NE Iowa trout fishing

anybody have any feedback on the condition of the streams in NE Iowa, Decorah area? I am heading down Easter weekend and hoping the streams aren’t blown out.

Drove over a couple streams i know have trout 20 min south of there on my way turkey hunting yesterday, and the water looked great!

How’d the turkey hunt go?

Here is how I’ve done so far this April, the streams have been absolutely perfect. April 2nd I had 10+ fish over 15″ and two over 20″. I was hoping for a couple stocked rainbows or brookies for the grill but couldn’t keep the big browns off my line, which I guess is a good problem to have!

Last weekend I tried a couple new streams and went for some “stocked” fish to take home. I found some good stocked fish the first day and kept some good brookies and rainbows and caught large numbers of browns from 13-15″.

Remember, try and let the browns go as the DNR is only stocking fingerling browns. Also, the browns in streams that I know see little pressure are getting to very large sizes and fight like crazy. A “secret” stream I fish gave up 5 fish over 22″ between this year and last fall, and multiple fish 15-20″.

I usually buy myself a nice salmon fillet to make up for letting the browns go if I can’t find any brooks or bows.

Nice fish!

Fished with Estertys and did well! Probably over 50 fish a day. Lots of 12-16” browns, and about a half a dozen in the 16-19” range.

Also landed this big rainbow! It’s about 15 miles downstream of where any stocking is done, so I’m guessing this fish has been in the stream for quite some time!

Pics attached