April 1st...No Foolin'

[WxGuy]

I hope many of you had a chance to get out today. If not, there's a whole weekend ahead of us!

All trout streams in SE MN are open for Catch and Release on barbless hooks from April 1st through April 15th. April 16th is the "regular" season opener.

I got out today, caught lots of fish, and had an awesome time. Fish were caught on size 12 orange scuds and size 16 and 18 PT nymphs. I used a variety of PTs from beadhead to regular and with some color variations of the thorax.

I caught this guy, too...

[Rebeleye]

I gotta stop looking at this stuff while I'm at work....

Man I gotta get out soon!

[witter1631]

i gotta stop lookin at this too im going to start day dreamin in class about fishin.. o man i am so excited to get out on the stream.

[Matt Breuer]

I know what you mean, I clicked on this and right when it opened I knew I shouldn't have!

Ice fishing isn't even over up here yet, and I just got my new fly rod yesterday! I'm biting at the bit!

Nice fish!

[d.roy]

Nice catch!! What system (river) were you working?? I was out on the Root in forestville, right in the state park. The river was in good shape (although very fast) however the fish were not too hot for my fly. Worse yet, I was outfished by a couple of buddies of mine - they each landed about 10 on their spinners! There will be days like that. I was trying anything from BH PT (reg and flashback), midge patterns, BH prince, to weighted soft hackles and was searching in all kinds of water. I had one small guy on for about 2 pulls of line - at least I wasn't 100% blanked (although I didn't land a fish all day). We had some april 1st foolin' over our way - the day started out nice and sunny then the wind picked up, clouds moved in and it rained...then snowed....then sleeted...then rained some more. That all kind of turned the fish off (per those catching fish on the spinners). Then the sun came out again but it was unfortunatley time to leave. For a few hours of fishing I can't complain - some fish were caught in our group and it was time on the river. Glad to see you caught a nice one Wx guy!

[Quickstrike]

Hey Matt, if you're dying to get a fly wet you should make a run over here and we'll get into some steelies or loopers. that's what will be taking up most of my time over the next month or so!

[Jim W]

Hey WXguy!

Beauty of a brown!!! Waaay to go my friend!

Must have gave up a decent tussle?

Jim

[A Fly Angler]

d. roy

I'd say give scuds more of a try when you are prospecting. Works for me most of the time. Plus if your buddies are taking fish on spinners, switch to a stramer pattern of some kind.

[WxGuy]

Hey Jim,

Yeah, he did put up a good fight! I was sweatin' it, and of course started to get afraid of loosing him the closer he got to me. I had a bulky fellow before him that threw the hook after a couple minutes of fighting, so my confidence needed that boost.

[d.roy]

Yes, I was wanting to throw some buggers, scuds, and the famed pink squirrel but didn't have any with me. I promptly tied some of these when I got home and will be sure to have them next time! Thanks for the suggestions.