Streamkeeper Report - February 2024

By Jim Sauter

Greetings from TCTU Streamkeepers!

There is only one way to describe the winter of 2023-24 so far- WIERD. According to some local meteorologists, this is not a "real" Minnesota winter. This is going down as the mildest winter on record. The big question will be how this warm weather and lack of moisture carries over to the summer months and how it impacts streams and trout. 

Kinnickinnic River, 1/31/2024

​This past week I decided to visit some Wisconsin streams during their early catch and release season. The temperatures were in the mid- 50-degree range, and I recorded stream temperatures ranging from the 39 to 48-degrees. There was very little snow or ice on the streams. I noticed some other brave souls out trout fishing, mostly from Minnesota. One gentleman reported catching some a couple brookies using Copper Johns. Many people fishing reported having mixed success with a few fish being caught.

During the outing I noticed a pair of Mallard ducks, a Kingfisher, and three deer right next to a deer stand. There were also occasional sightings of rising trout in some spots. This Kingfisher must have forgotten to migrate this year or was back early to find some nesting territory.

I decided to break out my Izaak Walton League Salt strips to take NaCl readings on the Kinnickinnic River and Rush River. This was the first time I have tested for salt, and the process was straight forward. First you rinse a small cup 5 times, and then place about one inch of stream water in the cup. Place the Quantab strip in the cup making sure the
strip is not emersed more than halfway and wait about ten minutes for the bar on the top of the strip to turn from orange to blue or black. Then take a picture of the strip and get a longitude and latitude reading.

After returning home, I entered the data on the Clean Water Hub sponsored by the Izaak Walton League.
Please note that you may also request these free strips at this site.

Even though there has not been a lot of salt applied to area roads, there is some value in getting baseline data. The good news was that both readings were less than 1.4 Quantab units which is less than 30 parts per million. There was no salt issue in either stream.

Although the plows have not been very busy salting roads this year, I did notice some trucks out salting the roads earlier in the day due to the fog freezing effect.

There also seems to be a movement with the Department of Transportation to use brine which has a salt content of less than 25% to reduce the amount of salt used each year.

Granular salt is still used but to a lesser extent depending on the road conditions. According to the DOT website, they apply about 445,00 tons of salt in a typical year to keep our roads safer. So far this winter that number is probably much less than that.

Algae bloom - 2/1/2024

My fishing buddy and I decided to make a trek to Pine Creek in Wisconsin. This is a very small stream with lots of skittish fish. Much to my surprise, I encountered my first algae bloom on a stream on February 1, 2024. I also caught and released my first brown trout of the season. As far a milestone, this was the first time I have ever caught trout in February. Lots of firsts and fun!