February 6, 2010 Report

Fished 11:00 to 14:00 on the smallest of the major river systems in southeast MN. It's a seventeen minute drive from my house to my office. It's a 30 minute drive from my house to this river. So a person can justify making the drive now and then. Second time I've fished in 2010, and first time solo. The solo bit keeps me more focused on fishing. Not sure if that's good or bad - I suppose it just is the case and it's good sometimes and lacking other times. Meaning I like company, and I like solitude too. All in all, I probably like company better at this point. The solo deals almost feel like missions to (1) recharge dead brain, and (2) catch a quota (of sorts) of fish. Not sure exactly why they feel that way.

Interesting note is that the weekend prior I had a trip planned. Axed it because it didn't feel right. Set up wasn't there and things around the house were not good to go. So it was axed. Then on Feb 6 - absolutely no plan to go fishing. But things were good and a nice little opportunity to slip away popped up. Jumped on it. Best laid plans sometimes... and sometimes not.

Drinking coffee and debating where to park and fish. A familiar and welcome thought process. There can be no bad outcome, really. So it's working through a lot of good possibilities. Decided on one place. Then got there, and decided I'd push on another few minutes, hoping for no cars. Air temp was mid 20s I think, and it was not particularly sunny so I figured most folks might stay in. Found no cars. Hiked upstream a ways, with a mind to tackle one particular hole. Fished it. Caught nothing, moved no fish and saw no fish. On to next hole upstream. With feet planted in the bed, proceeded to catch a good number of hard, shimmering trouts. To a fish, they all took the orange scud. Takes were subtle. Slow descent of indicator - no jolts or stops or twitches. Set hook, find fish. Welcome feeling. Geez, was it welcome. I think I caught maybe 7-8 browns, lost two more and missed at least one. Span of maybe 25-30 minutes. Cool thing about this hole was trying all the drifts it offered up. No rush, so try them all. Top, middle, bottom, sides. Most fish came right as fast water gave way to slower - where I imagined the nymphs probably swirling, tumbling and pausing a bit... to be preyed upon by trout waiting in hydro-cushion. Who knows though.

Took some pics - in fact conducted a little trial (in response to recent debate at local discussion forum): no fish left the water, and only two fish were touched by human hand. I used a Ketchum Release tool. Very easy to apply. And I like the pics better - fish in the water is cool. I'm not against holding fish - in fact I feel a person needs to - for therapy. Just wanted to see if it could be done - touchless, airless catching and releasing. Seems doable.

Moved upstream and stared hard at some quiet glides. Saw fish eating midges but in no predictable fashion. Really wanted that action but didn't get it. Up to one more hole - fished it and caught the smallest of the day - a single brown maybe 9 inches... also the only fish that ate something other than scud.

On the way out I swung a soft hackle in some of those glide reaches - no go though. Not regular enough it seems. That's what I'm looking for next. Waiting for a calm, 30+ F day, to sip coffee and watch fish eat bugs and then maybe catch one or two.