Miscellaneous Trout Stream Report

[JBMasterAngler]

On Friday morning I decided to take the scenic way home from work and stopped at Browns Creek, just north of Stillwater, to shake off the dust on my trout equipment. Wasn’t any signs of life in the stream! I’m wondering if the DNR wasn’t able to stock it before the opener due to the snow conditions? 

 

Saturday morning I ventured down to the Vermillion River. I personally don’t care much for this river, as I don’t think it’s any good. But I a bible study in Rosemount in the afternoon, so I figured I’d give it a go. Water was high, fast and dirty. Didn’t catch anything. Neither did anyone else I talked to.

 

Not the start to the trout season I had hoped for 

[bobbymalone]

I wouldn't expect much out of Brown's creek.

 

Vermillion is tough to fish.  Really tough.  But I helped volunteer with a DNR electrofishing survey there and there are some unbelievable trout in there. 

 

Also netted a monster northern that I'm not even sure how it even turned around in the section we found it in.  

[JBMasterAngler]

Went to Hay Creek yesterday. Conditions were normal. Trout weren’t very active. Caught 7 total, and lost a few. This was only my 2nd time fishing Hay, so I discovered a couple new spots. Every field I passed had at least 6 deer in it. And all morning long, I was serenaded by the sounds of turkeys gobbling and grouse drumming in the woods.

[JBMasterAngler]

Went up to Blackhoof/Nemadji Rivers his morning. Was a 40 degree swing in temperature from my arrival at 6 AM, to when I went home around noon. Had never been here before. Grouse and deer EVERYWHERE! Water level looked normal, but very dirty. I quickly grew frustrated with the clay banks this area is “famous” for. Didn’t catch anything. Few guys were out drifting for steelhead, but they didn’t catch anything either. On the way home I visited Sand Creek, outside of Bruno...supposedly has brook trout in it. Too small of a stream, and too much overhanging brush for me to want to put any effort into exploring. I won’t be returning to any of these streams ever again!

[JBMasterAngler]

Well, I didn’t have any intentions of trout fishing today. Infact, I went to the Zumbro River to fish for smallies. I did not know the river would be so high...very high! I only caught 2 smallies and a pike. And they were all hanging out in the mouth of a flooded coulee tributary, where there was no current. I went to a little trout stream nearby and caught 3 little brownies. 

 

After stopping at a couple more spots on the Zumbro, only to find them unfishable. I decided to swing down to whitewater, since I am literally never in this area! To my surprise, the whitewater was very high and muddy also, both the north and south branches. I found a bunch of cool looking places to fish though. Which of the whitewater branches, is considered the better fishing?