by Jim Sauter
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"... it is best to keep those outdoor lights off just in case. That is one way you can help the migration."  Ross Ellet, ABC Meteorologist
 
Greetings from the TCTU Streamkeepers. 
In last month’s newsletter, I shared that I visited with another angler at an area trout stream, TCTU member Gene Scheffler.  He graciously gave me two of his Chuck Caddis flies. 
Well, I had a chance to use the size 16 fly on the SB Whitewater on Saturday, May 2.  Near sunset I decided to give the Chuck Caddis a try and immediately caught four nice sized browns including the largest brown trout of the season so far for me.  The Chuck Caddis worked!  Another angler friend recently gave me some woodchuck fur, so I will be tying some of these soon!  If you don’t have a Chuck Caddis handy, the Mother’s Day Caddis will probably work.
After a long drive to the SB, I encountered numerous other anglers in the area including a family with 3 children.  One of the lads decided to fish very close to me, and what I thought was a splash from a trout turned out to be his large bobber.  He had made a truly amazing cast with a beautiful zebco.  Lots of fun!
Even though the river was "crowded" by my standards, the trout remained very active.  One of the other elderly fishermen that I visited with had been there since 5:00 am when the temperature was a brisk 26 degrees.  The air temp when I arrived was a balmy 60 degrees.

 by Doug Moran
In many Upper Midwest trout watersheds, invasive species management often focuses on well-known culprits like buckthorn or reed canary grass. Yet another plant—wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)—is quietly degrading trout stream riparian zones in ways that directly impact habitat quality, water temperature, and restoration success.  While commonly viewed as a roadside nuisance, wild parsnip can have outsized ecological consequences when it establishes along streambanks and floodplains.
Wild parsnip readily forms dense, often monotypic stands that displace native riparian vegetation such as sedges, grasses, and forbs. These native plants typically provide deep, fibrous root systems that stabilize streambanks and support diverse ecological functions.In contrast, parsnip-dominated areas tend to have simpler structure and shallower root systems. The result is reduced bank stability and an increased likelihood of erosion, particularly during high flow events.  For trout streams, this shift matters. As banks destabilize, more sediment enters the channel—setting off a chain reaction of habitat degradation.

How You Can Help
TCTU has expanded its habitat efforts to include taking action on wild parsnips. We have several events either planned or in development, so make sure you check our Events Page to help.

by Bob Luck
​My wife says I treat trout fishing like a job.  Just about every weekday morning I pack my lunch, load my waders into the car, give her a kiss and tell her the same thing that Black Bill told his wife before catching the state record stream trout on the Whitewater River:  “I’m going out to catch the big one”.  And sometimes I do, although nowhere near the size of Black Bill’s 14 pounder.  Last year may have been my best big-fish year ever.  I caught ten trout in the Driftless area over 16”, including two that were 20”. 
This being fishing, last year's success has inevitably led to this year's failure.  I have been catching plenty of 10-11 inchers, less in the 12-14” range than I usually do, and my biggest fish so far taped out at a measly 15”.  There have been a few opportunities:  I was fishing a bankside pocket on the Kinni in mid April when my nymph stopped.  I set the hook and saw a large head come out of the water.  Then…nothing.  Two weeks ago, I fished a cramped, brushy stream on a tip from Doug Moran.  On the second hole I had a swing and miss from a trout that looked close to 20”.  I reported this to Doug, who went back with his spinning rod and sent me a photo of an 18” brown trout—his personal best.  If I were a bigger person, I’d be happy for Doug.  ​

In 2014, Minnesota passed a riparian buffer law, requiring perennial vegetative buffers of up to 50 feet along lakes, rivers, and streams and buffers of 16.5 feet along ditches.   The objective of this law was to reduce sedimentation and nutrient loading in order to improve aquatic ecosystem health.  
Is the law working?
That is the question that the TCTU Streamkeepers set out to answer last year, by doing macroinvertebrate sampling at two sites on the South Branch of the Whitewater River, following up on research that had been conducted in 2018, shortly after the law's implementation.  A team of amateur entomologists including Mitch Abbett, Carl Nelson, Mark Peerenboom, Jim Sauter and Dave Sauter (aka Jim's brother) collected samples of insects that were analyzed by MNTU Habitat Director Dr. Jennifer Biederman and Winona State PhD Candidate Will Varela.  Doug Moran provided angling support.

Thanks to John Edstrom for a great presentation.  A video of his presentation is on our YouTube channel here.  You can view or download his slides below.  

by Bob Luck
A big thank you to everybody who attended the Earth Day Trash Pickup in Lakeville.  This year's event was "choose your own adventure" style.  My wife Sahya and I picked up along South Creek near the border with Farmington.  Lots of trash to clean!  We also did a bit of seining in the water and found some scuds, but no mayflies, caddis flies or stone flies,  Hopefully the stream restoration project we have in store will help to change that.
Earth Day is this Wednesday, April 22nd.  The weeds are low and the trash stands out.  If you get a chance, please clean up in your neighborhood, or pick up some trash the next time you are out on the stream!

by Bob Luck
“Sometimes I find it hard to pick a topic for my monthly TCTU column”, I told my wife Sahya.  “But this time is easy. I am going to write about how my fishing rods got lost in Turkey.”  “They didn’t get lost in Turkey”, she replied.  “They got lost in Minneapolis”.  She was right.
I spend most of my year either fishing or traveling, but I rarely combine the two.  I do my fishing from April to November, mostly in the Driftless Area with an occasional outing to the Mississippi, or the St. Croix, and a rare trip to the Rockies.  I do my traveling from December through March.  I leave my fishing rods at home and focus on culture, history, food and marriage maintenance.
But last Fall, when Sahya told me she wanted to visit Turkey, I started plotting.  Turkey has plenty of warm, sunny places along with great food, culture and a fascinating history, but it also has high mountains and all kinds of interesting subspecies of brown trout.  I negotiated with Sahya to give me a few days off at the beginning of April, and tracked down a local fly fishing guide who was willing to take me on a fishing/camping excursion into the Taurus mountains just north of the Mediterranean city of Antalya.  My guide, Tuncay, advised me to bring rods, waders and gear because fly fishing gear is expensive or unavailable in Turkey, and his supply is limited.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH
Kudos to TCTU member Chris O'Brien for his recent comments in the Minnesota Star Tribune Article about the Vermillion River.  Source:  Johnson, Cloe. "Health officials have new advice on what fish are safe to eat in Minnesota."  Minnesota Star Tribune, 2 May 2026. 
“I think there’s a lot of families fishing [around the Vermillion River], and a lot of kids getting excited about keeping their trout that they catch,” O’Brien said. “It’s (i.e., changes in the fish consumption rules) definitely a loss in recreational opportunity for sure.”

STREAMKEEPER NOTES
We've already recorded our first chemical monitoring readings of the spring!  Kudos to Rowe Winecoff and Keith Ketchmark for taking our first readings for 2026!  The "spring flush" of nitrate pollution is coming soon.
The spring flush of nitrate pollution is a seasonal surge in nitrogen concentration in waterways, peaking as springtime rains wash fertilizer and manure from agricultural fields into surface and groundwater before crops can absorb it. This phenomenon, worsened by climate-driven, high-intensity rain events, causes significant ecological damage, including algal blooms and fish kills, while also threatening drinking water with high nitrate levels that can cause health problems like blue baby syndrome.
Every single data point we upload helps us build a clearer picture of stream health so we can strive for clean water for generations to come.
If you want to learn more about chemical monitoring of streams, please join our event on April 18th.
 In my last fishing excursion to Wisconsin, I discovered a new fly.  A friendly angler (who turned out to be TCTU member Gene Scheffler) called it the Chuck Caddis.  Gene was very generous and gave me one in size 16 and another in size 18.  The Chuck Caddis uses woodchuck hair.  I'll have to give it a try and tie up a few!  I just need to find some woodchuck hair. ​

Thanks to all those who attended our chapter gathering last night, and special thanks to Melissa Wagner of the Lanesboro DNR office for her presentation on stocking.   You can find a a link to the video of the presentation as well as a PDF copy below.

by Jim Sauter
"The child in nature is an endangered species, and the health of children and the health of the Earth are inseparable."  Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

Greetings from the TCTU Streamkeepers. 
Spring has arrived, and this is the time where I am switching modes from fly tying to stream monitoring and fishing.  My contribution to the Laughing Trout Bug Bank this year was 50 pink squirrels.  I have attached a photo and recipe/ instructions at the bottom of this article.
Randy Lage, with the help of Chip Meyer and Craig Passow, organized and recruited some members of the Laughing Trout Fly Fishing Club to tie flies for various youth, veterans, and other organizations.  The purpose is to promote fly fishing, warm water fishing, and fly tying.  The Bug Bank is a sub-committee of Laughing Trout Fly Fishing Club and has provided outreach to various groups and organizations.  The Laughing Trout Bug Bank continues to explore other groups and organizations that may benefit from these donations. 
The Laughing Trout club meets every Wednesday evening at the Wayzata American Legion at 6:00 pm.  There are some very highly skilled fly tiers in this group, and they have even allowed me join, sit in, and learn a few things.  All are welcome.
There are other excellent fly tying opportunities in the Twin Cites metro area such as the St. Paul Fly Tiers & Fishing Club and at various fly fishing shops.  The St. Paul Fly Tiers meet on Thursday nights at 7:30 pm at the VFW in North St. Paul. 
Our TCTU Streamkeeper group is gearing up for our 2026 monitoring season. 

by Bob Luck
​It was 56 degrees and sunny when my plane from Tokyo touched down on Monday afternoon.  “Perfect spring weather”, I thought as I got off at the Nicollet LRT station and walked back to the apartment I had last seen in January when I decamped to Asia for warmer weather and better food.
Tuesday’s weather was less than perfect.  Overcast, with a few snow flurries, a pesky wind from the Northwest, and a forecast high of 40.  “Maybe this lousy weather will bring a good Blue-winged Olive hatch” I told myself as I got into my car and drove to my friend Mike Miller’s farm on the Lower Kinni.  Mike was still down in Florida, but had told me I could go ahead and drive down his dirt road towards the river to avoid a long walk in.  I hesitated briefly when I got to the hill overlooking the river, but the track looked good, so I drove to where the road ends a few hundred yards from the river.
Nothing was hatching, so I worked my way upstream, tightlining a nymph with my Tenkara rod.  After two hours of casting practice, I picked up five fish in a deep run that we call the Otter Hole.  

by Kevin Wier
2025 was another great year for the Foster the Outdoors mentorship program.  We paired a total of 12 youth with volunteer mentors and three of the youth this year were young ladies.  In the March edition of the MNTU newsletter we had the opportunity to highlight and thank some of the wonderful partners who make this mentorship program tick.  Of course the real MVP’s of the program are the mentors themselves and we highlight some of their adventures in the article as well.  You can see the full article here: https://mntu.org/newsletter/
At the risk of stating the obvious, we can’t run the program without mentors. 

On March 10, 2026 twelve Charter Members approved the formation of a Twin Cities-based Fly Fishing Guides Association.  The goal of the Association is to elevate the sport through scientific literacy, conservation leadership, and exceptional client experience.  If you'd like more information on the Association, please email John Edstrom or Carl Maijer.  

Regular readers of our newsletter may recall that TCTU has adopted Neonic-treated seeds as its key advocacy issue for 2026.  To learn more about these dangerous insecticides, and what we plan to do about them, please read the document below.  If you would like to join our efforts, please click here to fill out a brief survey.

Thanks to all those who attended our chapter gathering last night. Special thanks to our guest speakers including Randy Arnold, Kevin Wier, Zander Cummins and Kasey Yallaly.
If you want to get to work with Randy on Habitat Projects in Wisconsin, email him: [email protected]​
If you want to get involved with Foster the Outdoors, email them: [email protected]​
If you want to attend Neonics Lobby Day at the Capitol, you can find details and registration here
You can find a pdf version of the presentations below.  If you'd like to watch a video of Kasey's presentation, you can find it on our YouTube channel here.  Don't forget to like and subscribe.
See you next month!

Here is a 1-page primer on Neonics for hunters and anglers, prepared by the TCTU Neonics Advocacy Team

by Jim Sauter
If you are like me, you enjoy watching the birds almost as much as catching trout when wading our streams.  According to Andrew Halberg in his "Stop the Thud" bird study at the U of M, one of the most susceptible birds for colliding into windows can often be seen by many of our streams- the Warbler.  We should start seeing them reappear in Minnesota in April and May.
Quote of the Month:  "Approximately 365 million to over 1 billion birds are killed by colliding with windows in the United States every year...  The total decrease in bird populations over the last 50 years is about 2.9 billion birds."  His study also looks at ways to help mitigate this issue.
Andrew Halberg, Ph.D. Candidate, U of M.  Stop the Thud Study
For more information about Andrew's study, click here.
  
Our days are getting longer, and we seem to have passed the coldest days of the year.  I have not yet ventured to any streams yet, but I'm hoping to get out there in the coming weeks as our air temperatures start hitting the 40 and even 50 degree mark.  Catch and release season is open for trout in many Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa streams.
This is also the time of year when we begin gearing up for the upcoming TCTU Streamkeeper season. 

STREAM MONITORING IN 2026
As we begin the 2026 stream monitoring season, this is a good opportunity for you to get involved.  We have two categories of stream monitors.
1.  Targeted Streamkeepers- TCTU has stream monitoring teams that are taking chemical tests on nine streams around the metro area.  The TCTU streams include Belle Creek, Brown's Creek, Eagle Creek, Hay Creek, Ike's/ MOA Creek, Little Cannon River, South Branch Vermillion, South Branch Whitewater River, and Trout Brook.  Our targeted teams for 2026 are complete.
2.  General Streamkeepers.  These are members that are randomly monitoring streams during the season at times and locations of their choosing.  We invite and encourage any TCTU member to join our general streamkeeper group.
The chemical monitoring season begins in April and concludes at the end of October. 
If you have an interest in becoming a General Streamkeeper in the upcoming season, please contact me at:  [email protected]
We plan on conducting on-stream training in April.  Be sure to check the events page on our website in the coming month to sign up.  More information will also be in the March newsletter.
TCTU STREAMKEEPER TRAINING
We will do on-stream water quality chemical training for new Streamkeepers, current Streamkeepers that need some refresher training, and anyone that has interest in learning more about taking chemical water tests.  We will follow the Izaak Walton League Save Our Stream (i.e. SOS) protocol and learn about taking measurements including water temperature, clarity, nitrates, nitrites, pH, alkalinity, hardness, phosphate, and salt.  We will also discuss the updated Google Form that we will use to record the data.
Date:  Saturday, April 18, 2026
Time:  10:00 am
Location:  TBD. An event link with the location will be available soon.

If you want to see some of our monitoring results from prior years, you can create an account and log into the Clean Water Hub at:
https://www.cleanwaterhub.org/account/login
1.  Log in with email address and password
2.  Scroll down and click “Search Sites” and enter TCTU
3.  Scroll down and click “My Organizations"
4.  Select either “Non Target Waters TCTU” or “TCTU-Target Streams”
5.  Please note that we have two pages of streams for Targeted Streams
6.  Click SOS Chemical to find our data from prior years.  We also have the biological test results that we gathered at Eagle Creek and the Whitewater River on the Clean Water Hub.
​
SALT WATCH, JANUARY 2026
Special thank you to Abby Hileman from the Izaak Walton League of America for her contributions as we recently completed the Salt Watch at the end of January.  Results and a more detailed report from our partner organization, the Izaak Walton League, will be  forthcoming in future newsletters.
Source:  Abby Hileman, Salt Watch Coordinator, Izaak Walton League of America
"Did you know that one teaspoon of salt has the potential to permanently pollute five gallons of water? Once salt enters the environment, there is no feasible way to remove it. As it does not break down, salt continually builds up in our soils, groundwater, and surface waterways. Most water utilities also do not have the funding or infrastructure to remove salt from drinking water.
Readings like Harold Swalik's (i.e., see results below) at the Mall of America stream are over the chloride threshold (230mg/L) of what the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be chronically toxic to freshwater aquatic life. These concentrations are expected to rise as increasing temperatures cause snowmelt and rainfall to wash even more salt into our streams, putting further strain on aquatic life.
Monitoring our waterways and sharing results are both crucial steps to starting the conversation about smart salting practices, as we can always do better when it comes to balancing the scale on environmental protection and public safety." 
Thank you to all our Streamkeepers for your great work in helping to monitor our streams! 
 SALT/ CHLORIDE READING 2026
OBSERVER: Harold Slawik
OBSERVER NOTES:  The habitat work from last summer on MOA Creek is progressing well.
LOCATION:  MOA/ IKE'S CREEK
DATE:  February 6, 2026
Chloride Reading:  283 mg/l, Better than usual but still very high
Water temperature was 46.2 degrees C
Chloride (Cl), mg/L readings

• excellent= 0-20
• good= 21-50
• fair= 51-250
• poor>250

CHLORIDE TESTING- A DEEPER DIVE FOR MEANING
Streamkeeper Harold Slawik did an AI query about our chloride testing, and this is what he discovered:
"I am using a Quantab brand chloride test strip kit provided by the Izaak Walton League of America to measure the chloride levels in a local stream. What chloride compounds will the test strip detect in addition to sodium chloride (salt)?
AI Response:  Great question — and the chemistry behind the Quantab strip is key to answering it. The strips work by reacting with chloride ions (Cl⁻) in solution. The strip is impregnated with silver dichromate (Ag₂Cr₂O₇). When dipped in water, chloride ions react with silver ions from the silver dichromate to precipitate insoluble silver chloride, turning the strip from brown to white. The length of the white region indicates chloride concentration. 
The critical point is that the strip detects the chloride ion itself, not any specific chloride compound. This means it will respond to the dissolved Cl⁻ ions released by any soluble chloride salt in the water, regardless of what cation (positive ion) is paired with it. Common chloride sources in streams that would be detected include:

• Sodium chloride (NaCl) — road salt, the most common source
• Calcium chloride (CaCl₂) — also widely used as a road deicer and dust suppressant
• Magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) — another road deicer, common in liquid anti-icing products
• Potassium chloride (KCl) — found in water softener discharge and some fertilizers
• Ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl) — can appear in some industrial discharges or fertilizers
• Ferric/ferrous chloride (FeCl₃/FeCl₂) — used in water treatment and industrial processes
• Hydrochloric acid (HCl) — industrial runoff, though uncommon in streams

In the context of the Izaak Walton League's stream monitoring program, road salt (i.e., NaCl and CaCl₂) is typically the dominant source of elevated chloride in freshwater streams, especially in regions where winter road treatment is common. The strips won't distinguish between these sources — they simply measure the total dissolved chloride ion concentration from all sources combined."
That's all for now.
Tight lines.
Jim Sauter
TCTU Streamkeeper Coordinator
PHOTOS
MOA/ IKE'S CREEK HABITAT WORK, May 12, 2025
Relocating Brook Trout During Habitat Work
Photos by Jim Sauter