Nymphing: oft-maligned, misunderstood mode that when applied in even a decent fashion brings innumerable trout to one's hand.  This time of year - no prolific hatches, fewer anglers and many of those few looking to fish terrestrial patterns and/or thinking ahead to tricos...    one can walk alone on a SE MN trout stream, going ankles to balls deep wet-wading and catch a lot of fish.  Good number of big fish.  One can fish early - be home by 830 AM.  I find this to be very desirable and very practically manageable.

In the context of these two recent short outings, I would offer these statements:

• Had I fished a dry fly attractor or a hopper I would have caught many fewer fish, and probably no big fish.  It is very likely I would not have filled my creel with fish that met the various criteria.  It does not follow that I would have had a poor or necessarily unfulfilling outing, but I think that, given my goals, I would have had an unfulfilling outing.
• Had I simply fished a nymph under an indicator - a static rig - I would have caught some fish, maybe a big one; maybe a creel full but the numbers would have been down.
• The outings were highlighted by reading water and patiently exploring.  I remember in ~2002 one guy said to me "you just gotta keep moving that indicator to get them sonsabiches."  Fishing alone, standing and looking, peering in and then going in with nymph flies; pretty much any in the box.  This is actually a middle ground between sight fishing and blind fishing.  I think of the former as spotting fish and approaching; the latter as fan casting or probing likely water.  One might describe nymphing as probing likely water.  But I'd argue that in some modes it is sighting the water that holds fish; sighting water for which it is a known fact that fish are held there (and thus sighting the fish) and approaching.
• The fish that were killed all had empty stomachs except one RBT that had a gut full of periphyton.  I don't remember seeing that; it was remarkable to me.  
• Never did walk the bank one time for one second.  Always in the water; staying cool, out of the head-high vegetation and all it has to offer.  My approximation is that being in the water reduced my fish count by 0%.  
• Fish are in deep holes; in the bellies and tucked right up to the plunge lip.  You can envision this and see why they are good lays; good places for fish to feel safe. Don't fish dead water; another good analytical that I read a long time ago.  At first read one might pass right over it, as understood and implemented.  But it is not so, I think.  I take it to mean plan to actively examine water and purposefully not fish it because the various ratios that describe time, effort, difficulty, probable size of fish present, etc. confirm that it ought to be skipped.  Not just enough to say "yeah I know, don't fish dead water."  For an angler with limited time on the stream, a love for seams and a need for good protein there must be an active approach to deleting water from the day's exploration.  This can be cast aside in situations that allow casual perusing; for example a day-trip car-drop deal with Surly.

Outing number one:

Death is part of it.  Light dying and rising again.  That RBT was hiding in this side-channel; no cast was afforded due to canopy.  With only tippet out of the guides, the rig was set above the lip of the pool.  The indicator showed some not-understood irregularity in its path.  Which confirmed for me that a fish had grasped one of the flies and was hanging onto it with its jaws.  That was the information I needed.

A nice triangle of gray water.  Drift the red line and then mend or delay such that the rig lingers.  One big fish came of there.

Found this lamprey laying still on the streambed; appeared to be dead.  But on further exam, it was in fact moving; just moving.

Lead nymph, trout, trailer.

Absolute destruction hole.  So full of fish I walked away from it; left the stream.  Down deep, twitch, take.

Last fish of the day; the short-mouth.

Outing number two:

First fish of the day, taped at 16 inches even.  

Few fish later I saw this and it struck me as maybe more telling and/or important than would be images of any of the 12" fish that were cut open.  For this proten gathering there is blood right on one's own hands.

On this day the trout were juiced; all fought hard; seemed to me to be exceptionally hard.  I've wondered if it was in fact the case; will never know.  Wondered if it was some combination of weather, pressure, time of day and feeding situation.  The 2 wt was moderately challenged.

Wet wading; just stay in the stream.  Leave this note on your dashboard: FYI, I am going upstream and I will surely walk back downstream in the water so as to avoid the vegetation; good luck to you in all your affairs from here on out.

I don't know the exact length of this fish but it was noticeably bigger than the 16" I taped.  It doesn't look huge in either of these pics.

Two big fish left me with good memories only.  First one was from the next hole down from this picture; it was holding in a bubble trail flowing out of the main pool.  It was a big log of a BNT.  On hooking, it leapt maybe 4-5 feet and when it hit the water a big bass note resonated.  Then it did it again and left the same bass note.  I was very much engaged.  It's unclear to me exactly what happened but in pretty short order the fish came unpinned.  The second was in the hole pictured here.  I hooked a fish deep, felt it, and then it seemed to stop.  Pressure on the rod suggested maybe the trailing fly had snagged on woody debris.  Some uncounted seconds later my rod was pulled out almost flat in front of me and then it thrubbed about 5-6 times as the fish ran across and up that pool and simply shattered the tippet.  Uncontrollable.  Unseen.  But understood and appreciated.  2/4 on big fish, not bad.  And I believe that all four ate the big lead nymph.

Some fish to eat.  I underestimated the size of the fish in the foreground.  In fact my hand-span method regulary underestimates trout size (likely story, I know). 

Decided to fillet instead of cook whole.  Family likes this better because the eating is easier.

Pesto crust; credit my wife.

Broc from a friend, with pine nuts and shaved parmesan cheese, olive oil.  We were not wanting for anything else.