Today was a beautiful day... Sunny with a bit of overcast... And it must've gotten into the mid 70s at least today... It was a little windy and my first choice of water for the day turned out to still be blown out and mudded up.. Kinda getting ridiculous that I cannot fish my favorite trout stream in southeastern Minnesota.. But what can I do but just keep on keeping on..
Well this meant finding another stream that I knew off the top of my head that would block me from the 10-20mph winds that were churning up today from the east.. So I headed down 16 to another stream I knew and had only fished once previously.. Turned out to be a good choice.. Got to my destination.. Lined up the 7'6" 2wt.. Anything longer would have made for difficult.. If not impossible fishing.. Very overgrown area with tight casting lanes... Tied on a #14 Guide's Choice Hare's Ear and a #18 Pheasant Tail.. Turns out that's all I needed.. March Browns flying around but no trout rising.. Ended up taking about 4-5 browns to hand mostly in the 6" range.. And a chunky 16"+ that decided he did not want his picture taken when the time came and jumped out of my grip(typical story, right?)
As I was getting near my exit point.. I was walking through some very thick brush... Step.. Step.. Step.. Step.. BRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAKS.. Whoa.. Almost stepped directly on a fawn laying in the brush.. I could not believe my eyes.. I had never came across such a thing.. And the beauty and cuteness of it all had me star struck for sometime...
As I headed back home I decided I would stop by another section of stream that I love fishing.. Turned out to be a very good decision... Got stream side.. Started out with a tandem nymph setup which landed me one dink.. Few risers.. Then a few more.. And a few more... They were not interested in any nymphs.. Reached for my dries case and switched it up.. Took me a couple different flies but soon I found the key and the trout loved it.. Was rather windy.. And didn't have floatant on me..
Note to self "buy floatant as I have lost mine" So with no floatant I found it best that I make a couple cast up stream until the fly got water logged and then I would cast down and across and skitter the fly along the top.. Which turned out to work perfectly! Another 8-10 trout to hand.. Mostly browns with a couple bows in the mix.. Very VERY aggressive fish on this stretch and even smaller fish gave me a run.. Most were in the 12" range... Overall turned out to be an amazing day!
Over the past couple days I have been able to get out here and there.. fish are biting.. gills have moved in and are starting to spawn.... but are not nearly at the level of aggression I prefer.. meaning they are not hitting the poppers that hard yet.. but anything else I throw at them they haven't thought twice about... Carp have been cruising the shallows.. but still have yet to have my go with one yet.. and the bass are there.. but they have definitely been small... and I've finally broke my 8wt's cherry... very happy with it.. was able to withstand yesterdays very gusty day with gusts ranging from 15-25mph it held up like a champ... have been catching a majority of my bass on it... but like I said.. smaaaall... but beggars cannot be choosers.... and in the end.. I really just like catching fish no matter the size
