While today is the last day of the season for a while, I managed to get out one last time this weekend and hit about three different streams throughout the day. There were several recurring themes in all of these streams – the water levels are very low, the water is very clear, and the trout are podded up big time.
I changed patterns throughout the day, catching fish on streamers, scuds, Prince Nymphs, BWO emerger/dries, midge emergers, Pink Squirrels, Black Wet Flies, and standard PT’s and managed to catch all three types of trout species here in MN.
I had the best luck fishing a cold water tibutary to one of the streams I was on. Action had been pretty thin up until I fished a little riffle/pocket out in front of the trib. There were a variety of browns and brook trout there (see the Today’s Photos page on my web site for pics. of the outing), willing to take my dry fly combo of a Midge Emerger and #20 BWO emerger/dry.
Conditions haven’t been great the last few months of the season with no rain and some very hot weather. Our streams could use a significant amount of precipitation over the next few months to try and bring water levels back to some normal level. Personally, I had to focus on hatches or dry and dropper for most of my trouting success. Yesterday was the first time I nymphed in many weeks.
Best of luck if you happen to get out today. Otherwise, I have heard very good reports about BWO and even midge activity in Iowa.