I have experienced an odd Sandhill Crane in the marsh here and there however never before have I seen over 75 of these birds congregated.

Thanks for watching.

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 yesterday.  We were hopeful that today we could find something similarly significant for today. Our target species were trout and we were in Fillmore County. We are much older now than the last time we fished this creek together. This was a creek that we both experienced for the first time nearly 30 seasons ago. We caught our first trout here, as did our young nephews, and we still fish it today.

Unlike fishing this creek in the 80s we did not have bait or spinning rods. We each carried a homemade custom built Winston rod with hand tied tippets. Our flies were crafted with our own hands, size 20 miracle nymph with a dark copper rib.

Further, we fish down stream further from our original spot. Our methods of catching salmonids have graduated to a fine activity that requires crawling on your hands and knees, hiding in the weeds, and sight fishing to the largest fish in the pool with a size 20. This is the antithesis of bobber fishing with a half-night crawler.

We sat at the side of the creek drinking coffee. We had covered nearly every inch of our skin with the clothing that we could find to keep the swarm of size 20 mosquitoes from biting us as the morning dew lifted. We worked out our casting lanes patiently.

Eventually the 12-inch fish began to move out of their feeding lanes with a fervor as a predator Brown had moved out from the rock cover. We watched this fish for several minutes in order to gauge what it was going to eat. The smaller trout had stopped rising now. They had also grouped up in a shoal in the deepest part of the plunge pool. Inevitably the predator Brown took a strike at a 10-inch fish which scattered the shoal. This left the predator alone at the bottom of the deepest part of the pool. I casted.

The pool is several feet deep. I had my fly line tipped with about 6-feet of 6x tippet. I presented my fly in such a way that my fly landed upstream of the Brown and the knot that held my 10-foot leader landed downstream of the fish’s tail. I had no weight on my fly simply a size 20 – lightly threaded Dai-Riki 135 with a few wraps of dark copper rib. This is a fly I fish often. The leader and tippet lengths are also something that I fish often.

I also try to make sure that when I present to German Brown Trout in Minnesota that I drift the fly on their right side. I do this because an old-time hatchery biologist told me that the wild Brown Trout stocks in the state have a dominate left eye. He suggested that you can catch more Brown Trout by drifting any fly with a good presentation past their right eye because they do not see as well out of the eye.

Regardless of your interpretation of the description of my tactics I will leave you with this wonderful memory from the first drift.

It was nearly noon by now. The spectacular leaps and 60-foot downstream jaunt performed by the 20-inch Brown left us satisfied with entertainment.

As we began preparing for supper in Winona a severe thunderstorm blew through town. We decided to drive to the backwaters to a low spot where you can see three miles of Mississippi River land. We were greeted with a spectacular contrast of dark storm clouds, the sunset and a double rainbow all at the same time. It was a fantastic way to end the weekend.

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Our technique was basic.  We casted from the middle of channels in the weeds to the weed edge and retrieved our spinners with a twitch just above the Prairie Island Spillway.  We found the Pike on points in the weed lines, the Bass in the thick of the weeds, and the Walleye on a weed edge with current.

In just over three hours of angling I managed to loose four Pike while landing one 24-inch Pike and a five-inch Largemouth Bass.  Wes landed a 19-inch Largemouth Bass, several Pike over 22-inches and one Walleye about 20-inches.

We had a snack of ripe Mulberries when we took the canoe out and both felt satisfied that our time on the water, in the sprinkling rain, was well spent.

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The trick of it is where to find them, how to stay hydrated doing it, and what do they fancy in their mouths today.

I suspect that a shorter drive to the boat landing will afford anglers lucky enough to have a boat more opportunity to find the fish. I recommend being careful to have a variety of baits known to take numerous species of fish prepared for your outing.

Days like today have typically garnished changing bites throughout the day therefor it behooves me to consider catching over non-catch related aspect of angling.

Heath Sershen with a new lifelist species, the Greater Redhorse.

I have now been working in Wabasha for about six months.  I started making the commute in November when the water had just began to start to turn over for the winter season.  I drive 30 miles of Highway that runs along the Mississippi River twice a day.

If you are a regular reader of my reports you will know that I have been playing catch-up and have not been writing and posting photographs as often as I once did.  I have many excuses for that.  One could say I have begun to lose the inspiration I was had with fishing exotic Trout species.  During this transitionary time I have been fishing a lot however seeking species that I have never caught before or species that I feel as though I had caught incidentally previously.  Further, I have many species of fish that I need to re-catch in order to document the proof of my catch-and-release quarry.

I have lived in Winona for eight years.  In that time I have spent over 1000 days on designated Trout water honing my ability to use a fly rod, read water, and match the hatch all while developing a mantra that affords me mental health hallmarks.

Heath Sershen with a new lifelist species, the Black Redhorse.

This season I intend to concentrate on the big river that flows through my back yard.  The same one that I drive 60 miles of each day.  The same big river that splits this country in two.  The same big river that holds fish over 75-pounds.  The same big river that is home to about 100 species of fish.  I have heard you calling my name for nearly a decade now Mississippi River and now I feel apt enough to forbode the training grounds of the feeder creeks and rivers that contribute to your greatness.

I have started this season with many great experiences; mayfly hatches in February, i have caught, handled, and released two species of fish that were previously unfamiliar to me, the Black Redhorse and the Greater Redhorse, and have caught numerous Bowfin on a fly.

Thank you again for visiting and here’s to another season on the water!

A sight fished male Bowfin that took a fly.

Native Bowfin will readily take the right fly presented properly.

Today I went to a different piece of water for my lunch break.  This was a place that was previously undiscovered to me.  It is what the locals call the slough as it is connected to the Mississippi River by means of culverts under the dike roads.  It has lots of veg in its murky shallows.  I can see the early signs of cattails and lily pads.  I was drawn here today after I noticed the splash of spawning Common Carp on my way to the office.  Carp known me and I know them.  When compared to Trout, our other exotic species in the region, they grow bigger and fight much harder.  Further, they are closer to where I am and do not require a trip out to the country, a climb over any barbed wire fences, and take a fly just as well.

I did not see the carp I had noticed this morning while scouting at noon however I did find a shoal of shiners.  Any skilled angler understands that where there is forage there are consumers of that forage.  In this case there were native Bowfin and Gars mixed in with Largemouth Bass and other various unidentified Panfishes.

I have little experience with Bowfin given that I have never really had the opportunity to target them directly.  Its not to be construed that I have never tried to catch them before.   In this case I have never found them.  I prefer to sight fish for many species and even more so when I am fishing with a fly rod.  Today all I had were fly rods in the car and a variety of flies.  I had the choice of a nine-foot four weight, a nine-foot five weight and an eight-foot three weight.  I had just received the three weight in the mail last week.  The Winston WT was a Christmas present to me from my wonderful wife.  It replaced my Winston IM6 that i had left on the rood of my car as I drove away from the South Branch Whitewater River last fall.  This is not just a regular Winston WT.  It is one that my brother, a master fly rod builder, made for me.  The rod’s name is Virga.

I chose Virgo as she treated me to a fish on the first cast with her.  I figured she would be the mantra I needed to catch a Bowfin on a fly in this Mississippi River backwater slough.  I had no tippet material so I was left with a six-foot leader of which I added a #4 green chub streamer fly to.

I could see the Bowfin cruising the shallows.  There were numerous big females and smaller males that seemed to have blue fins through the water.  I stood on the top of the culvert and used my photochromatic polarized glasses to my advantage as I sought out the right fish to catch.

A Female Bowfin or Dogfish is formidable prey on the fly.

Many Bowfin were cruising and gulping air then disappearing. I end up making a blind cast which landed me this wonderful female Bowfin over 24-inches long.

My casting lane was very tight in this situation.  Behind me was a powerline not more than 30-feet behind me.  I am a bit shy about wrapping my fly line around a powerline so I resorted largely to roll casts and plunks.  This style of presentation proved to accurately place my fly as I had numerous takes.

If you have ever fished and caught Bowfin before then you will understand that their mouths are very tough.  I lost many fish as with this combined with the fact that I was using a three weight on fish consistently over six pounds.

Now that I had the taste in my mouth for one Bowfin I wanted another.  I had watched the smaller males break the surface of the water.  To me it appeared that they had blue fins and bellies with golden sides through the water.  I wanted to more closely inspect on of these fish and began targeting them directly.

I managed one, photographed it, and released it before retiring home for the night.  I was surprised to find that the fins and belly of this fish were in fact flourescant green and not blue and that the side of the fish was mottled copper and brown and not gold.  I took a bit of time admiring the beauty of this wonderful example of one of Minnesota most mis-understood native species before releasing it.

A native male Bowfin that was fooled by a #4 green chub streamer fly.

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South Branch Root River Rainbow Trout

Fishing for creek chubs on a "blue ribbon trout creek".

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 lost a few trees and got a face lift. I must say that the meadow looks fantastic and inviting however today we caught no Creek Chubs and only a few Brown Trout.

It was a good day to explore the valley walking from restored meadow to wildlands.  We found more trout holding in the meadow than in the forest.

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