Recap of Late February, March and Early April

During late February it was probably too cold to go out on the streams but we made a trip or two and had some luck.

Made it out a couple times during spring break. Found some very wary fish in a stream nearby home.

Dad with a nice brown.

Back in Winona the ice was out and the temps were on the rise, as was the fishing.

March 21; birthday outing was the best outing this year. Fished from 7-2 and caught close to 40 fish. Met up with my dad halfway through and had a great time on the water.

A cold, windy morning produced some nice fish and a leftover from the hunting season.

 March 31; beautiful morning in the foggy driftless. Fished three different streams and did well on each. Found a true treasure in the last one.

I had never thought much about tiger trout (hybrid mix of a brook trout and brown trout). I knew that they existed and are very rare but I had no idea they would be the most beautiful fish I've ever caught.  

It was a very cool experience catching one.

 April 2; fished some more beautiful streams in the Houston area before heading home for easter.

 Yesterday I scouted a stretch I plan to fish tomorrow morning with a couple friends.

Excited for what the rest of spring has in store. So many places to adventure and so much to discover! Looking forward to keeping a couple trout here and there once the harvest season opens in a couple weeks.

February 20th: Dillan's First Driftless Trout

Made a quick outing with a buddy this past Friday to get away from the city and to see if he could catch a few fish at the same time. Made it on the water around 5 and figured we'd have about an hour to fish. Temps were hanging in the low twenties and there were a couple snowflakes falling here and there. Glad to see that the ice shelves in this section weren't too bad. Hiked downstream from the bridge a quarter mile then began fishing back upstream. I let Dillan fish with the spinning rod and tried to put him on good looking spots and I tried to fly fish here and there. Watched Dillan get the casting down and saw a couple misses before I moved upstream to try my luck. Soon after I left him I heard a yell and a "I got one!"

 Really cool to watch Dillan catch his first trout! Later on during the outing we decided to switch rods and again I jumped a couple holes ahead of him. Fished through some shallow riffles and smaller holes without any luck. It was getting pretty dark and I was thinking we should be packing up in the next 5-10 mins when I hooked into a nice upper teens Brown.

Although we only caught those two, it was time well spent in the valley.

February 6th-7th: Deer, Wooly Buggers and Skunks

February 6th: After a long week of school it was nice to get out on the water again. Hit the road right after class with a city limits stream in mind. I was going to bring company but my friend got caught up with figuring out some school related problems so it became a solo trip. The frozen urban water I found at my planned access put a kink in the quest but I was determined to fish the stream so I went upstream to faster flowing water and acquired permission to access a private stretch.

The landowner mentioned that it was a shallow stretch and right off the bat I found she was right as the stream was shallow and sandy. It was also slightly stained which puzzled me. With temps hanging around 30 I didn't think there would be much for run off.

Was able to find a few decent holes around log jams but it was tough fishing. Saw a couple small fish. Around 3 I decided to leave and head south to a proven stretch of a different stream. Decided to go all fly fishing on for the rest of the evening. Wasn't expecting a whole lot with my limited experience on the fly rod. After making a couple casts through the first hole I had my first strike but never hooked the fish. I walked a little closer and saw bunch of trout sitting down in the depths so I casted up to the top of the hole and dead drifted the black wooly bugger down deep, twitching it every couple seconds. I noticed a bunch of the fishing beginning to look at it and eventually one got the nerve to take a bite at it. Was able to get a good hook set and land it.

Ended up catching 6 in this hole in the same fashion, watching the bugger and watching the strike. Really cool being able to watch the whole process and not spook the fish hardly at all when I know a few casts with a spinner will spook all the fish in the hole. Spent a good half hour at the first hole before I decided to move on as the fish were beginning to reject the fly and the sun was setting on me. Walked up to the next bridge and fished upstream from there for a while. It was harder fishing with lots of overhanging branches, high banks and smaller pools. I would have been better off with the spinning rod here but it was fun with the fly rod. Turned into a very quiet and peaceful evening.

Just when I thought about heading back, I casted into a little hole and heard a huff and something crashing on the bank upstream of me. A good sized doe came down the bank, splashed through the stream and walked to the other side before catching sight of me. At the same time I felt a tug on the line so I set the hook and pulled up a nice little brown for the deer to see. All the movement and noise made the deer decide to trot away off into the woods.

 Hiked off the stream soon after and headed back to campus for some dinner. Ended the night heading out into the woods and having a bonfire with a few good friends. Listening to the owls and coyotes in the bluffs was music to my ears.

February 7th: Woke up early (for a Saturday) and my friend Dillan and I were stream side south of I-90 by mid morning. Fished a new stream that I haven't been to before and had a tough time with the high and tight banks of the pasture we were in. We weren't able to entice any trout to bite but we were both able to get a little better at casting with a fly rod and at least saw quite a few trout as we noisily walked around on the banks. It was Dillan's first time trout fishing and I feel bad that I didn't take him to an easier stretch were we could have had a better chance at catching some fish but I'm glad that we had a good time and he wants to go again sometime.

Came back to campus at noon for brunch then I headed back out to meet with some friends at their farm. Took a hike through the woods with our .22's but the squirrels and rabbits didn't cooperate to well. With the slow hunting, I kept looking down at the stream in the valley below thinking about the brookies I could be trying to catch in there. Comfortable afternoon in the mid 30's with sun.

Hiked out of the woods and over to the cabin that one of our friends has been building for a while and spent the rest of the afternoon drying off in there and catching up with each other. Had an amazing dinner then headed down the valley in route to campus. Smashed a skunk before reaching the end of the valley and could instantly smell the fowl odor. The scent stuck with me for close to a day even after showering. My truck still smells like it... I'll take a day of being on the water and in the woods ending with smelling like I got sprayed with a skunk over staying inside any day.

January 29th: Just one more cast...

Checked the weather report for today and saw that it was going to be warm in the morning then cool down during the day. Sounded like a perfect morning for an early fish. Woke up and was stream side around 7:30 this morning. Weather was hanging in the mid 30's with a cold mist coming down. Made for really cold hands. Started out on a downstream stretch of easement that I hadn't fished before. Wasn't to thrilled about what I saw to begin with, lots of sand and shallow runs. Couple decent pools here and there. Hooked onto a nice 14-15" brown in one of the deeper holes.

From there I drove upstream some more and fished another easement. Nothing that great besides the pool under the bridge. Caught 5 in there with the spinner and spent some time with the fly rod but was unsuccessful. 

I had around an hour left after I fished the second easement so I drove up near the headwaters to the last easement on the stream. This stretch ended up being packed with trout. Nearly every step I took, fish bolted off upstream into the next run or pool. Caught 8 trout in short order including this colorful fella.

After fishing one of the pools I decided to walk up the bank and peer into the crystal blue pool to see what it held. 10-15 small to medium sized trout began to nervously swim around while what looked to be a fist sized log settled on the bottom didn't move. Then the log began to float up and with one whip of its tail a huge cloud of silt dirtied the pool. It darted up and down the pool a couple times before heading downstream to hide out. It wasn't a log of course, but a big high teens to low twenties sized brown trout, one of the biggest I've been lucky enough to see. Will be coming back and hopefully hooking up with this hog with a big streamer.

While in the excitement of catching a bunch of fish in this upper stretch of water I lost track of time and before I knew it my time to go was a couple minutes away. Ended up one-last-casting myself until it was past my time to go. Had to make good time back to campus to still get a little breakfast and make it to class.

In the evening I decided to rearrange some stuff in my car so I headed out to do so and ended up stoping and fishing for 15 mins. Didn't expect much but had one bite in this downstream marginal stretch of water.

January 1st-27th: Beginning 2015 On a Good Note

January 2nd: After the holiday craze and the beginning of the new year I was finally able to make a couple fishing outings before I left for Big Sky Montana for a week of snowboarding. January 2nd saw me south of I-90 creekside around 10:45 at a comfortable upper 20's air temp. The plan was to fish a small tributary creek down to a larger creek but that plan was changed when I looked at the water below the bridge and saw nothing but iced up pools as far as I could see upstream and downstream.

Unlucky trout that was visible through the ice

I knew the larger creek would have a better possibility to be open so I hiked down the frozen stream to the confluence and was very happy to see that the larger creek was flowing ice free. After a couple fish less trips to Whitewater during the November/December state park catch and release season I wasn't really expecting to do very well. Thankfully I was able to find a large trouty looking pool and was able to pull out my first trout of the year, a beautiful 14" brown.

The pool yield 2 more decent sized fish and I caught 1 further upstream in a run. Decided to hike out and come back to the pool with my 5 wt. I will be the first to admit that not a good fly fisherman. After failing miserably to cast my nymph rig where I wanted it to drift I decided to go with a black wholly bugger. First cast was an ugly one that landed maybe 15 feet in front of me and to the left of the pool along the bank in shallow water. Didn't think much of it and was more focused on fixing the mess of line I had tangled around my legs and tree behind me. A few seconds later I looked up to check the indicator and saw it sink under the surface. I was able to somehow pull some line in and set the hook on the decent sized brown on the other end of the line. Had him up to the surface but while trying to fumble for the net he was able to shake the hook out of his mouth. Trout: 1, Jason on the fly rod: 0. Continued to cast the pool with the wooly bugger but had no more luck.

January 3rd: Stopped by a favorite mid sized stream on the way back to the larger one I had fished yesterday and found some gnarly ice shelves on it. Thought it better to fish the bigger water again. Started under a bridge downstream from where I had fished yesterday. Didn't have to move far to catch the first fish as I caught 4 right under the bridge right away including this beauty with a colorful belly.

Really beginning to appreciate the beauty of fall and winter trout. After catching 4 on the spinning rod I grabbed the 5 wt and began dead drifting the bugger again. Took quite a few drifts before I started getting the hang of casting up to a good looking spot for a drift and stripping the line back at the same pace as the drift. Half hour later the indicator sunk again and this time I landed the fish. It felt great to finally catch my first trout on a fly, especially on a rod I had made and with a fly I had tied.

January 3th-9th: Big Sky! Had an amazing trip with some great friends. The conditions were spectacular and the boarding was unreal.

January 15th-17th: Made a couple ice fishing trips around the area and spent some time in the woods with my buddies. We did really well catching nice sized sunnies on Lake Winona in 5' of water. They made for a nice fish fry in our dorm lounge. No luck in the woods for small game.

January 19th: Scored big north of I-90 on a stretch of HI work along a stream I had previously been skunked on. Caught 24 browns in 3 hours fishing a medium black rooster tail. Nothing bigger than 12". Seems to be a high numbers, low size type of stream although I did see one upper teens trout and figure there are probably more. The low 30's degree weather made for a perfect evening with ice-free guides.

January 22nd: Quickly explored a small local stream between classes. Lower quarter mile I walked along wasn't very high quality trout water and only saw one or two fish in the sandy shallow holes. Water began looking really nice right about the time I needed to start heading back. The last pool I saw was iced over but from the back side of it I could make out the outline of a couple decent sized trout. Estimate the pool is probably 3+ feet deep. A place to check out after the spring thaw.

January 24th: Headed south of I-90 to explore a stretch of new water. While getting ready to hit the water an older gentleman pulled up to my car and wished me luck and told me of a big trout he had caught in that creek back in the 1970's. "It was this big!" he said with a big smile on his face and hands extended out a good 3 feet from each other. We both had a good laugh and said our goodbyes. Always enjoy the people I meet on my outings. He wasn't lying about the size of the brown trout in this stream though. For how small of a water it was, I was astonished at some of the fish I saw. First fish I caught ended up being a handsome 10" brookie that smashed my little spinner. Sure was a blast on the ultralight. A couple pools up I hooked into a nice 14" brown in a deeper run at the top of a pool.

Landing this brown got me really exited for what was ahead. What I found though was flatter water that was hard to fish with the overhanging branches everywhere. Still managed a few more feisty little brookies.

I certainly plan to make it back to this stream sometime again this year. Large browns with brookies? I mean what more could you ask for.

Trout Fishing so Far

-Trips: 5

-Trout: 39

-New Streams: 4

-Total Streams: 5

2015 Fishing Goals:
-Fish with other people more often. I have found the solitude of fishing alone to be one of the most relaxing things I have experienced and continue to look forward to it. But instead of going out alone almost every time, I would like to share my experiences with others more often.

-Become a better fly fisherman. I believe that fly fishing is the way to go and I plan to work on it more this year.

-Break the 20" brown trout mark. I have caught trout in the upper teens but have yet to surpass 17". I plan to target bigger fish more this year fishing bigger waters and with bigger offerings.

-Explore new water more often.

-Continue to gain more of a passion for the sport.