Hey erick

Glad to hear that you giving fly fishing a try. Its too bad I didn’t catch this thread earlier. My guiding partner and I just did a beginner fly fishing class in Elba this morning. To answer your questions nymnphs are solid from the Jan 1 opener to the end of the season. Stick with sized #16-#18 for the most part. The three nymph patterns you should never be on the water without are gold ribbed hare’s ear, pheasant tail, and prince nymph. Two other patterns that may not be a bad idea to add are scuds (orange and olive), and midge nymphs (I prefer a #18-20 black phaesant tail nymph for this). I always keep some woolly buggers,olive and black, in my fly box as well. As for dry flies, this can be a little more complex. I would start out with 2 dries in a couple of sizes, colors. An adams in #14-18 should cover most mayfly hatches, and black and tan elk hair caddis in the same sizes will cover most caddis fly hatches. If you want to get expand the amount of patterns that you carry I would suggest you start reading bug books so that you understand a little more before spending the money to have all the variations of dries. Leaders and tippet are quite basic – a 7 1/2′ or 9′ leader in sixe 5X for nymphing and 6X for dries will work in almost all situations. If you need more info send me a PM or give me a call.

Hey Phish Phinder
Pa and I were out for the afternoon. Looked for your boat, but we stayed up by the dam. I assume you were downstream all day?

Spent the afternoon up by the dam. Action was good all afternoon. 4 of us boated 30-40 fish in 4 hours on the water. Lots of smaller fish to sort through, but a good bunch of fish in the 13″-14″ range – mostly sauger. We did boat two nice walleye’s on the day that weighed in just under 3 lbs. Techniques varied on the day as two of us used plastics and the other two live bait. Plastics outproduced live bait by a slight margin. When the sun was out purple & bright color ringworms produced best. When the sun was under the clouds pro-blue and tequilla sunrise were the best producers. All in all a great day on the water.

Mackrel – I use Hodgeman neoprine waders for winter season. They are not too expensive and are much warmer than breatheables for winter. The only problem I have had is they will leak in the crotch area after about a year of hard use. As for the fishing it has been tough. The fish are not very active. That being said between two of us we caught 17 Thursday, the largest a 16″ bow on the Whitewater. Yesterday I landed 12 at East Beaver the largest a beautiful 20″ brown. They are there, you just have to work hard for each fish.

Thanks Jake – appreciate the info

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
In-Depth Angling Field Staff
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Dave – have you heard which streams they are talking about designating as catch and release?

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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You do not need a new stamp/license until March. Here is a link to all of the streams open for the winter season: http://www.geocities.com/brianjswartling/winter.html

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
In-Depth Anling Field Staff
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After 3 months wihout a fly rod in hand I am unbelievably excited for the Jan 1 opener – not to mention the expanded selection of streams the DNR has given us. To answer your quesitons about winter fishing JJONSGAARD it is actually quite easy. If you are comfortable fishing two nymphs in tamdem this is the technique you should use. Nymphs I prefer are gold ribbed hare’s ear, pheasant tail, prince nymph, brassie, black pheasant tail. In the winter I use sizes #16-#18. The real difference between winter fishing and summer is where the fish hold. In the winter fish pick areas where they do not have to fight current. These areas include deep holes and areas of slack water. Fish will be stacked in these holes and areas that held fish in the summer may not hold one fish. Get out and fish is my best advice to finding these holes. When you walk the stream pay attention to where fish spook from. Fish those areas next time out. Fish the same stream a few times until you have it figured it out. Hope this helps.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
In-Depth Angling Field Staff
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We did need the rain, but this much in a few days will make some the larger streams (Root, Rush, Whitewater) cloudy for 2-3 days. Jake if I were you I would at least have backup plans for Camp, Duschee, East Beaver ect.

Todd Olson

The Fly Guys Guide Service

EFN Field Staff

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I have been out to Montana a couple of times. The most productive stream that I have fished is Rock Creek near Missoula. Not sure if you want to go that far west, but is is a good stream – lots of fish, but not real big. There are many more productive streams within 30-40 miles from Missoula, in fact the Clark Fork runs right through the town – it is an excellent stream also.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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Glad to hear that you had a good opener. How was the crowding?

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
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I don’t know the Wisconsin very well myself, but I believe they put in at Nakoosa. 29″ – 9.5lbs

I would tend to agree – there is not much solitude on the opener. Pick an area that requires a LONG walk. I’m talking like a couple of miles. That is the only way I’ve found to get away from people. Focus on smaller streams or even areas of streams that are not designated trout water (ex headwaters of larger streams). Good Luck!!

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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Made it out after work today. Hit Garvin Brook (it just opened Mar 1) and had some good success. In just over an hour I caught 9 – most 10-12″, but had a couple of nicer fish on. All fish were caught on Pheasant Tail nymph.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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Have not had the chance to get on the water a whole lot lately (swamped at work unfortunately). The last couple of times I have been out were at Beaver with minimal success – taking a few fish on olive buggers.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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That definitely helps – thanks. Have you had any luck in the shallows – shand flats?

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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Jarrad
What’s puttin fish in the boat on pool 5? Morning or evening? What kind of quantity can one expect for a day’s worth of fishing? Thanks in advance.

Todd Olson
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#1 Fly – that is almost impossible, but I’ll give you a couple that top the list.
Favorite Dry: Royal Wulff
Favorite Streamer: Bugger
Favorite Nymph: hare’s ear (trailed by a prince) – I always fish tandem nymphs.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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My favorite setup for the Whitewater system in the winter is a hare’s ear trailed by a prince nymph. For most other streams, especially those south of I-90 i tend to use the same setup with a PT trailer. No specific reason for these setups except for experience over the years. Both of these rigs have worked very well this winter – they also work well with a #18 black PT trailer. The other fly that I consistently use in the winter is a #12 olive bugger. As spring looms closer I will start using a #2-4 bugger to trigger larger fish.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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I absolutely love the plan, and hope it goes into place ASAP. Has anyone heard what waters they are talking about labeling trophy waters?

Todd Olson
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EFN Field Staff
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This may be a question better answered by Dave. This is the rig he prefers to fish in the winter. From my own experience #14-#16 scuds in pink or olive work very well. Midge nymphs in sizes 18-22 (black) also work very well. My personal favorite midge nymph pattern is a black pheasant tail in those same sizes.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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No problem – I hope the information helps.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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As long as you are comfortable with fishing two flies – it is always better than one. I’m not a great knot tyer so I just use a standard fisherman’s knot. I will tie my tippet directly to the lead fly and then 12″-16″ of tippet from the lead fly to the trailing fly. You can either tie the trailing fly to the shank fo the lead fly or to the eye. I prefer tying to the eye (so there are actually two knots in the eye of the lead fly). This is a very productive method, in fact most of the time the trailing fly outfishes the lead fly. As far as casting – it can get ugly, but with a little practice it is quite easy.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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One more thing on small streams – I use a shorter rod when I fish these streams. My rod of choice is a GL3 – 7 1/2 feet. This does help on many of those awkward casts. Hope this helps.

Todd Olson
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EFN Field Staff
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I fish a lot of small streams. My favorites are Beaver, East Beaver, Duschee, and Garvin Brook. All fo these streams fish fairly similar. On streams such as these I almost always fish standing in the stream and upstream nymph (usually with 2 nymphs a size 16 trailed by a size 18). My favorit nymph patterns include gold ribbed hare’s ear, pheasant tail, and a prince nymph. Others that do produce fish are scuds and midge nymphs. It is an art casting in these streams. My only advice here is practice and don’t get too discouraged. These streams can be VERY productive.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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I would tend to agree that we have great fishery for numbers of fish, but the bigguns are hard to come by. In recent years I have spent a LOT of time in the streams and have caught a handful of fish over 18″ and a few over 20″. Every year a few fish in the 26″+ range are caught. This info would lead me to believe that the streams are capable of large fish, and it is up to us to manage it. LTM – I cannot wait!!!

Todd Olson
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EFN Field Staff
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Thanks for the clarification Dave. 2004 – That is great news!!

birdman

Those are all good points. I unfortunately do not have all of the details, and would encourage you to just keep your eyes open for all of the info you can get on this subject (and share it in the forum it at all possible). What I do know is that they are doing ongoing research in SE MN to find streams that could in fact handle a large population of trophy fish. I personally have not heard of any situations where a stream, or section of stream, has been designated catch and release, and the trout were esentially stunted (much like panfish would). My experiences has been in fact the oppposite. Areas in Canada that have done this with brook and lake trout have had fantastic results. There are many streams out West that have also done this with success. I personally fish the Frying Pan in Colorado every year. They have a size limit of 16″ (no fish over 16″ can be take from the stream). This has worked wonders for the fishery. I am not sure that complete catch and release is the answer, but I would sure like to explore some of the possibilities. As I stated in my 1st post any plan of this sort is at least 2 years away. The concerns mentioned above are some of the reasons that the DNR is taking their time. Again I would like to encourage all to pay attention to this topic, and if anything new or exciting happens please post here. Both the MN DNR site and MN TU site have had info on this, and there is a borchure at the Stat Parks.

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Field Staff
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Thanks for the welcome guys. I’m looking forward to working with all of you

Todd Olson
The Fly Guys Guide Service
EFN Pro Staff
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