Minnesota Steelheader

Another quick numbers update as promised, just so you have an idea of where things may be at- Total Lower Shore creel numbers from March 10th through March 31 - Day 22: Total Rainbows Reported: 85 Total Brook Trout/Coasters Reported: 2 Steelhead Reported: 48 Kamloops Reported: 37 Average Rainbows Reported per day: 3.86 Currently not tracking numbers of Anglers reporting or CPUE, Sorry... Mid Shore is beginning to wake up, Upper Shore still fairly sleepy. Keep watching those stream temps! Regards- Minnesota Steelheader

As we said recently, we are watching conditions very closely and thanks to some early Creel Report submissions, we actually have some data analyze and post. A big MS Thank You to those who have already begun to submit reports, You folks rock! First to consider and understand is that we again only have temp data from a couple small streams along the Lower Shore beat. While this is still invaluable, you have to understand that these streams warm far more quickly, and typically hit the initiation threshold 5-8 days before larger streams such as the Knife. Given the fact of early warming on small tribs, even these streams are not there yet: This particular trib is probably the smallest of our data index streams, but even this one hasn't quite cracked 40 yet. Our next index stream is a little larger, fairly comparable to the Sucker in size. You can see the effect water volume and differences in overhead cover make in the rate of warming; overall this stream is 1-3 days behind t...

Whether you are new to Minnesota Steelheader, or simply missed it last year, we need your help! The Minnesota Steelheader Creel Project is a non-scientific poll of catch information similar to what is provided in the Official MNDNR creel reports. Your part is very simple - When you fish in 2016, simply record the following information: Species and Number Caught : Kamloops, Steelhead or Brook Trout The Region Where You Caught the Fish : Lower, Mid or Upper Shore. It is critical that you get the location correct. MS is not interested in the specific streams , simply the region, so please use this format: Lower Shore Region - All Tributaries from Mission Creek to Knife River Mid Shore Region - All Tributaries from Stewart River to Baptism River Upper Shore Region - All Tributaries from Little Marais River to Pigeon River including those on the Reservation. The Date the Fish Were Caught : Well, the date.... That's it! Species, Region and Date, how simple is that? There ...

Spring is just around the corner! Though the weather is warming, our North Shore rivers have a long way to go until they will run freely without an ice covered canopy.  In the meantime, fish are cruising the ice free shorelines of Minnesota's Lake Superior waters. There are miles and miles of good angling shoreline on our North Shore, don't be fooled that the only place to catch fish is where a crowd may be.  Notice the "nub" where the adipose fin was on the fish in this photo.  This is a healed fin clip from when this buck was just a little guy.  Remember this adipose must be absent (healed over) in order to keep your Rainbow.  Yep, this is a Kamloops strain Rainbow Trout.  These fish are raised and stocked for all you trout stamp carting anglers to catch and keep for the table.  Don't forget to check us out on Facebook.  We actively post current happenings, events, and volunteer opportunities.

March 6th 2016 Satellite Imagery Greetings from the ops center at Minnesota Steelheader! We've been in a bit of a holding pattern, keeping tabs on conditions as we like to do at this time of year, and things appear to be on the move. 2016 already looks to be a bit of an anomaly. Weather conditions have been all over the board, but we do look like we are in for an early warming trend. How this will affect steelhead overall is just too difficult to say at this moment, but we can tell you that monitoring of conditions is about to kick into high gear. Currently there are a number of items of note: With the warmer temps, the snowline is rapidly moving north. We are not seeing too much in the way of brown-up in the St. Louis valley, or along the eastern edge of the shore near the Lake, but it cannot be too far away Not much in the way of daily warming cycle as indicated by classic "heartbeat" signatures in North Shore tributary discharge and stage, but we are now wa...