Trip Report: First Trip of 2015!

I'd been watching the mercury all week in hopes that streams wouldn't be frozen over. January 1, 2015 marked the beginning of the Minnesota winter trout fishing season and I had to get out before the cold forecast for next week sets in.

Upon arriving at the creek I was alarmed. Most of the prime runs near my entry point were indeed covered with ice. Now usually I don't expect fast and furious fishing in winter but today I really wanted to catch a good number of fish. I tied on the pink squirrel of prey and started walking. Having arrived stream side by 10:00 I caught my first fish by 10:15.

 After catching a few unremarkable smaller browns I hooked into this beast. I should have gotten a better picture but if you look hard you can see a puncture mark on his shoulder and one just above his forehead. I think an otter might have gotten to him before me. I saw a number of otter, mink, and beaver.

This guy came tight to the roots located just above my hand in the photo. In the next pool I hooked into a nice brown that dove twice before spitting the hook. Frustrated, I fished the pool for another half hour without a fish. Fortunately I wasn't done catching fish!

 

These guys came from the head of a deep pool. The current bisected a large section of ice and about 6 nice browns came from this area. (see below) They were tough to play because they'd swim back and forth beneath the ice.

 The sun was out for most of the morning which heated up my neoprene waders. I was comfortable without gloves and wearing only a sweatshirt until I took a little dip! It wasn't bad. I caught myself and only my forearms got wet. As soon as the clouds moved in it become more bothersome.

 The fishing was too good to stop! After catching a few more fish I found a pool full of hungry fish. None were huge but I landed eight fish in only a few minutes. At this point I noticed some midges on my waders and in the snow and like clockwork the fish began to surface. I was getting kind of cold and a little hungry so rather than push it I decided to call it a day.

I hooked into one more decent fish on the way back as well as four smaller ones. In total I caught at least twenty five browns today. Hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow because I plan to bug the brownies again!