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Showing posts from December, 2015

The Pom Pom fly - your alternative to a yarn fly

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If you are new to North Shore steelhead fishing, you will soon find out that yarn is a popular and effective "fly" for our migratory steelhead, trout, and salmon.   Many anglers simply snell a hook and place a chunk of their favorite colored yarn inside the main loop, pull the snell tight, trim up the yarn, and you are off fishing. These anglers often have several colors of yarn tucked away in their vest along with a few hook sizes for easy access. For those anglers yet to learn how to snell a hook, there are two alternatives.  You can visit your local fly shop and purchase some, or you can make your own. There are several ways to tie your own yarn flies, but if you want to try a simple alternative to a more traditional yarn fly tying pattern, give pom-poms a try.   You can find pom-poms at most craft stores.  They come in all sorts of sizes and colors, but look at the variety packs for starters.  When selecting a size, keep it to a size smaller than a dime or a pinky fingern

Lake Superior tributary clean up gets notice.

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Be part of the solution. Join the Adopt-a-River program. Since 1989, volunteers have removed over 6.5 million pounds of trash from thousands of miles of shoreline on Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and ponds. Minnesota Steelheader, a non-profit conservation group is one such volunteer group. We sure are! We (Minnesota Steelheader) have been part of the program since 2011, pulling hundreds of pounds of garbage and debris from the Sucker River over the years. The year 2014 was a memorable clean up year.  The weather was terrific.  It was a cool clear morning as the sun was gently rising in the southeasterly sky over Lake Superior.  One of those picture perfect mornings that made you just want to sit back and enjoy the scenic splendors the North Shore offers. We had an eager group of volunteers show up to help with our efforts that September morning.  We also had our staff photographer along to capture the day.  After some basic instructions and trash bag distributio