I’ve personally found that areas that have lower trout populations also tend to produce bigger trout. Especially areas that are deemed Non-designated trout water. Is there any data backing this or is it just me? Over the past 10 years or so I would say 75% of the trout I’ve caught over 20″s were in Non-designated water. This one pictured is a 24.5″ caught a couple weeks ago on a Non-designated stretch.

I bought a pair of Baffin Boots. I’d never heard of them but they weigh about 2lbs each are rated to -94F and were $100. I love them.

First you’ll need a grill. Tinfoil, onion, lemon, butter, garlic. Wrap in the foil, cook until it flakes off the bone. Si Magnifique Also if you are familiar with smoking that is the way to go. IMHO

X-Rap Fish

Crawler Fish

X-Raps. 2-4″ Range not up on the stock #s but know the lengths. Gold and Silver. Have caught several over 20″s on these including a 28″er that I had made into a replica. Crawlers are also a favorite. Bigger the better leave lots of tail. Hope this helps

Holy crap!!!! How big is that Brookie?

How can you not like Gordo? He’s getting a little long in the teeth give him a break. As I recall Harry Carey wasn’t so great in his last 10 years either but, then again, he was drunk 75% of the time.

Nice

Very nice

The 1/16th all Silver Panther Martins with the white skirts are always deadly on smaller stream trout. When It’s the middle part of the day and the sun is directly over the creek the Gold Panthers with Orange Skirts are awesome. For Bigger Trout I run the two smallest X-Raps in Gold and use a very erratic retrieve. Works great for trout 12″s and up. They are quite territorial and usually annihilate it out of sheer spite.

Looks to me like all the Browns are in the 20-23 range and the Brookie is about 12. All very nice fish.

Excellent fish I assume the Root being the size it is takes a lot of hit and miss. Maybe similar to the V. I’ve fished a couple times with minimal success but, I may need to give it a second thought. Very nice fish sir

Wow!!!!

Nice trout. The color could be due to several factors. Water depth, water purity, forage, type of Brown whether scottish or german brown, sex of the fish, just to name a few. I have caught very silvery browns almost looking like rainbows w/out the pink stripe. Is it open season to keep fish in WI or is it all C&R right now? I almost hopped across the border and bought a WI license and stamp today but wasn’t sure if it was open seaqson yet

Well that settles it, I’m moving to Eastern WI. Awesome pair of fish

8+ inches of ice. I’ve heard mixed stories about the fishing. Was down there personally first ice caught 2 small ones. Went down again last week when they were supposedly getting them and never saw a fish except one little gator. I’ve heard reports of 20+ fish days but I don’t believe them. Could be extremely hit or miss though. Maybe there one day gone tomorrow type of thing. Lots and I mean lots of people fishing Rebecca. Last 3 days both parking lots have been completely full and there were close to 75 people out there. (est) Looked like a friggin tournament out there.

Tuesday We got out about 11:00, were in about 38′. Got 10 10-13″ Crappies, a 15″ Sauger and Several 2lb + white bass, 2 mooneyes, and a massive Sheepie. Never got into those before. We moved a couple times trying to follow the fish. Lotta lookers few takers and a few that just nudged the minnows on dead sticks. Spoons were the ticket for us and moving. Only one of our Crappies was a Blackie, which I found odd.

Mud Puppy or ‘Hellbender’ is a large North American aquatic salamander. They do have the ability however, to live on land. As for how BK is related to them maybe he is part of the Genus Necturus? – Cliff Clavin Very common on the Croix come winter Sturgeon fishing excursions in Prescott

Sweet fish

Here is a link: http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/trout_streams/south/map_15.pdf

I fish the V quite often during the season. Although most areas I fish are C&R only. I would say your best option for fly fishing would be through the park in Farmington. Lots of open areas make for much easier casting and there are lots of stocked trout through there. I however fish from HWY3 to HWY52 on the main branch basically starting at the Biscayne soccer fields that you referred to and going downstream. Most landowners through here are very accomadating to the trout fisherman and do not care if you access around their land. I would recommend asking them first however. The only problem I’ve had is with a certain Elk Farm owner right on 52 who told me it was their stream and they don’t allow anyone on it. Other than that I’ve had no problems. In fact if you go to the MN DNR website it shows easement areas on the map of the stream. Most areas I’ve had better luck with only hold bigger fish and the population of fish is very low. There aren’t very many trout in the V to begin with it is more of a bigger fish, smaller numbers stream and most the areas I reall focus on are very heavily wooded making it hellacious to fly fish but thats just me. I’m sure an advanced fly fisherman (not me) would be able to figure it out. PS welcome to IDO

Had mine 1 1/2 seasons now. I like it a lot. It performs very well and always fires up first or second pull. It gets excellent gas mileage (a full tank lasts forever) and the not having to mix is a huge plus. I did have one little problem last year in that I cracked off a chunk of the composite bit near the top but it hasn’t affected the overall performance that much. Just gotta make sure you keep that composite bit vertical. Otherwise

Ditto

A few of these are from the Vermillin a few from the lil Cannon and couple from Pine Creek. As for numbers of Giant fish it’s been a fairly typical year. I’ve been fishing the V a good 10 years. I got 6 over 20″ outta the V this year, half from the same spot. My buddy also got 2 20+”ers outta said spot. I usually will catch 4-8 20+”ers a summer since I’ve switched to big fish patterns (more night and very early morning fishing with bigger baits) about 3 years ago. So a fairly typical year, didn’t catch nearly as many trout from the 10-16″ range on the V though this year. I am very concerned about the amount of Northerns I’ve been catching lately though. I hate losing raps on fish that don’t belong in trout streams and I sure hope that they don’t have an adverse effect on the trout populations

Top tier Trout Len, as always very jealous and equally impressed

As for the Vermillion River, it is a whole different animal. Big water, dirty water, deep, muddy, and for the most part not an ideal trout fishery. That being said the fish that do make a home there are survivors and tend to get big. The area that I fish most often is the stretch from HWY 3 in Farmington to HWY 52 mainly because that is mostly state land and I have done very well there. I have caught some bigger fish in the ‘skinnier’ water upstream of Farmington closer to Lakeville and that too is mainly state land.

Trout Brook still has a whole stretch of beaver dams and several very deep holes,(one over 10ft I’m betting) Just no more fish really worth catching the last couple years. As for Pine the land owner on 20 in CF is very nice and if you ask him he will allow you to fish his land if you pick up and I have caught several Browns over 15″ in this stretch. On the back end there is a huge man made foot dam and there are some absolute monster browns in there. I myself caught a 20″er outta that area and have talked to several people that claim to have caught trout over 4lbs outta that end and the landowners back there are very accomadating to the respectful fisherman. (Clean up and keep noise down and obey regs) So that would be a good place to start for a trophy on a smaller stream. On the upstream end there are bulls however, and you must watch for them or be unpleasantely surprised.