Wade fishing – Rivers, Streams, Creeks

Curious of how many people here still do much fishing by wading rivers, streams, or creeks by Foot. I spend a ton of my youth fishing this Way. My uncle lived on a small River in the Staples area ( Partridge River ) As a kid myself and often a few friends would often get dropped off at a bridge or Two up river from my uncles home. We would spend a large part of the day wading the river and fishing mostly Pike with Daredevils wading the river to his place. When finished he would often give up a ride back into town or we’d use his phone to call someone for a ride home. Most of the Pike were on the small size ( 1.5-4 Lbs ) but as kids we thought some of them were trophies. We would often drag a stringer full of fish along the way and clean them at the end. Lots of elderly people really enjoyed a meal of fresh fish from us. From age 30-50 while living in the metro I spent a lot of time in the spring driving to the SE part of Minnesota to river or creek fish for Trout. I have not done either for a long time now, but often think about doing so again for old times sake. Both bring back some great memories and some fun times. Just curious how many here still do so these days. A much simpler time for sure than my fishing outing these days. Not sure how well my old body would hold up to some of those adventures these days. Would probably be a good idea to get into better shape before going to crazy on some of the long wade’s from the past.

Nowadays you would probably get harassed or shot wading through multiple properties. I know you can be in the water but it would sill happen.

I still go stream trout fishing every Spring with my trusty hip waders. And now I bring my kids along.

It sure is a fun and interactive way of fishing. Will be going soon, can’t wait.

I love it because it’s so simple, though not easy. There’s nothing like being knee deep in a stream.

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I spend a lot of time in waders and enjoy the simplicity of it all. However, what I spend on waders I could have bought a new 15hp Johnson motor 50 years ago. But still, wading is cheaper than FFS (but I have that too).

I want new waders. But have to admit I’m confused by the booties and wading shoes. I can’t even find a pair of nice hip waders it’s like they don’t exist anymore lol

Grew up on a creek and still own a place on the same creek…love any chance to wade a bit! This pic is me and a buddy early last fall…

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That looks like a man named Plunket on the right

I grew up spending a ton of time at “the crick” (Fox Creek downstream of Bone Lake), the fishing wasn’t good but it was a great place to swim and screw around.

I remember one hot summer day my little brother, the neighbor kid and I came up with a scheme to float down the creek on a homemade raft like Huck Finn.

We nailed a bunch of dead wood together and set off for a “quick” three mile journey to the Apple River.

Our plan was to float down three river miles and walk back or thumb four road miles. To an 11 year old and a couple 10 year olds it sounded like a great idea.

Except we neglected to tell any of the parents what we were up to.

As you could imagine, it took a LOT longer than planned lol

With dark approaching we hit a long stretch of slack water where the creek opened up to wild rice beds.

Our once buoyant raft was slowly sinking, our shirtless bodies were sun-roasted to a crisp, and a thousand mosquitos were eating us alive.

We drank creek water and covered ourselves in mud to try and repel the bugs.

When we finally got to the bridge it was dark-dark and we stumbled up to the closest farm house (the Williamson’s, who’s grand-daughter I ended up dating years later). They let us use their landline to call for a ride.

We got a hold of the neighbor kid’s Mom, who was NOT happy when she picked us all up.

I honestly don’t remember if our Mom was mad or even knew about what really happened

I’d pay $1,000 to see a picture of what we all looked like knocking on that door

Oh the memories

The creek I grew up on was too small for fishing, just a small drainage that ended up in the Minnesota river. But I must’ve trapped a million-and-a-half minnows of ALL kinds in that creek. all types of Chubs, fatheads, dace, shiners. The fun part was that you’d get a few species like small bluegills that you wonder how they ever got there. Not to mention all the other fun critters like salamanders and crawfish.

Ya my wading attire changed a little over the years. In my childhood it was cutoff jeans and old tennis shoes. My early trout days it was my duck hunting rubber waders. Late in my trout days I purchased nice stocking foot waders and wading boots. A few of the things I did not like about wade fishing were:
Leeches or blood suckers. In my youth I almost always ended up with a few at the end of the day. How those things could get all the way down to where they did between my toes I have no idea.
Snapping turtles – once climbed up on what I thought was a big rock to take a few cast only to feel the rock moving and realized I was standing on a big old snapping turtle. Was surprised I did not get bit.
Beaver – more than once I had a beaver hit me in the leg. One time one hit me and it buckled my knee. I had a hard time walking back to my car.
Otter – after getting over the initial shock of them they were actually rather cool. They swam all around me for a rather long time. Not surprising the fishing was not real good while they were around me.

I wade streams and rivers in the spring trout fishing down in the driftless or southern MN. Also beat the banks fairly regularly for walleye and catfish. Always fun and usually a good bite.

We lived on Rice Creek in the north metro as a kid. We spent all day, everyday in that mud hole. When I was about 12 we built a small boat and put a 5hp Johnson on it and cruised all over. Those were some great days.

When I moved to CO as a teenager I got into fishing from a belly boat. That was a ton of fun but you don’t see it much anymore.

I still like to wade fish the lake my parents are on. It’s also fun to wade and cast the tail waters up by the Ford dam. I’ve been taking my daughter up there to show her how to fish the last few summers.

Nothing better than a summer night in waders

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I still do. Not as much as before I owned boats but enough.
I have wading shoes just for this purpose. I have waders as well but I only wade during the summer in streams or lakes that are warm. I have a sling with small plano box and a sheathed filet knife to travel lite.

No waders or trout fishing for me but by July 4th you can pretty much guarantee to find me knee deep in the river somewhere. There’s plenty of sand banks and cold clear holes to walk around all day toes in the sand, sight fishing for smallmouth. People laugh because I have a pair of wool socks on my dashboard, but they are specifically there for wearing around the fire after wading barefoot in the river all day.

As a kid we used to wade the shoreline of Tonka accessed by a fire road. Wore old tennis shoes. Caught a lot of fish. Never wade anymore.

In a little over a month my buddy and me will put the waders on and load the big Otter sled with all our crap and wade out to a big downed cottonwood tree that has fallen into the lake and get after some crappies that have taken up spending time under it’s submerged branches. Always a good time.

tswoboda wrote:

Nothing better than a summer night in waders

Trout fishing after dark. That’s something I never though of. I guess i did not even know they fed at night. Been on the water fairly early in the morning but never at Dark. Wading a trout stream in the dark would be rather spooky.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Nothing better than a summer night in waders

Trout fishing after dark. That’s something I never though of. I guess i did not even know they fed at night. Been on the water fairly early in the morning but never at Dark. Wading a trout stream in the dark would be rather spooky.

Do a youtube search for mousing browns

I wade fish the smaller interior rivers around eastern Iowa often. A lot of times you can’t hit the current seems when shore fishing so I wade out. Do it on the Wapsi often for walleyes and smallmouth.

Nine Mile Creek in Bloomington, MN, was not much for fishing in my youth, or at least not in the stretch close to home in the Moir Park area. We might catch a sunfish, bullhead, or crawfish if we were lucky. There were two to three pound carp around occasionally. And one summer when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old, I think they stocked the area with bass, but they may have been trout. They were about 8-10 inches long, and I never caught one of them. They swam as a school, and I spied them frequently in a particular bend in the creek. They seemed to be on the move quite a bit. When I got older I caught a few pike and bass where Nine Mile enters into Lake Normandale. I heard stories of huge pike, bass, and crappies coming out of Normandale. I favored wading and float tubing in Hyland and Bush, mainly Hyland, where I had better luck and there was more shore access, being fully surrounded by the park.

I was a Youth Pastor in Canby MN for a couple of years in the mid-90’s. They drained Del Clark Lake before I got there the same year I arrived. I was able to catch walleye, suckers, and pike at various points in the creek that runs through town. The final year I was there Del Clark, which I think had been off limits to fishing, opened up, and it was on fire for 17″ to 20″ walleye and 28″ to 32″ in pike, and I was like the only person who knew about it. It was ridiculous. And then, at the end of that magical May, my time in that town was over. I also tried some fishing across the border in South Dakota for spawning pike, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the big gals to bite. I think I caught a few hammer handles.

I have also fished the Root River in Racine, WI, and the Pike in Kenosha for trout and salmon in the fall. Maybe one of these years, I will get back down there to do some urban fishing. It was like the United Nations being that close to Chicago. I almost got pinched by the WI DNR in the Pike for netting a guy’s fish that was snagged. I think Snagger was Russian or maybe Ukrainian. I told he guy keeping a snagged fish wasn’t smart. I had been warned about releasing snagged fish by my buddy, who showed me the bite down there and witnessed guys getting busted for snagging on a subsequent trip. I usually ran into at least one C.O. every year I went. Well, sure enough, about an hour later, about 5 C.O.’s came out of the woods. Thankfully, the CO did his job, considered the facts, and didn’t write me a ticket. They took everybody, but me and a couple of Cheeseheads from the middle of the state back to the road to get tickets and I presume their gear confiscated. I hear they don’t play around in WI, if you FAFO they are apt to take your gear if you are out of state.

If I wasn’t at football, baseball, or basketball…we were bombing around from island to island on the Chippewa River with flatbottoms severely overloaded with gear, people, once high school hit we just added more weight with beer. We’d fish all day knee deep in cold, clear river water. We had not a care in the world at that age other than sports, the river, and girls.

There are still 2 spots where a buddy and I will go throw on some waders (or just muck boots if the river is low enough) and go chase walleyes from last light until a few hours after sunset with nothing but headlamps. Yes, it’s legal as it’s border waters. Some of the biggest female eyes’ I’ve seen in my life were on those trips. They are not as easy to catch as one would think. I’d bet we catch 1/10 of the fish we see. It’s tough to carve out a time to meet up and do it, but we will be at it again here in a couple weeks for 1 or 2 nights depending on river flow.

School was closed today so we hit the Brule instead

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Used to do a lot of steelhead fishing along the streams of the north shore. Great times.

Proud to be a trout bum

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I also fished the Bois Brule, three times I think. The first time with the same buddy steelhead fanatic that introduced me to the Root, who fished the Brule many times, and the last two times solo. I had fish on but never landed anything there. I’m surprised I was not killed by a bear or moose. Walking alone at dusk in the dark along a path in the wilderness next to a river. I have a bear phobia and was completely unprepared in case of an encounter. I was young and dumb.

The guy also showed me spots on OakCreek and the Milwaukee. One of the places was right by Brewers Stadium. I think I looked at Oak Creek on one of my solo trips, but it was already crowded, so I drove back South.

I still try to make it up to devils lake area every spring with the waders to cast paddle tails for ice out walleyes. Can’t beat it

Beautiful brown crawdaddy!

Bass Pundit wrote:

Walking alone at dusk in the dark along a path in the wilderness next to a river. I have a bear phobia and was completely unprepared in case of an encounter. I was young and dumb.

Dam dude if that’s young and dumb I guess I’m a full grown idiot because I do that all the time

Love the simplicity of wading! So much quicker to get fishing compared to drive a boat to a launch, pay the launch fee, load the gear, etc.

Went to Luther College (NE Iowa driftless area) and still go back. All you need is shorts, a hoodie, and a beat up pair of tennis shoes to wet wade. PB was a 26” brown there; lots of nice quality fish in that area.

Years of wader fishing from st.anthony falls up to Monticello. Mostly all for just a week or two after opener, then late fall eye chasing, and winter smallies.

Waders mostly got the backseat once I figured out most fish are tight to shore. Had enough mid 20″ eyes surface on me as I was taking the bait out of water, moved up on shore and bammo, more fish.

I’ll put on waders if I need to get to the fish, not fish the fish.

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