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Showing posts from January, 2016

Cold Water Steelheading with a Trout Mentality

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 Photo Credit Benjamin Jose One sure way to improve your early-season steelheading chops is to do a little winter trout fishing. There’s nothing quite like getting a thorough beat-down prior to the steelhead season to make you pay attention to fundamentals. Given the right conditions, a winter butt-kicking can actually be quite enjoyable, and keeps you tuned and ready to go for when the big migratory rainbows once again enter North Shore Tributaries. First up on the order of business is deciding where to go. Southeast Minnesota is an option, but if you’re looking to get out before the regular Catch and Release opener which doesn’t occur in Minnesota until January, you have other options. Fortunately for me, Northeastern Iowa isn’t all that much farther away than my favorite SE Minnesota streams. Plus, I can fish any time from the Minnesota September closer all the way through until March. Sometimes conditions are just a bit better south of the border with more moderat