The 2012 Minnesota trout season came to a close at the end of September, so for the most part of that month I stayed busy trying to keep my waders from drying out. I was able to explore a few new streams, roll a few more miles under my 20 year old van, and log some more adventures and memories.
One of the more successful quests was, into the White Water area, with Glen, a long time fishing buddy, where, after parking our vehicle, we walked and waded for an hour straight before making a cast.
We past up some good looking pools, but the long hike got us to a fairly remote section of stream that hadn’t seen heavy fishing pressure. The 2012 season has been very hot and dry, leaving the streams and rivers low and clear. I have found that such conditions make trout very wary and easily spooked. For this reason, getting away from highly trafficked areas is a big plus.
As much as I have tried, I have never been able to take a photo or write a page that can describe the beauty of an autumn day spent chasing trout amongst the cliffs and hardwood forests located in the driftless area of Southeast Minnesota. With the trees in full color and temps in the low 80’s, this day was about as perfect as it gets.
And then there was trout.
Over time, when fishing super clear water, I have had a little better production using spinners than with other methods of fishing. Mostly because I can position myself well downstream, and with a long cast, drop the spinner in the water without spooking the fish, then retrieve through the area where trout are feeding.
In the shallow, sometimes weedy, low water conditions, single hook One-der Bow spinners were the ideal tool for the task at hand. We found that spinners of Copper and Pumpkin-Fire, were the most productive colors.
The only mishap of the day occurred when a bolt fell out of my reel and the handle came off. I said very little about this to Glen, because it has been my experience, that more often than not, folks tend to shy away from you once they find that you have a screw loose.
I never bothered to count how many trout we caught and released. I know that I caught the first and Glen caught the last. All of the trout caught were Browns and a couple pushed the 16” mark on the scale.
It was hard to stop, but we knew that we were a couple of hours away from the car, so we tied up the lines and splashed and thrashed our way back to where we began.
We took a little extra time sitting on the bumper, taking off the waders and watching the rise of a large full moon, a couple of cold drinks and a bag of chips tasted great!
Some days just shouldn’t end.
J.A.E. Spindoctor
Spinners of the day
COPPER One-der BOW (treble hook shown)
PUMPKIN FIRE One-der BOW (treble hook shown)
