Today's Photos

June 26-28, 2009:

I spent the weekend with one of childhood friends who is getting into fly fishing.  Through diligent practice in his backyard, Troy was well-prepared for our two and half days traveling and fishing throughout southeast Minnesota.

June 26:  We got on the water late morning to perfect nymphing water.  The stream has lots of canopy and tight lanes, so the two weights (just for you Mark Dahlquist) with 8-9 foot leaders and 5X fluorocarbon tipped with a tandem rig of Prince Nymphs and hare's ear or flashback PT trilers.  Fish took them equally, so we really had no reason to change things up.  We fished hard for over three hours and caught and released (unharmed) 40 or so browns, including Troy's personal best (which would be broken the next day.

We got our accommodations in Yucatan all set up and hit the stream later that evening.  Unlike before, the water was gin clear, so we went with some small flies in the #18 range (PT's and cdc or Shillinglaw emergers) with 6X tippet.  The trout were a bit tougher, but my one weight rod was up for the task of taking down a few nice trout, including this one.

June 27:  It was pretty hot and humid with periods of rain throughout the day.  As long as the clouds stayed around and took out the sun, the fish were pretty responsive.  We found ourselves on a clear spring creek that had been altered a bit in the past year due to some flooding, leaving much of its course as long, flat pools.  Troy was interested in fishing on top, so I put on a green beetle tied by my good friend Norm Zimmerman.  The trout hammered it with reckless abandon.

Well, next came some water that we could actually watch trout from an elevated position.  Troy snuck across the channel and put the beetle on the risers.

The end result was this:

There's nothing more exciting than watching nice trout rise and smash a helpless beetle pattern, and there's nothing better than watching a relative rookie make the cast, make the set, and land the fish as well - 17" on the measurement.

We hit a few other streams that afternoon, doing much of the same - basic nymphing or a beetle dry fly.

June 28: We got up Sunday morning and made our way for home, but not before stopping for a few hours. We both nymphed on this windy day - scuds and Black Wet Flies.  Fish took both flies readily.  We both used some higher weight rods to attempt to combat the wind (4 and 4 weight, respectively).

I caught one real nice fish today on a Black Wet Fly and lost one that was much more impressive than this fish.

All told, we hit six different streams from Friday to Sunday morning, only one of which was "unfishable" due to discoloration.  We mainly caught browns, but we did catch a few rainbows and even more brook trout.  Basic nymphing was very effective for the most part, but the terrestrial season has definitely kicked on, so pack your beetles and ants.