Fishing around the Spring Runoff

The temperature finally went into the 50s today!  Great weather for fishing...except the snowmelt flows into the river, cooling it down  and staining the water.  A little stain is not a bad thing, but when the visibility gets to be less than a foot it is tough to fish flies.  And, at this time of year, a drop in water temperature shuts the feeding off cold!  Best to fish when temperatures are steady or rising, and find other things to do once the afternoon melt hits.  Here are some screenshots from the gage and camera on the Kinnickinnic River at Highway F today.

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Until about 3 pm, the river gage held steady, but started to rise quickly thereafter.

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This Secchi disk photo taken at 3 pm from the time-elapse video shows the river was still clear.

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By 5 pm. the river had become stained so much that the Secchi disk was almost invisible.  No doubt that the water temperature had dropped, too.

If you plan to fish the Kinni, check out the USGS gage and time lapse video here.  It makes a good proxy for nearby streams as well!