The Lower Kinni This Afternoon

F Bridge on the Kinni

Andy,

With heavy rains in NE Iowa, I was thinking of heading to Wisconsin, and trying the Kinni. I noticed you posted, at 400cfs, it was unfishable. I’ve never fished the Kinni, so I was wondering what water levels and flows are fishable. Also, should I plan on fishing nymphs and streamers, mainly, or will there be any hatches?

Thanks,

Vance

 

Vance
Thanks for the contact.
Wednesday I guided the lower Kinni and my clients had active fish all day. The water was a bit stained from 3/4″ of rain the day before. Today I was going to fish the Kinni. I went golfing instead.  Rain the last two days kicked her off color but no to badly. By this morning, although the flows were coming down, it was still dirty at 150CFS. Flows over 200 will likely be unfishable, that is about the flow rate when the above photo was taken. The water looked a little better this morning.  Flows below 130 should be perfect. Realize there can be a lag time in dirtying up, as rain coming in from the top of the watershed may not show up at the bottom until 12 to 20 hours later because of the mitigating effect of the two dams in the middle. If the rain comes in below the dams it may dirty quickly while the upstream water will be fine. It is all a matter of where the rain hits.

Have not seen much for hatches as of late. Nymphs would be my first choice and black or white cone head buggers my second. The information above would pertain to the lower river(below the dams in River Falls). I have not fished the upper river since early summer.

The Rush River today looked about the same as the Kinni. Give it a day or so.

A