New to the forum!!!

[MNFishHunter]

I've only been flyfishing for 3 years. I do fish alot though. I have a 4 day weekend every week(I work on the weekends), so I enjoy alot of fishing when nobody else is around. Especially the winter trout season.
Anybody from S.E. Minnesota???
I fish for everything!!! Curious about the other members here and other species and methods.
I rarely see other people, just checking to see if they are out there on the weekends?

I look forward to the forum, opinions, and wisdom!!!

[BigCliff]

Welcome to the group. Good to see that somebody gets to fish as much as we would all like to. I'm sure your reports of hatches and patterns will benefit all who fish in your region. (I just wish you were monitoring my region instead)

[TheFlyMaster]

Hi MNFishHunter!

I'm from Minnesota, northern MN though. I head to SE about 4-5 times a year to fly fish. But been doing alot more warm water species closer to the big lake.

Check out this vid I did with Minnesota Fly Fishing. I was guinee pig for testing out their new video equipment.

YouTube - Namekagon River WI trout fly fishing

[MNFishHunter]

I saw the video on the MNflyfish website. Nice!!!!
Well it is good to find out there is 1 more person from MN on this forum.
The only thing I know about Duluth is some very good smallie fishing. What else do you target up there?

[MNFishHunter]

FlyMaster,
I read some of your posts on MNFlyFishing website.
I will check that forum out too.

[bwo]

Hello MN,
Live in Minneapolis near U. Fish trout on Kinni and Rush in cheeseland. Warmwater, NW Wisc. Rarely buy a MN fishing license.

[bwo]

PS: If I lived where you do, things would be different! BTW: How did all those storms last year affect the fishing? I read bad things about the Whitewater.

[TheFlyMaster]

The Whitewater area was ravaged with floods. They closed the park for repairs to the roads, campground areas and a host of other flood related damage. The fish will survive, they always seem to. Floods are Natures way of cleaning out a river system and replenishing the land. It's bad that it affected a lot of lives and hope MN has forgotten about them to help rebuild. It will happen again, just a matter of time. I think man's impact in the SE region is huge with all the farming and chemicals. So when it rains, even lightly the rivers in the area get affected. I've been there many a times, and within less then an hour of steady light rain, you could see the rivers rising and start to cloud over.

I compare this to my home waters like on the Brule River (well at least in the upper sections) where even heavy down pour for hours, the water would rise slightly and hardly change color at all. Trees, shrubs, forest are the natural buffers and filter zones for our rivers, but that's for another debate.

The fish will survive, the river will and are recovering, albeit with maybe a new turn or two and some more debris around, but still what SE trout stream fishing is all about.

Some photos of the flood provided by a SE Minnesota Guide:
This is from Monday: Flood Photos

This is from Wednesday: Flood Photos Part 2

[bwo]

Yes, maintenance of effective riparian zones cannot be over emphasized. Although in the case of SE MN the unique geography seems to contribute to the flooding problems as well. Floods and fires are natural processes though.
Enjoy getting up to Duluth 5-6 times each summer.

[MNFishHunter]

As far as flooding goes, most streams and rivers seem back to normal. I am axious to canoe the Root and Zumbro to see what places have changed and what hasn't. I hope all the good holes are still there. Also look forward to finding the new ones.