Minnesota Steelheader

While we're getting close to the end, it's not over yet. The recent rains have brought in yet another push of fish albeit not as large as the previous ones. Here's the Shore-Wide picture as of 05.20.2011 (Click thumbs for larger images): Lower Shore Creel Survey Lower Shore Creel vs. Trap Numbers Mid Shore Creel Survey Upper Shore Creel Survey 2011 Shore-Wide Combined Creel Numbers vs. Average The last graphic is the 2011 total combined Lower, Mid and Upper Shore Kamloops/Steelhead numbers up against the average for the Creel data we have. 2010 continues to stand out as an example of an extremely early run and skews the stats just a bit. After the 2011 Creel ceases, I'll try to get the final numbers up as soon as I can. Note that the survey will cease around 05.25.2011, but we still should be getting a push or two of fish with precipitation events. In the meantime, get out and enjoy! Regards- NMF

My apologies! I've been in several intensive job-related schools over the last four weeks and haven't had much time to play with the data let alone fish... So here's the current picture more or less. I put the Lower Shore creel up against the trap numbers and although there are no surprizes, there are some items to take note of: Three points of clarification: The vertical lines are all annotated for what they represent and are accurate to the date they occured, not simply the week they occured in. The black vertical line is Knife River ice-out, the blue vertical line is the average date 4 Lower Shore streams reached the upstream migration temp threshold. The red line represents the date Lower Shore streams maintained 40 degrees overnight which according to DNR data, typically represents the peak of the return/migration. Once again you can see very clearly the relationships between temperatures and early-run activity. Once temps hit the upstream movement initiation threshold...

Couple items to note: Quickie graphic through 04.29.2011 to show how 2011 Lower Shore creel is shaping up against 2010. The data displayed are all weekly averages. (Update - All the prior graphics are day by day updates. What you see below are weekly averages and are a better way to make year to year comparisons. We just haven't had enough data to work with until now). Last year was a bit of an oddball simply because of how early things started. 2011 is beginning to be an oddball due to the wild daily swings in temps and flows we are getting. It's certainly affecting fishing success. Lots of hard-slogging days... Keep in mind too that there is a threshold discharge which limits (or ceases) upstream movement of steelhead and presumably kamloops. It doesn't mean fish aren't there or that it's futile fishing, it just means the fish are hunkered down and you need to change tactics. This halt only lasts until flows drop below that particular level, and on the Knife it co...

Current Index Stream flow and 2011 DNR Creel Census numbers through latest reporting date. My apologies but the DNR/MPCA sonde packages don't appear to transmit the temperature data anymore for the Mid and Upper Shore index streams (Click for Larger Image) Mid Shore Creel Graphic: Upper Shore Creel Graphic:

I was able to sneak out yesterday with the General for a rare early run fishing opportunity and it was an interesting day... I apologize in advance, the SD card on my camera apparently fried. I took a whole slug of photos I wanted to post, but all I got when I went to download them last night was a formatting error... Flows were well up on all the streams we stopped at and some of them are still screaming. Temperatures varied widely, but ranged from 36-43 degrees depending on when we stopped (morning or afternoon). The big baugaboo of the day was the wind which was cold and relentless. Thank goodness for the sun and some sheltered areas because at 15-25mph gusting to over 30mph at times, certain areas were not a lot of fun to fish. We hit fish everywhere we went, however actually landing one was a different story. I am sure I personally missed a fair number of fish just due to the wind. The gusts made keeping a tight line impossible at times, and often pulled the business end up and o...

04.13.2011 Update: The smaller Lower Shore tribs should be seeing their first substantial push of fish if the sun stays out today. Hard to say regarding the bigger ones, I just haven't gotten a reliable temp from those recently. The next creel census numbers will say a lot about what's happening. I suspect the numbers won't be as good as they could be due to a couple factors: The tribs are still blowing out: Big, high and dirty affects catch rates. That and it looks like the weather might slow things down again this weekend... (Click for Larger Image) Wow we're close! Using the DNR steelhead return study data along with plotting the temperatures of several Lower Shore tribs, you can see we're getting very close to the main returns beginning. No question we have fish movement going on already, but it's just first scouts as it were. I wish I would have had all of today's data, but I thought it better to get the chart put together and worry about what happene...