Minnesota Steelheader

    As the saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", and it’s just as true for a Minnesota Steelheader. Now’s a good time to start going through your gear since you’re probably not using it frequently. Summer is busy Family time with activities and vacations, which pushes fishing to the back burner. Being an old-school Minnesotan through and through, I get groggy and disoriented any time the temperature or humidity is above 75 – I can barely function and move at turtle-speed; so a task where I can stay stationary in the heat is just my speed. The trout streams are bug-infested tropical jungles overgrown with nettles at this time of year. If you’ve ever been hot and sweaty, then blundered through a nettle patch in a tee-shirt, it’s a whole new class of misery and I avoid it like the plague. Could I have some cheese with my whine please?     But there’s a good reason to get active and start doing some prep and prevention. Again, you...

 Years ago all an angler had was a paper regulation booklet and the word from fellow anglers and DNR officials stating that treble hooks are not allowed in our north shore tributaries below the posted boundaries.  This should be enough, right? Today we still have those regulation booklets and honestly they have come a long way in clarifying the dos and don'ts regarding our north shore fishery.  We also have dozens of signs along our rivers explaining the dos and don't as well as specifically stating the use of treble hooks. If that was not enough, anglers can simply search the internet.  Heck, these days, you can search stream side right from your phone.  In fact this post will be available streamside to anyone willing to take the time to search the web or scan the UR code from our report cards that went out this spring. Pictured above is a photo of a a crankbait that is in many o' bass anglers tackle arsenal. Heck, I have a few myself. T...

    Latest Creel Project updates:     Things have pretty well wound down on the Lower and Mid Shores although there are still probably a few fish around. You're really going to have to work for any remaining fish there.     Upper Shore, hard to say. It has undoubtedly turned the corner, problem is there are very few folks out fishing, and even less reporting so the numbers are likely lower than reality. MS got our last report a couple days ago, but that person hooked four, landed three and one bonus coaster fishing only two tribs. One of the hens was dropping eggs so you be the judge.     At any rate, here it is. Dailies from the Mid and Upper coming soon:     Regards- NMF

    Latest creel numbers updated as of 06.03.2013:     Unfortunately we don't have any temp data available for any of the Lower Shore stations. We also lost the Baptism right smack in the middle of things. Fortunately we were able to catch the front-end of the Mid so to speak, so we have some good data there.     Note that the Mid Shore creel numbers didn't increase until we hit the threshold despite flows being there; and again the trend depicted in magenta just helps to visualize a bit better since there are gaps in the daily catch data.     Still fish around for sure. Things are winding down on the lower and Mid Shores, looks like Upper Shore has just turned the corner; but again, there are still fish to be had. Look for flow bumps on the Lower/Mid for your best shot at remaining fish in those regions.   Regards- NMF

    While I'm waiting for some more creel data to come in (COUGH, Davin...), I thought I'd do a little more in-depth number crunching.     One of the things that took me a long time to get my head wrapped around was that in my early steelhead formative years, I operated exclusively under the idea that flow was it; like flow was THE THING baby! Flow goes up, go fishing was my mantra.     Now that is a fine rule to live by, except there were these years where I'd be out early in the season, the flow would be killer, and I couldn't buy a fish to save my life. And then there were years where, again early in the run, I'd be fishing out of necessity. Given a choice based on flows, I never would have been out there, but you fish when you can when it is your only opportunity. So given the absolutely dismal flow, and I'm talking like in the 50cfs range on the Knife, steelheading was gangbusters. So what gives?   ...

    Couple quick notes. I was finally able to run the temperature numbers for the Mid and as of May 25th, Upper Shore. Once again we're seeing the strong correlation between rising temps during the initial stage of the run and the point when upstream migration really kicks off. It's not quite as apparent in this chart because you are looking at the weekly means for Creel numbers, temperature and flow. When you break it down day by day, it sticks out like a sore thumb.     The point being that, as has been demonstrated by many years of MN DNR trap data, primary upstream migration of adult steelhead in numbers seems to be strongly correlated to average daily stream temperatures reaching approximately 38 degrees F, and that this is mostly independant of flow. So initially it appears that it is temperature which dictates upstream migration regardless of what the flow is. Once temps maintain above this initial threshold, subsequent pushes of fish are then dict...

Latest results have been analyzed. I'm still working on the temp and flow data, but that should be done soon. Again a HUGE thank you to all who have participated! For now: