Trip Report: Stalking Stockers

I fished for a few hours on Sunday afternoon, an hour on Monday night, and a few hours this evening on a stream less than ten minutes from home. When I arrived on stream Sunday night it was immediately apparent that the stocking truck must've just pulled away.

This stream is greatly effected by fishing pressure but the surroundings are beautiful. There are some wild browns swimming these waters but after the stocking truck pulls away they are pretty lightly pressured consider the rainbows that are stocked act as "decoys". (the 'bows are easier to catch which preserves the more picky browns)

This guy took the same fly in a similar fashion but fought entirely different. On Sunday evening I caught one brown and 50+ stocker rainbows! On Monday I couldn't resist the urge to educate more bows before the hordes descend on this spot. I fished for almost exactly one hour and caught exactly 24 stocker rainbows. 

 Hopefully many of these rainbows will survive through the fall so I can again chase them when the snow flies. Their fins and tails get warn away by the concrete raceways at the hatchery but after surviving in the wild for a while they grow back and the trout begin to feed more selectively. Unfortunately the rainbow trout stocked around here almost never successfully reproduce in the wild. All rainbows caught measured between 10-14 inches.

I did hook into two really strong and vibrant rainbow trout that looked to be holdovers from the last stocking. After catching quite a few rainbows I headed further upstream to an area where I would assume the stockers haven't quite reached yet.

I began landing fewer fish but picked up another half dozen browns. I continued upstream where I hooked into a pair of brookies! I've never heard of or caught brookies this far downstream before but I'm not complaining.

 

After achieving the MN trout triple play on the same stream I decided to call it a day. I caught well over a hundred trout over the last few days and although most were stockers I felt pretty damn accomplished. I'd guess most people don't land that many trout in a year!