So what are the creeks out there that have a good Brookie pop? I know Hemingway is decent, Garvin has a few and others? What are some good creeks that could handle them?

Craig Hensel

Kevin,

Tried to get in there and find you guys. I couldn’t find the link or group. Did you run the demo today? Are you going to be doing it again?

Thanks
Craig

Dave,
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. We got out a little bit yesterday on Pine Creek. Didn’t get a single take. You are right about the low profile. You have to get real low. We fished Hare’s ear with a brassie trailer. A fun day to get out and hike. We went last weekend as well and caught a few on the same tandem. There was also a hatch going on as well. the Saturday before. It was crazy, trout were rising like mad. I imagine it was some sort of midge maybe even a trico?

Have you fished any streams with good open water?

Craig

Bassthumb,

Where is a good place to go? I have been wanting to try it out with my fly rod and go after smallies, walleyes and others.

ARe you wading?

Craig

What are they hitting on? Do you guys know where there are some good places to fish on the root for Smallies?

I would like to get out and hit some early winter spots

Look forward to hearing from you.

Craig

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

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

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 agree with you Dave on Torkleson. The stream is horrible atleast above the bridge and full of silt. As that the work that they did? Definitely not as good as the work done on the middle branch and others. Are they finished with it yet? If this is where my trout stamp money went, then what a shame. Because that creek blows. Why did they even pick one that is just a trickle? Why not build up Big Springs which has a small population already or some others that flow a little better and not full of silt?

I also agree with Jake. People are going to kill anything that they pull out of these streams. Not just rainbows. However you are right when you say that stocking bows will hinder the growth of brookies and browns. Why bring in another fish when those that have been there need to survive? Then in reality the stocking of rainbows hasn’t affected the brown and brookie pop. that much. In fact aren’t brookies making a comeback? The browns have contiued to survive in the whitewater system with rainbows stocked with them and will continue to do so.

I am excited to see the DNR plan come into effect. This should solve a lot of problems with the ‘harvest’ of trout and allow for more ‘hogs’

Alright fellas. looking forward to more discussion.

Craig

Hey Jake. What were you using when hooking up with those things? Where were you at in pool 4? I live in Winona and have been wondering for sometime how to hook up with some cats. Is Winona in pool 5?
look forward to hearing from you.
Craig

HEy thanks for the responses. I may have to check out those creeks later in the spring. Torkleson just looks like it has a sweet layout and am anxious to see it because I have heard it is not that well fished.
Had a chance to get out to Garvin Brook on Sunday and did really well. I caught a dozen or so. It was definitely the cleanest of all the creeks I fished at throughout the weekend. The water was a little murky but they were very aggressive.
Take care fellas and good fishing
craig

A buddy and I had chance to get out this morning before run off started to hit extremely hard and turned the water nasty colors.
We decided to start at Hemingway Creek. We faired pretty well. We used a #14 Orange scud and landed some nice brookies. One was 12 inches the other was about 13. We landed 6 others in the 9-10 range. We didn’t hike back as far as we could of, decided that the water was way too brown. Another dude, didn’t catch much at all on hare’s ears. It was a good day. We explored some other creeks for later this spring. Has anyone fished Torkleson or Ferguson creek? They were also muddy but looked great for later.
happy fishing.
Flinthills76

Got out today for a bit in the morning while all the snow was falling. We fished near Winona and did quite well. It was really a great morning. WE fished from 8:00-10:00. Nothing was rising so midges were out. I caught twelve on a #14 orange scud. Most were 9-10inch range while one fat one topped out at 14 or so. It was a nice fish. I lost one that may have been even bigger than that.
Anyone else get out today?

I’ve been tying Beadhead hair’s ear #16 with Pearl colored mylar for the wing casing. I also use copper wire for the ribs. Green, Beaver (grey) and light brown seem to work the best for me. I have used them on the Whitewater system and they work really well.
Another one that I use is an orange scud with P. Mylar and gold wire wrapped around the whole thing. It works really well.
Are you fishing a olive wooly bugger?
Anyone fished trout run yet this winter?
Later,
Craig