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Showing posts from April, 2017

Sucker River Angler Access - NO MORE!?

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Sucker River Access is in Jeopardy! Are you aware that the access paths from the parking lot at Scenic Highway 61 to the downstream portion below the culvert to the mouth of the Sucker River lies within private property?    If not, you should be: The paths, the wooded area on both sides of the path, the stream bank and the water to the  center-line  of the river is private property; you read that right, private property on both sides to the center of the river bed. Though there is an angler easement on upper stretches of the Sucker River, there is no angler easement from scenic HWY 61 downstream to the lake. On April 19th, 2017, the Board of Directors of Minnesota Steelheader received a call from DNR Fisheries Area Supervisor Cory Goldsworthy informing us that the landowners along left-hand side of the Sucker River looking downstream had stopped by the Fisheries Office with a message: Access to all foot traffic will be legally closed.  Knowing that Minnesota Steelheader was p

04.07.17 Update

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Greetings! Quick update for April 7th. We are getting very close to the Lower Shore attaining what Minnesota Steelheader calls the run initiation temperature. If you look at the chart below, you'll see our 2017 Lower Shore index stream is just about there. Keep in mind however that this is a very small stream, so while we are close, it warms far more quickly that larger streams like the Knife, so it will hit the threshold something like 7-10 days sooner. Even so, the Knife trap was recently opened and DNR Fisheries captured some 50+ adult steelhead already up-bound on their annual spring spawning run. French river has previously seined in the neighborhood of 400 Kamloops and 30 steelhead, and while many of those Kamloops spent a good chunk of winter in the French River, it's all very encouraging. Couple quick graphics regarding Mid and Upper Shore. Mid Shore is moving but it has a ways to go yet. Still in what we call our pre-run phase where an average of 10% of o

Latest Updates as of 04.01.17

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Greetings from Minnesota Steelheader! Just a couple quick notes we thought worth posting. Lower Shore Stream temperature info has been scarce. This is due to some packages not having been placed yet along with various gauge outages however, the daily data which is available is finally showing an upward trend. Brown-up is certainly helping this, and warmer temps are driving increases in flow as the remaining snow-pack melts. We are seeing a decent flush of melt-water runoff as snow remaining in the upper portions of the Lower Shore watersheds melts and hits the systems. Recall that the North Shore is heavily runoff dependent for flow, with the Lower more-so than the Upper due to more lakes and swamps feeding the Upper systems. The remaining melt runoff will be retarding the rate of temperature increase as it hits the systems at near-freezing temps, so base flows will remain cold for a little while longer. As I said though, the general trend is finally upward. Note the strong hea