Root River

[-Marc V-]

Hey . . .I'm heading down to the Root River system this weekend. I've never fished it before. I'll be using both fly and spinning rod. We'll be camping at the Forestville State Park. Can anyone give me any tips on flies for this time of year, locations or other streams that might be worth checking or any other helpful hints about the Root.

I can't wait! I've read really good stuff about the stream and I've only fished Whitewater before and have a feeling Root is a much larger stream system.

Thanks in advance for any info provided.

[Jim W]

Welcome aboard MarcV!!

It is a larger system. Don't be shy to stray outside of the park. However, there is plenty to fish with in and near.

If you want some smallstream atmosphere head up forestville creek to the cave.

Prince nymphs and pheasant tails should catch. If the water is cloudy go to large spinners and floating raps for big fish.

Hatch, not really sure. Give Wayne Bartz a call at Gander Mountain in Rochester for a detailed hatch account!

If you take a short drive downstream try the section below the Carimona bridge. If you want solitude walk a good mile back. That stretch down for another couple miles is very good!

Let us know how you do!

Good weather for camping! HAve fun with the Bard Owls at night and the Wild Turkey in the AM!!!

Keep the rods bendin'!!

Jim W

[-Marc V-]

Thanks for the tips Jim. Especially the tip about the hike downstream from the bridge. I'm all about getting away from the beatin' path to cast at some fish that hopefully aren't casted to as much.

Quick question. Is the stream shallow enough to cross with chest waders or does it run deeper than that?

Also would you suggest any other flies besides the prince nymph and pheasant tail? I consistently use those and would like more variation for the arsenal. I have some hares ears, scuds, buggers, and crayfish. then some dries like mayfly, blue winged olive, light and dark hendricks, elk hair caddis and adams. Also have a hopper that I haven't had the chance to pull out yet. I haven't ventured into the stone flies yet, not sure about those. Is there anything else you'd suggest?

I'll keep you posted how it goes!

[d.roy]

Welcome to the board Marc V - I see you're getting just as excited for the weekend as I am. I just posted a topic here in anticipation of our trip - I didn't see your post until after mine was posted! I think we're in for a great weekend - from what I can tell, this is a great river system. Its also great to have some good tips here on fishing mn - thanks guys! Is anyone else from this forum planning on being in the S. Branch Root area this weekend?

[JIvers]

Chest waders are fine for the section of the Root around Forestville--I have fished it since I was five, and have yet to find water that went over my head.

It is possible I will be on the the South Branch this weekend--right now, I am planning a walleye trip to Pepin, but if that falls through, I will be on the Root, weather permitting. Was on there over the Fourth, and had a good day.

[-Marc V-]

Hey Everybody . . . Thought I'd give you an update of the weekend of fishing.

Started off thursday night. We only have about half hour of enough light to see where we were casting. I got about 5 or 6 right inside of the Forestville State Park. Largest that night about 9" to 10". Another buddy got 3 to 4 smaller browns. Caught on size 2 panther martins.

Next day we hit it pretty hard further down stream from the state park about 3 to 5 miles. We saw trout rising constantly in a pool, but every dry fly we threw at them they would let pass by. That day was also slower. A fishing partner caught some out of a nice large pool downstream from the A-loop in the state park. Out of that pool he caught crappie, largemouth bass and brown trout. Amazing.

Then we took a road trip looking for a quality fly shop. Ran thru Preston, which has fly fishing guys on their city banners on the streets, giant trout float, but couldn't find anywhere with a quality fly selection. Stopped at Curt's in Preston. What a character that guy was. Then we went thru Fountain, Wykoff, and finally Spring Valley. Stopped at the S & S bait. Blugeoned the local kid working the shop for fishing spots and techniques. He sold us on the Spring Valley Creek with tons of pics of 23"+ fish. Tried that, caught one little brown, buddy caught a shiner and we caught a bunch of creek chub.

Headed back to Forestville State Park and worked the Canfield Creek in the park (which we lovingly named the Can of Sh** Creek). It looked like a beatiful stream, ran really cold, but no fish even seen in it.

Then a buddy caught an 11.5" about 100 yards up stream of the horse bridge in the park, I caught about a 10" and another buddy caught some misc. small ones.

Another guy we were fishing with caught a 14" with a holographic panther martin right in the park in the pool with the log jam in it by loop A.

Caught one trout on the fly. Blue Winged Olive #20. Had a trout almost hit a wooly bugger stripping it. Little hope for the wooly buggers.

Almost all the fish we were catching were in the rapids. I worked the pools to death, but mostly got them in the rapids. Used all spinners. Tried to night fish with some crawlers, but creek side critters and bats swiping at my line when casting got me out of that quick. Fly fishing the next night produced a bat hitting my rod, and four bats flying within arms length from me. That's a little freaky. That ended that nights fishing.

Saw fish rising all over and one guy was catching with tricos. Too bad we couldn't find a fly shop that carried tricos. We did in Lanesboro, but by then we didn't have much time to fish anymore.

Jetted up to Whitewater Sunday and caught some nice stocked rainbows, largest about 13". Then a few little browns.

I'm fished out. I give it will Wednesday before I'm good to go again.

Thanks for all the tips guys! It was a fun weekend!

[Carl Spackler]

Hey Marc,
Glad you had a decent time this past weekend. The weather was perfect!
Couple questions...
Where's there a shop that has flies in Lanesboro? My wife and I were down there this past weekend, and I surprisingly didn't see any fly shops. Fishing shop with fly gear somewhere?

Sounds like you're fairly new to fly-fishing. Have you picked up "Fly-fishing Midwest Spring Creeks" by Ross Mueller? It's a great book with lots of ideas on other fly patterns besides the ol' prince and pt standby. One of the best flies for this area is the black wet fly. Although last night I caught two 14+" and a few smaller browns on a BH prince. If you haven't already, get the DNR Trout fishing access booklet. When you've got the time check out some of the spots where Habitat Improvement work has been done. There are plenty of pigs out there if you can find them...there's good lunker structure in some of the HI work. Of course there are big guys in the Root, too.

[-Marc V-]

Hey Carl . . . Quite a bit of what we were fishing was Habitat Improvement stream. I do know the DNR book you're referring to, that's the book we used to get around the stream area down there. Like the Canfield looked like all wonderful stream, but we just didn't see any in it.

Thanks for the tip on the Fly Fishing Midwest Creeks, I'll definitely check that out.

It wasn't even a fishing shop in Lanesboro we found. It was a little one room place right next to a resturante with patio seating. Really small, but they carried some flies and had the tricos (only two left) that we were looking for. The place mainly rented out tubes for kids to float down the river. Maybe we should open a fly shop down there and see how we do!

[DARK30]

Curt at Curt's is a character you say? I'd say AT LEAST a character! Nice guy though...just listen, don't talk much

Hows the water look around Preston? I haven't been around there since May but it was really low...Ended up fishing east of Lanesboro.

WET NETS!

------------------
cast,cast,cast,cast......

[Spindoctor]

Marc-v, the shop that you're referring to is Root River Outfitters. Great bunch of folks, good place to rent a canoe.
Spindoctor

[-Marc V-]

The water levels were good. Probably about perfect actually. I didn't see any of the undercut banks above the waterline. The water was pretty clear. From what the state park workers say the water levels just dropped back down to normal after they were up from rain last week.

Where do you fish east of Lanesboro? Still in the Root? From the maps I was looking at I didn't see much designated trout stream east of Lanesboro. I would like to try different sections of the Root. The sections by the State Park were alright, but they didn't quite do it for me. I have a feeling there are better sections of the stream and just need to take some time to get to know it.

I liked Curt. We were in there for about 15 minutes and he took turns giving the three of us a hard time. He'd get bored with one, then move on to the next. All in a good way though. I couldn't think of any comebacks for him. Took me off guard, the guy didn't hold anything back. Probably gets a lot of us (speaking for myself anyway) Twin City folk in there, and he probably has a good time watching our heads spin.

[walleye4_life]

Hey Marc-
Just wanted to say thanks for showin me some of the ropes this weekend. Had a great time tying into my first trout action and I can't wait to go after them again. I am truely hooked. Great weekend all together great people, great area, and great fishin! We'll have to hook up and go to Mille Lacs some weekend maybe I can show you a spot or two.

[-Marc V-]

Walleye_4Life . . . you may need to change that to trout_4life now. You learned it all on your own. All I did was make a couple simple suggestions. You out-fished everybody, so maybe I should be taking lessons from you.

Let me know about the Mille Lacs trip. I haven't made it up to that lake yet fishing.

Thanks for the tip on undesignated stream SpinDoctor. I know there are hogs in the Root somewhere. Saw a Minnestoa Bound on it few months back. They were catching browns the same size as the smallies out of the same pools. It was amazing the size of some of the browns they were getting. Seemed like they were catching them with regularity also.

Till next time. There will be many dreams of fish in my sleep.

[Spindoctor]

Hey Marc-V,
Don't worry about it being designated water, any place on the Root all the way to the Mississip is holding trout but because of less than ideal conditions it is not stocked.
After Rushford the bottom gets very sandy,so trout are not thick, but when you get one it is usually a Kodak moment (Large). Spinners and cranks recomended (try Super Bows). Spring and fall can be dynamite. Bass, sauger, walleye and pike work these waters as well. Fishing pressure is light, please release the "spotted monsters".
John Eggers

[-Marc V-]

Hey Carl . . . Thanks for the tip on the book by Ross Mueller. It blows my mind everytime I read it. He lays everything out so simply and has really shown me how much more there is to learn with every read. I take it with me everywhere I go. Awesome book!

Was down Whitewater last weekend for a few hours and the old'n'trusted BH Prince Nymph and PT pulled thru again. Lot of fish, biggest probably being 12" Rainbow and a Brown to match, with many other smaller fish. Tried a foam bettle with no luck, also some other nymphs with no luck. Didn't see anything hatching so stayed with the nymphs.

Fish ripped off my pink strike indicators. Happened a couple times and one of the fish was fairly good sized. Makes me think about putting a hook in those things.