Root River

[Troublehook]

Hi, my family has a cabin in brownsville MN, and we go there a lot, and the way to get there is to drive over the Root river. I am just starting to get interested in trout fishing. Do you have any tips or usefull information that I could use for that area of the river? I will not fly fish, so I would use spinning gear. should I be aware about where public acsess is allowed? Thanks for any help.

[mark p]

The portion of the root river around Brownsville isn't trout water. Only the South Branch of the root is designated trout water and that joins with the main branch of the root just east of Lanesboro. There are certainly trout caught downstream of that point, but they get to be fewer and fewer the farther downstream you go.

You are however close to several trout streams. Crooked creek is probably the best stream in that vacinity and is between Brownsville and Caledonia. You also have Wildcat which is just outside Brownsville, Dexter, and Thompson creek near Hokah, Winnebago and Bee creek are south of Caledonia, and Beaver creek is another excellent stream that runs out of Beaver Creek State Park just west of Caledonia. All of those are within a 1/2 hour drive of Brownsville. Most of those run through private land, but I have never had a problem getting access other than 1 stretch on the lower end of Beaver. There are also several streams just north of Houston. My relatives used to have a farm along the South Fork of Pine Creek which is in that area so it's my old stomping grounds. A long time ago they were decent streams, but they have degraded significantly over the last 20 years.

See the following DNR HSOforum for maps of trout streams in southeast MN. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fishing/trout_streams/index.html

Good luck.

[Troublehook]

thanks a ton mark.

[Troublehook]

sorry for the short thanks mark,it was time for dinner so I had to go. I appreciate all of the information you gave me and I plan on using it. My parents grew up around there so I'm sure they know where some of these places are.

[mark p]

Glad I could help out. Let me know how you did. I miss fishing those streams. I only get back to that part of the state maybe 1 day a year to fish. I just don't have the time to drive all the way from Rochester to fish down there anymore.

[Troublehook]

will do