Wayne Bartz Photo
The trout streams in SE Minnesota continue to be in great shape. The streams are clear and the flow is normal to slightly above normal. The snow-melt was slow and I don’t know of any stream that went over its bank.
BWO’s have been hatching for awhile and although they haven’t been as consistent as last year, if you hit them it is great fishing. There have been Hendricksons hatching south of 1-90 on some streams and I just got a report that there was a good Grey Caddis hatch on a stream south of 1-90. The caddis hatch on this stream usually happens a few days before the hatch north of 90. With the warm weather forecast for this week, they should be hatching everywhere by the end of the week.
Just a reminder, farmers are out in there fields in force and there will be a lot of farm vehicles on roads at all times of the day. Drive carefully.
The traditional trout opener is Saturday the 17th and with this great spring weather we have been having, expect to see a lot of people out on all streams.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI hit a stream south of I-90 Friday and was lucky enough to fish in the middle of a prolific Dark Hendrickson hatch. Every fish in the river was keyed in on them. It was simply amazing. Best fishing I’ve ever experienced on a dry in SE MN.
I’m heading down again Thursday afternoon through Friday to get some more fishing in before the craziness of the opener.
What fly would you suggest to match the grey caddis hatch? A black elk #18 or #20?
If you tie your own flies, a size 18 elk hair style using a peacock body, dun hackle and dun colored deer hair works great. A Hemingway Caddis is the fly that was developed for this hatch by Mike Lawson. A black elk hair will work also. The grey caddis around here are size 18.
The gray caddis was off in full force Sunday, Monday, and today south of 90. We fished a dun elk hair caddis with a gray body and gray hackle in #15-17, as well as a Fluttering Caddis in the same sizes.
The Hendricksons were also off en masse today north of 90.
D.A.
Thanks. I started tying this winter, but I will not have time to get the materials and tie up some Caddis with a gray body/hackle. Glad to hear my black elk hairs should do the trick.
Thanks for the input guys. The caddis we are all referring to, I think, is the same. My “common name ” reference to it is not meant to confuse, we have always just referred to it as the little black caddis. I have seen it in numerous different shades of color from jet black to light gray. The body almost always has some olive in it somewhere. About a week after this caddis shows in the southeast, it shows up in Pierce County. At least that is a guide line time frame.
I hope to capitalize on it in SE in the next couple days, and then continue to do so in Western Sconie early next week. It’s shaping up to be a great spring to be sure!
SE MN was hot the 19th. I fished from 9:30 to 5:30 thru one of the best hatches I’ve ever seen. It looked like a spotted Cadis and a dark adams, black cadis with the white floatant to lighten the color worked perfect. The fish would not hit anything sub surface…everything was on top. I had maybe 8-10 an hour! Great fun.
Tom
Wayne, Just wondering if you could tell me what kind of mayfly hatches in late september just before dark.
Depending on where you fish, On the Root the Ephoron Leukon is a good hatch that happens just before dark, this is especially in the Lanesboro area. It is a creamy white mayfly about a size 12 to 14. This hatch also happens on Smallmouth streams eailier in the month. On other streams, the main hatch then are BWO’S. They start in September and go on through October when we can’t fish them, at least for now. A new proposal from the DNR would keep the season open until the middle of October, but the earliest that would happen would be in 2012. Those are the main hatches that happen at that time of year.
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