MNTU has just completed a massive 8000 foot habitat improvement project on Hay Creek off 320th Avenue. The prairie grass is growing in nicely, and the section will be ready to fish from August 1st. Please stay off until then to give the grass a little time to grow! For a map, click here. For a photo slideshow of the project, click "read more"
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By Jim Sauter
According to Paul Douglas’s weather report in the Star Tribune, the recent high temperature of 95 degrees in the metro area was the warmest day in 2023 so far. We typically see an average of 14 days in the 90-degree range. Already in 2023, we have tallied thirteen 90-degree days. This is shaping up to be a very warm summer. Let’s hope for more moderate temperatures and rain in the coming weeks and months! Our stream water temperatures have stayed remarkably cool so far this summer in most streams.
In April of 2023, Minnesota Trout Unlimited joined ten other local, state, and national environmental groups to ask the EPA to use its emergency authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act to mandate a moratorium on new concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Minnesota’s karst region until nitrate levels decline.
TCTU, in conjunction with Cabela's Rogers location, is offering free summer sessions to introduce people to the sport of fly fishing. Students will be exposed to four areas of fly fishing:
Just over 100 years ago, Charles Adams and his son Lon were out fishing in northern Michigan. From what I have read, they were somewhat frustrated by not having the right flies to match a hatch. So they visited a local friend and fly tyer Leonard Halladay in Mayfield, Michigan. Mr. Halladay tried to come up with a pattern that would meet Mr. Adams’ needs and the Adams dry fly was created.
TCTU hosted its first Fishing Adventures trip June 23-25 in Preston, Minnesota’s Trout Capital. Twelve members joined the event, a few of whom are pictured below. Some missing individuals not in the picture got a head start on the water!
A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including everything new about Habitat, Conservation, Advocacy, and, of course, a fishing report!
By Jim Sauter
In morse code, “SOS” is a signal sequence of three dits, three dots, and another three dits spelling “S-O-S”. The expression “Save Our Ship” was used by sailors to signal for help for a vessel in distress. Much in the same way, the Izaak Walton League has adopted the expression “SOS” to mean “Saving Our Streams”. What percent of our streams are currently being monitored in the United States? Best estimates are that about 30% are being monitored, and of those, over 50% are considered impaired in some way. That means that over 70% of the streams in our country are not being actively monitored. Many of those are also impaired with no data to determine trends and needs. We have made substantial progress in cleaning up our streams and lakes, but there is still a lot of work to do! Recently, several of our TCTU Streamkeepers attended the Save Our Stream Training in Winona that was sponsored by the Izaak Walton League. The SOS water testing protocol contains many of the same chemical tests that we are currently doing plus the testing of macro invertebrates. The advantage of bio monitoring is that it may show trends from pollution that do not show up with chemical testing. Adding the bio testing component is something we may want to consider as we monitor the seven trout streams in our TCTU area. Every summer, Trout Unlimited conducts a Teen Summit and Leadership Conference for teen leaders for the purpose of exchanging ideas, learning about conservation and leadership, and shaping the continually evolving TU Teen program. This is an application/interview program with only 25 teens accepted from applicants across the country each year.
A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including everything new about Habitat, Conservation, Advocacy, and, of course, a fishing report!
Greetings from your TCTU stream-keepers, and welcome to the spring 2023 season. We look forward to expanding our “targeted” streams and will be monitoring these streams in 2023: Belle Creek, Eagle Creek, Hay Creek 320th St, Hay Creek 325th St., Little Cannon, Mall of America Creek, South Branch Vermillion, and Trout Brook. In addition, we have several “general” Streamkeepers monitoring other streams on a more random and spontaneous manner. In the coming months, we hope to give you updates on stream conditions in the TCTU area and beyond.
The Minnesota State Council of Trout Unlimited, of which TCTU is a member, has started implementing an ambitious strategic plan through 2025. You can find a copy of it here.
If you missed our chapter meeting, or want to see it again, check out Matt Sment's presentation on YouTube here. You can also download a copy of his presentation.
The April Edition is here from our friends in SE MN and NE IA.
by Bob Luck
The Little Cannon River in the Sogn Valley southwest of Cannon Falls occupies a special place in my heart. A friend has a farm on the river, and he lets me fish it if I promise to lock the gate behind me and release any trout I catch. It was there, on a spring day two years ago, that I caught my first and only 20” trout in Minnesota. I was retrieving a black woolly bugger through a tongue of current, saw a flash, kept retrieving and the fish smacked it. The fight was a bit anticlimactic—the fish made one spectacular jump and then sort of gave up, but it was a beautiful wild brown, with shoulders like a linebacker. I was thrilled to hear that the Trust for Public Land (TPL), using funds from the Outdoor Heritage Fund, purchased 77 acres along the Little Cannon upstream from my friend’s farm, and turned it over to the Minnesota DNR as the Little Cannon Aquatic Management Area. A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including articles on Aquatic Insects, Habitat Improvement, and, of course, a fishing report!
Melissa Wagner of the MN DNR gave a great talk at our chapter meeting last night. If you missed it, you can catch a recording on our YouTube Channel. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel!
by David Lundeen
Three years of consistent low water has brought about challenging steelhead conditions for all anglers. For me, old stand-by tactics and spots have not produced as well as in years past. However, adapting trout Euro-Nymphing tactics for steelhead has proven to be a valuable and effective tactic to catch steelhead in these new normal conditions. While it might seem an exotic and difficult approach, it is highly accessible and affordable to anglers of all skill levels. To be clear, when I refer to Euro-Nymphing I am referring to the term and tactics as conventionally understood in the standard trout world. This means long rods, thin running line, long monofilament leaders and short drifts. Furthermore, I am not referring to the Chuck ‘N’ Duck style of steelhead fishing, though it is very effective and similar to Euro-Nymphing in that it is basically a tight-line approach. For the intent of this article I will refer only to the former. The remainder of this article will cover the principles of Euro-Nymphing as they apply to Great Lakes Steelhead. Greetings from your TCTU Streamkeepers.
Our TCTU efforts in stream monitoring are part of a much larger “crowdsourcing” effort in the driftless area. According to Dan Dauwalter from Trout Unlimited, we now have over 1,060 observations made using the WiseH2O mobile app in and around the Driftless Area. Below you will find the recent ‘2022 Activities Report’ that outlines the activity around the program through 2022. by Bob Luck
Tuesday, February 28 will be a day that changes the course of the Kinnickinnic River. I am not talking about a flood, thank goodness! The River Falls City Council will meet with the US Army Corps of Engineers to sign a contract for a feasibility study that could unlock up to $10 million in federal funding to remove the two dams in River Falls and restore the river corridor to a free flowing trout stream. Miss last night's chapter meeting? Want to see it again? Want to see Kasey's presentation materials? You have options! To see the video on our YouTube channel, click here. Kasey will also be delivering her presentation at the online Driftless Area Stream Restoration Symposium on Tuesday March 7th at 12:45 pm. For registration and details, click here. To download copies of Kasey's slides, the Rush Creel Survey or the 2022 Western Wisconsin Electroshocking summary, click the links below.
Greetings from your TCTU Streamkeepers. We are looking forward to continuing our stream monitoring efforts, and this will be our third year working with the WISEH2O app.
We are beginning to gear up for the 2023 stream monitoring season that begins in April and concludes in October. With moderate winter temperatures and almost record snowfall so far this winter, this should bode well for our area streams! TU's National Magazine featured an article on the Kinni in its Summer 2022 Edition. In case you missed it, you can download and read it here.
This just crossed our desk. If you are interested or know a college-bound senior who may be, please apply!
Randy Stevens was a professional fishing guide and owned River Rat Guide Service. He loved to fish walleye tournaments, hunt water fowl and train dogs to hunt. He loved the river life and the people he met that lived it with him. Randy passed away December 17th, 2020. As a family we decided to have a tournament to honor “RRR” and do an annual silent auction in his name and start a memorial scholarship in his name. Thanks to everybody who showed up in-person and on Zoom to approve our bylaws, elect directors, and learn about Trout in the Classroom from Amber Taylor. If you missed the meeting, or would like to take another look at Amber's presentation, you can download it by clicking on the link below. If you'd like to see the segment of "Minnesota Bound" featuring Trout in the Classrom on YouTube, click here.
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