20-inches on a #20
I first stepped foot in this creek in 2004. The creek has undergone significant natural change throughout the past nine seasons however the fact that this creek still bears runs of large Brown Trout is apparent. I started my morning with another 60-mile one and a half hour commute to the creek. I picked up [...]
The Opener – Jan 1, 2012.
A Minnesota Winter Rainbow. Jan 1 has turned into a tradition. I have spent the last four openers angling with my friend Justin. In 2009 we began with a death hike through the bluff side in eastern Fillmore County. Since then we have had a spot that we frequent that is out of the wind. [...]
Starker goes fishing
Starker is just 18 months old however his competence being outdoors is advanced. Today we decided to go fishing in temperatures that neared 50 degrees. Starker did get to get his hands on his first German Brown Trout in Winona County.
January’s Winter Hatches
Few people consider 21 degrees an ideal time to hunt for bugs deep within a valley in southeast Minnesota. See what you are missing here.
2011-01-23_PossuhmCreek
Winter trout angling successes come in numerous forms. Today I found those successes during a three mile hike with my good friend Justin Carroll, winonaflyfactory.com. I have spent countless days on the water with Justin and have watched his fly angling addiction grow into a wholesome goodness that is unique to him. The drive took [...]
2011-01-09_PossumCreekWinonaCounty
Today I set out to fish a section of creek that I never fished in the winter. With my list of winter creeks that I have fished being longer than my list of creeks I haven’t fished it was easy to deduce where I would end up today. The forecasted air temps lead me to [...]
2011 Stream Trout Winter Opener
My angling season officially began Jan 1, 2011, as has been my tradition for eight seasons. I have learned numerous new winter angling skills in the last eight seasons which compliment my 22 previous winter trout seasons. These skills have afforded me the pleasure of successfully and comfortably angling for stream trout in freezing temperatures. [...]
2010-07-11_BrownsandBows
To those of you who are avid trout anglers and thought that this was an all trout post: The names Browns and Bows don’t just refer to two of the three species of fish that are the predominate exotic biomass in southeast Minnesota’s Driftless Areacreeks. Shawn and I had fun catching sturgeon in the shade [...]
2010-07-10_RootRiver
We launched from Wildcat Landing because it is a nice landing with easy ins-and-outs, beyond that its free. We are beginning to think that this landing is called Wildcat because after the ride from the landing to the mouth of the Root River you typically feel like you would have been better off fighting a [...]
2010-06-13_MississippiRiver
Wes and I launched by canoe from McNally Landing on the Upper Mississippi River Refuge confident that we could find active fish in between squalls on weeds edges in the slough. I had two spinning rods rigged and Wes was set up with a casting rod. Rod one was rigged with a 1/2-ounce chartreuse spinner [...]
2010-05-29_MississippiRiver_tripplan
Gar, Pike, Catfishes, Mooneye, Redhorse, Dogfish, Bass, Sturgeon, Buffalo, Trout and Carp, amongst other species, can all be readily caught by hook and line angling methods on the Mississippi River today due to the high pressure weather pattern that has been holding for the majority of the past week. The trick of it is where [...]
Winter Creek Rainbows; how to video.
This is the first episode for the 2010 season of On The Water. Filmed entirely in southeast Minnesota. January brings ice and snow to Minnesota however the few of us that are smart enough to know where to go to fish trout in the dead of winter typically have a successful time. This video shows [...]
2009-08-30_TroutRunCreek
Today Justin and I set out to catch some fish. he had never fished Trout Run before so I took him to a spot where, more times than not, I traditionally caught large native Creek Chubs. This section of stream went under the knife a few years back. In the process of “habitat restoration” it [...]
2009-08-23_BackcountryCreek
Today the hunt to handle George is in its eighth month. I have nothing to report save for I did not see this extraordinarily large in stream Brown Trout today. The grass in the pool that she lives is thick and I hope that she was in there instead of facing a trophy hunters fate. [...]