As far as big fish go I caught a 21 inch brown and about a couple dozen over 16. Now I have the rest of the fall to talk with you other trouters about tips and storys. If you are interested in talking e-mail me at [email protected].
Jerry

whoa, is it over already?? i didn’t get out hardley at all this summer compared to years past. i bet i only trout fished 8-10 days all summer. between working and all the vacations, if i wasn’t boat fishing down on the river i was more then likely on the zumbro. it just didn’t seem worth driving an hour+ to catch a few trout when i can drive 5 mins and catch nice smallies and musky and everything else that roams the zumbro river.

the few times i did get down to a trout stream i did have pretty good luck. i spent a long weekend around lansbero and preston and just hammered them big time. i think i caught like 50+ trout in just a couple days fishing. i also caught 2 15″ers down there that weekend, my biggest for the year .

i think i’m going to have to make a point to getting back into it a little more next year. maybe next year will be the year for my 20″er .

Craig,

Fortunatley for me, I have an understanding wife who has come to terms with my addiction to fly angling. It’s sometimes tough to arrange a schedule witht he Mrs. along with a child to get out, but I manage.

I was a little disappointed with the final half of the season considering how our streams suffered under the drought conditions. I certainly enjoy tricos and the challenges they present as much as the next guy, but I actually got bored of not being able to do more nymphing and streamer tossing. It sounds weird to say, but I got tired of dry fly angling after a while.

I doubt that I caught 100 trout this year but,I caught several 20″+ fish,with the biggest being a 26″,my biggest trout to date.Mike

Dave,
That’s cool. I think my wife and I have an agreement about flyfishing. Not really an understanding. The more I can get Malin (daughter) involved the better… My wife likes to do it too but the early hours and tromping through the weeds gets to her. Plus I like to get out on my own. I have a few buddies that I fish with who do it way more than me. That’s cool. If I were single it would be a different story. This is for a season and I love getting my daughter out there even if she lasts for 10 minutes I hope to have her in waders within the next few years but that may be wishful thinking.

As far as dry flies go… I fished BWO in the spring, Black Caddis, elk hair caddis and beetle presentations this year. When it got to the middle of the summer I never hit the hatches at the right time. It forced me to get into nymphing. A lot of fun but not a lot of topwater action.

The streams seemed really low this year. Lower than what I would have liked but I still caught fish. The streams and the fish aren’t that forgiving when the water is low. You have to go stealth.

I can tie most flies and am learning more about bug life on the streams. Not extremely fast at tying but I love it. A buddy of mine also has shown me how to spin deer hair. So we made a couple of grasshopper imitations. Fun stuff.

I am hoping to get out to more streams next year and still find the obscure ones.

Craig

You just have to remember that if you want some dry action in the summer that there are usually caddis around in the evening hours and tricos at the crack of dawn. If I’m trico fishing in July through August, I’m on the stream by 7:30 or 8:00 and fish dries consistently until 10:30 or so when the spinner fall subsides. If the weather is cool, then the tricos happen later, but you can obviously fish them later in the morning.

I host a fly swap each winter through my web page, feel free to join us if you want.

What is the fly swap all about? I have read about it before. Do you need to upload pictures to the site and all that?

Or is a trade thing by mail thing?

sounds like fun

craig

I do all of the uploading, mailing, etc. You choose a pattern that you want to share with some other anglers who also tie, you send them to me, and then I turn around and make sure each person in the swap gets a fly from everyone else who was a swapper. You don’t get your pattern back, but you get a copy of everyone elses. It’s pretty neat to see what other people are using, as well as how many diffferent varieties of patterns there are, especially considering how the synthetic market has taken off in the fly tying realm.

All and all I think that it was a fairly good year. My numbers were way down, with only 425 trout total, I spent 120 hours fishing and averaged 3.45 fish per hr. Most of the trout caught were on spinners, but a misleading stastistic because spinners are what I used most of the time. My largest trout were mostly caught on the Silver/Gold Super Bow spinner, however I did land a dandy 22-23″ Brown using a black knat fly on last day of season C/R. The size of trout was the thing this year. I caught and released 8 trout over 20″ and have lost track of the numbers in the 16 to 20″ range. Most of the big trout came from the Root River system. Almost all of my fishing was in the afternoon.
John

I would think with the low, clear, and overly warm water conditions the las third of the year, that spinner fishing would be tougher than if you had some “off” colored water and normal levels.

I know that back in the day when I spinner fished (gold sinking Rapalas), I caught some of my largest trout. There’s no question that spinners/Raps consistently produce large fish 20″ or better. With that said, the almighty woolly bugger is about as close as the long rodders get to spin fishing tactics.