I’d say it has everyhting to do with low ultra clear water.
The fish are spooky and have probably retreated to there holdings where they feel secure and are probably cruisin at night are in the evenings. Pray for rain and alot of it too!
How About Cotton!?
Sorry…As for the opener it is usually a day I avoid like the plague. I just have to ask the question…With new fly fishing gear, Why didn’t you take that gear out and fish during the Catch and Release season?
Kevin
Hi John,
Interesting idea on educating fish. While it has a tendency to work with fly fishing as anything that looks unnatural, ie the pattern or the presentation will put feeding fish down…Bait and spinner fishing for that matter are entirely different things…they trigger different feeding and strike instincts. Spinners trigger a territorial strike and big fish simply must eat regardless of who’s been there and how often. Bait obviously has a smell and will trigger feeding as well. No sad to say the only thing that will help with poor water conditions and a drought will be self control. Now hopefully we can see why new regs and carefully management are essential to the long term plan for a resource that will be around for generations to come.
I’ve heard the stories from landowners about people on the opener trashing their property and exercising their Given Right to get that ‘biggun’ before someone else does! Enjoy the stream, enjoy the fishing and then put em back…there’s a kid somewhere whose day will be brightened and life may be changed cause you’ve chosen to act like an adult and put that trout back and pass along a ‘gift’ to another angler.
Kevin
Hey Brian!
I don’t know if eating big trout will make You sick…but it makes Me sick when someone else does! 
LOL 
Good luck in this wind storm casting streamers I hope you crimp the barbs…much easier to dig em out of yourself when they are barbless! 
Kevin
Sometimes the staining as you call it is due to mild runoff conditions and not neccessarily the scouring of specific rock. All ‘off color’ appearance are due to silting of one nature or another. This can be do to erosion from excessive precipt or in some cases the leaching of old mine tailings…as is seen out west in areas, or the tanin color you may see in the north woods that is contributed by soil conditions in forested areas. My guess is that what you saw was due to the recent precip patterns and the increase in flows into the system.
Kevin 
Brian,
Hi thanks for asking. Streamers are like spinners in that they trigger predatory strikes as opposed to choosing the right fly for selectively feeding fish.
One drawback for MN is that the water is tight and swimming a streamer is key to triggering that fish…the longer the time in the water the better the chances. As for patterns well it does help to imitate forage patterns. Once a trout is 17 inches and above he/she depends more n more on forage,
small trout, sculpins, crayfish, even mice etc for sustinence. Now I am tellin ya my secrets on one condition….you put those big trout back!
The other thing is that with the single hook on a streamer you rarely hook a trout deeply and they can be released safely.
Kevin
Actually having fished from CA to NY, WA to FL and Canada to Honduras and points between the Midwest Trout Streams are exceptional in my book. They are not comparable on a one to one basis to the rivers in Montana but when examined as small limetone spring creeks offer exceptional potential and already surpass many of the ‘fabled’ creeks of Pennsylvania. As for one method well if you put a spin rod n real in my hand I am lost and I live to streamer fish having recorded numerous 20+ inch fish by that means. When I have fished on ESPN and in the Great Outdoor Games I exclusively fished streamers in an effort to target large fish. That method of fly fishing closely mimics spin fishing in why it works on big fish. Thing is the water in SE Minn and W Wis gets a bum rap cause it’s not Montana and Wyoming but when compared to small spring creeks ‘our’ water here is pretty incredible and holds far more large fish than I think alot of people realize. That is the reason that I think we need more careful management because of the unrealized potential for this water. These creeks are starting to get ‘noticed’ in national fly fishing publications. Don’t panic cause at the same time in this country trout habitat is expanding rather than shrinking as it was 3 decades ago. Ok I’ll get off the soap box.
Kevin
Actually Jim stocking catchable fish while popular with the anglers is probably the worst thing you can do to a trout stream. In the 1970’s Montana started down a road of ecological sense when they studied and subsequently discontinued stocking their rivers. Catchable hatchery fish put undo pressure on the biomass of a stream and disrupt it to the point that it becomes completely dependent on the truck to have fish. It is smarter to do habitat improvements and water quality maintenance than to dump a cement pond transplant even a coaster! Better yet lets bring back the streams up north on Superior so that the coaster runs come back! Oh well the never ending argument.
By the way stocking small fish to re-introduce usually results in hold overs that have wild-like charateristics and it is far more economical than rearing ‘cathcable’ fish.
You just don’t get the immediate results of snagging a 3 ppound fish everytime you wet a line.
Kevin
Brian,
Your observation of the 20 inch convention is a valuable piece of information that I wish fishery people would listen to….most fingerly stocking serves as ‘Trout Chow’!
LOL
Seriously, I spent almost 2 hours on the phone yesterday catching up with a friend of mine, Kelly Galloup. Kelly lives in Montana now but is originally from Traverse City, MI and a well known author and frankly one of the most well versed fly anglers on ‘Trophy Size’ trout. We discussed this exact issue of feeding large trout with poorly designed stocking plans. Also, one thing that is important is that trout whether brown, brook, bow or cutts simply do not stay put. Telemetry studies show trout that move over a mile a day in search of forage. One trout in a study in Idaho repeatedly through out the season covered over 24 miles of streams. I can tell you that with seasonal temp changes in Montana water that holds exceptional trout in April are barren come August and those fish have moved over 10+ miles to better water. SO that having been said water that is attempting to be restocked with brookies will have to be managed carefully to be re-established and protected from competition from other fish. What a dilemna! In Montana the brookies represent a nuisance in certain water to the rainbows 
FWP will not allow their stocking in private or public waters whatsoever! But I am with Dave…next to cutts my fave are brookies there is just something magical about them and I would like to see more streams managed specifically for brook trout. Don’t get me wrong I love browns n bows too but those lil brookies are just a unique resource.
Kevin
Dave,
Wanted to tell you that I always enjoy reading your posts.
Having been fly fishing for over 30 years and being fortunate to have been raised next door to Bud Lilly in Bozeman I applaud you for your insight and depth of knowledge. I hope the folks in SE realize just exactly what an information resource they’ve got! As for disappointment in stocking brookie…this is exactly why the careful management of habitat and special regs are sooo important.
Keep up the great work and gettin the info out there!
Kevin Biegler
http://www.sourdoughcreek.com
Absolutely Dave!
Hey Thank You.
We have aprox 1500 members so the exposure will be great.
I realy appreciate this as does the membership. I will call you and we will set this up.
Kevin
Dave,
I couldn’t agree more. With it’s proximity to the cities once it becomes ‘discovered’ it could be under a lot of pressure. Fortunately for now the concentration of fish is low enough that most anglers get discouraged. For the present I think the priority is to confirm that the erosion prevention and stream improvements will be as permanent as possible and then to focus on what the real sustainable populations are before the regs can be firmly set.
Hey you’re doin a great job here sorry I haven’t been on this board before.
Kevin Biegler
http://www.sourdoughcreek.com
Actually BT creel and shocking census can give you very specific details on how baitfishing affects a stream. A couple of points are very crucial here. The streams in the midwest while in ‘some’ cases are self sustaining do not typical support reproduction that can stand up to the pressure regular harvesting (unlike western rivers which in many cases can) the balance of these streams are more precarious. Also, there is a significant difference between the way a trout will ‘take’ an artificial insect versus bait or a spinner lure. The type of forage is a big factor. A trout which is hooked deep by ingesting bait or near the gill plates is almost certainly a dead fish even though it may swim off when released, as is a trout that is lipped. When an angler hauls a trout out of the water and holds it by it’s lips like a bass it is a pretty safe bed that the gill beds have been torn or hemorfhaged. To re-inforce what has been said repeatedly I don’t think that there is an effort to discriminate or classify one form of angling as being better than another. What is at stake is a sustainable and self replicating fishery versus one that is merely a cold ditch that has a truck dump fish into. 20+ years Montana realized that it is far more economical and healthier to maintain a natural stream as opposed to stocking. At that time the bait fisherman raised hell too. But now all these years later the fisheries are healthy and there are plenty of opportunities for anglers regardless of their style or methods.
Kevin
Do you need volunteers?
Kevin
Amen Rootski!
Well said…as a guide I for one am sick and tired of lets see how big a fish we can land on how small a rod or tippet!
Yes under some circumstances you need to go to a 6 or 7x tippet with the ability to make a light presentation or a 2 – 3 wt on a small stream. But to deliberately target water that you know holds sizable fish so you can brag about how small an outfit you used is simply not neccessary and needlessly stresses fish. By the way I have done just as well presenting 20-24 midges/tricos with a 5 wt as I have with my 2 or 3 and if you are nymphing there really is very little reason to use anything smaller than 5x and that has included spring creeks too.
Fish smart…Fish responsibly
Kevin Biegler
Being from Bozeman I cannot say enough about Simms but if you are looking for an economical alternative with similar
quality check out the breathable guide models offered by Dan Bailey’s shop in Livingston. I have used a pair for over 4 years now and while they show wear they’re hangin in there…what I like about them is that they a slimmer cut in the legs than Simms and walking is for me is a lot easier.
Kevin Biegler
http://www.soudoughcreek.com
Jake,
In regards to your concern regarding a World Class Fishery for SE Minn Trout Streams. I appreciate your ranking of MT, WY, and ID. I grew up fishing the streams and rivers of SW Montana and still guide there to this day. I have been fortunate enough to fish from Canada to Honduras and California to New York. Often we read of the idyllic limetone streams of Central Pennsylvania and they are often touted as the place where fly fishing was ‘invented’ in the U.S. A few years back I was fortunate to spend a few weeks fishing throughout Pennsylvania, and New York and I have to tell you that the legendary ‘world class’ streams of Penn do not even come close to the resource we currently have here in Minn and also W Wis. With careful management these streams are only bound to get even better and Yes in my opinion become World Class. As for your esteem for MT, ID and WY keep in mind that those are totally different type of waters. As a guide it is in my opinion that an angler who has mastered fishing the waters of the midwest can go west and be a Super Star…between our highly educated fish and tight water requiring precise casting and stealth both sets of water are in their own league. Our water here cannot support the same level of harvesting pressure as rivers out west and as such require special care if they are to be preserved and allowed to flourish. I sympathize with the objections having grown up in the ’60’s filling up our cooler after a day of fishing on the Gallatin but those days much like the days of solitutde have waned into a different era and we all need to adjust and accept these changes if our streams are to continue to support trout.
Remember each and every fish released is a gift you pass along to a fellow angler.
Tight Lines!
Kevin Biegler
http://www.sourdoughcreek.com
