Sunday and Monday reports were looking good. Highs in the mid 30s. Low winds with a bit of precipitation in the mix. Seemed like a good combination to make for some good fishing. Prior to Wisconsin's new Winter C&R season this area of Minnesota use to get hit harder by border jumpers looking for a fix as they waited until March for their local streams to open. Now that is not the case and now I'm the border jumper. Going back to the comfort of my home waters than chancing on new waters that I know nil about during the cold and bitter months of winter. I'm well aware of what will have shelf ice or be locked up back home and same cannot be said for my new local waters. Also it's pretty much the same commute either side I go with.
Sunday I grabbed my Cabela's Prime 6' 3wt and hit the road. I headed over to one of my favorite stretches of water. Arrived to a crystal clear stream that had a bit more shelf ice than the last time I had fished this stretch. Fishing was tough. The shallower runs had trout spooked before I could even get a cast in. The deeper holes keep the trout confident and less spooky and this is where I found the majority of my success tossing one of my favorite go-to streamers... The simi-seal leech.
I also decided to try a stretch that I had only thought about in the past. Caught a few up this stretch but as I continued up it it got less productive as in zero fish caught and just as many seen. Seems like it could be a little more promising with an active hatch but otherwise most of it's tiny runs were tough for nymphs let alone the streamers I was throwing further downstream. But I did land a couple before it shut down. Temps never did seem to reach the mid 30s hovering more around high 20s and barely breaking 30 likely due to the overcast skies that accompanied the entire day.
Monday again I reached for my Prime and headed over to my brook trout factory. Stream is loaded with a very healthy population of brook trout. I got to the stream only to find it looking pretty stained. Started at one of my favorite holes only to find a tree downed right through the middle off it making it tough to cast. Caught one tiny brook with no other hits and decided to hike down stream and work my way back up.
As I walked down I was a little discouraged. Lots of shelf ice in some stretches with pert near locked up areas. As I worked further down stream I could see the stream getting dirtier. I'm walking along a section of standing corn, paying more attention to the stream than anything else when suddenly I have the sh*t scared out of me as I startled 6 turkeys that were buried behind the stalks. They come running and flying out of the corn and I reach for my knife. Then I reach for a change of pants. At that point I figured I'm wide awake and have hiked far enough down stream to start fishing.
Water quality at this point is pretty bad. Less than 6" of visibility. Not entirely sure why. No cows. It hasn't really been warm or sunny enough to start a thaw. I catch a few tiny brookies. Water quality is getting worse. Clearly can see mud in the water. As I'm working upstream again I'm startled by a group of 5 ducks. At this point I'm just walking and not fishing. I come up to a hole that I've always had great success at and figured why not. I cast and instantly have a brook trout on. Good start. Next thing you know I've caught and released at least a dozen fish. It shuts down when I snag a branch and drag it through the entire hole.
Things start looking up. Water seems to be clearing and I arrive another juicy hole. This time I can definitely tell the stream is clearing up as I can see pretty deep and the riffle at the head of the pool is looking more blue green than skim chocolate milk like earlier in the day. I lose count and move on. This starts to happen at each additional hole. Finishing at the hole I started with. That first trout's siblings must've woken up by now because I landed a lot more than one tiny trout.
At the end of the day I landed god knows how many brook trout. Mostly of the same 5-6" size. A few pushing 8". But the Prime got quite the workout. And I had a good time. It could've been a lot worse. And in hindsight I'm thinking that group of ducks is what made the stream look so dirty.