TR Southeast MN

On Jul 3, 12:14 pm, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:
My original plan was to camp along the Au Sable and fish the
Holy Waters of Michigan using my little cedarstrip canoe and
a bicycle shuttle but when I read the fishing reports from the
fly shops along the Au Sable I changed my mind. The hex hatch
was still in full swing and it is an exercise in futility to
float flies over fish during the day that are keyed in to feasting
at night. And I don't fish at night.

So, off to Caledonia, "The Wild Turkey Capital of Minnesota",
in the driftless area of southeastern Minnesota. I camped at
Beaver Creek Valley State Park and got to fish three days,
Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday I fished West Beaver Creek and its trib, Larson
Creek just upstream of the County 12 bridge. The first fish to
hand was a nice little 8" brown that was soon followed by a
gorgeous 10" brookie. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in
the sky, so the fishing wasn't great but it was great day
nonetheless.

Saturday I had to go to Houston, MN because it had the only
WiFi hotspot I could find near Caledonia. The hotspot was free
and located in a funky little tourist trap catering to the
spandex-wearing bicycle touring crowd. All they serve at the
"Little Looney" is coffee crap and smoothies. I had a smoothie,
the Four Berry, (it seemed the obvious choice ;-), and took
care of business on the laptop. I'd never had a smoothie before
and the damn thing was so sweet I liked to have gagged, so I
ordered (to my eternal shame) an iced latte. That was pretty
gaggy too albeit in a different way but at least it got the
sweet out of mouth.

I took a look at Swede Bottom Creek and decided if I could get
upstream of the cows I might find some decent water. The cows
weren't a problem but the big bull who came storming out of the
shade of an old willow tree *was* a problem. Seeing as how I was
outweighed by a good thousand pounds or so I retreated back over
the cattle steps to the car to consult the maps and come up with
a Plan B. 'B' for Badger as it turns out, Badger Creek downstream
of the Hwy 76 bridge. Once again high skies and bright sunshine
hampered the catching but the fishing was fine. I saw a monster
brown tucked up under the shade of a cut bank and whispered to
myself in the most reverent terms, "booyah", but he wasn't having
anything to do with my parachute Adams.

On Sunday morning I took a drive over to Fillmore County to fish
the South Branch of the Root River. The Root River system drains
a goodly portion of southeastern Minnesota and the main river, a
warmwater fishery, is a big part of the tourist economy with canoe
liveries, bicycle rentals, restaurants etc. all along its length.
The South Branch is small, small and cold. My thermometer read 56F.
The cold water and the abundance of hardwood cover over the stream
made for some fine fishing even in the glare of the midday sun. I
caught the biggest brown trout I've ever caught in the state of
Minnesota this day, a strong, jumping 16 incher. I don't ever recall
a brown trout jumping as much as this one. I was using my old 7.5'
3wt Winston with a Hardy Featherweight and for the first time this
trip I got to hear that sweetest of sweet sounds, the click and pawl
of an old Hardy screaming under the weight of a big fish. A hoot.

I went back to the car to have a Budweiser break and to repair some
bleeding from my forearm inflicted by a rampaging and vicious sticker
bush. (I *hate* Coumadin.) While leaned up against the old Volvo
sipping a glass of the King of the Beers I heard country music bearing
down on my location and blaring at high volume. Soon enough a horse-
drawn buggy with six teenage Amish girls came trotting over the bridge
at high speed blasting country and western from somewhere inside the
buggy. They waved and smiled, I did the same. A hoot.

I finished the day right there in the State Park where I was camping
and fished East Beaver Creek. East Beaver Creek lies wholly within
the State Park so is well taken care of and quite pretty. A footbridge
crosses Beaver Creek just downstream of the confluence of East & West
Beaver so that you can see both from the bridge. Both run cold and
fish well for browns and brookies. I'll be back.

--
Ken Fortenberry

"cattle steps" that would be a stile.
If your going to habitate that part of the world don't overlook NE
Iowa. Some of the creeks got blown out bad a few years back but
friends tell me there all recovered now. French Creek is a place I'de
like to go back to. Beautiful place with interesting waters. It's
well managed, ffo and catch and release. Access is good all the
fences have stiles.

BJ Conner wrote:

"cattle steps" that would be a stile.
If your going to habitate that part of the world don't overlook NE
Iowa. Some of the creeks got blown out bad a few years back but
friends tell me there all recovered now. French Creek is a place I'de
like to go back to. Beautiful place with interesting waters. It's
well managed, ffo and catch and release. Access is good all the
fences have stiles.

That's right, a stile. Minnesota DNR is real good at mapping
and marking the streams where they've negotiated an angler's
easement with the landowner. I picked up my 2007 version of
_Trout Angling Opportunities in Southern Minnesota_ at the
Fly Fish Expo in Minneapolis in March. Armed with the maps
therein and a Minnesota DeLorme you'll have no problem at all
finding legal spots to fish.

As for Iowa, I don't know, I've just barely scratched the surface,
so to speak, of southeastern Minnesota. I could spend a couple
of lifetimes exploring the Minnesota side and still not fish
all the trout streams.

--
Ken Fortenberry