August Small Stream Fishing

A certain fly rod enthusiast friend of mine has never really done small stream fishing for brook trout or brown trout. Our goal was to get Drew onto some brook trout. We went out for an evening of bushwhacking and bug swatting to find some trout waters in the woods where these feisty beauties like to hang out. Once we got deep enough in, Drew found success in a nice corner hole. Goal met.

Fly Fishing Brook Trout in Minnesota

Fly Fishing Brook Trout in Minnesota

The next day we went to a different river and scoped it out to see what we could find. There were a lot of fishy holes and pockets to fish with lots of wood and rocks for the fish to hide, but not very many fish around.

Fly Fishing Trout in Minnesota

Fly Fishing Trout in Minnesota

Fly Fishing Trout in Minnesota

We did manage to find a couple of fish and Drew caught his first Brown trout which was somewhat of a bonus/surprise fish.

Fly Fishing Brown Trout in Minnesota

Apparently there was at least one brook trout living around there too.

Fly Fishing Brook Trout in Minnesota

This brook trout readily took my version of the Chimera!

Fly Fishing Brook Trout in Minnesota

Fly Fishing Trout in Minnesota



Bois Brule River Float

River bound mid-morning with our kayaks, we were eager to get there. The group consisted of four – Joel, Rachael, Cory and myself. We floated a rather large section of river so we did not stop and fish as much as we all would have liked, otherwise we would have been paddling all night. It took us about 7 hours as it was. The weather was great and we did find a few pretty fish.

Kayaking the Brule River in Wisconsin

About to launch.

Brule River Brown Trout

Lots of little fish.

Trying to fish while floating down a river in a kayak can be very challenging. The current is constantly taking you into brush or spinning you around 180 degrees. Heaven forbid you get snagged or back cast into the trees, then you are just in for a hot mess. Combine all of that with things tangling in the boat or getting rods wrapped together and then two other kayaks are coming down on you fast. Pretty soon you’ve got 3 people in a kayak pile with rods and lines tangled and the unforgiving current pushing everything into a tighter disaster. It can be very frustrating at times, but rewarding in the end.

Brule River Kayak Wisconsin

Brule River Kayak

Joel navigates some overhanging brush. Not what he had intended.

If you were able to fish a spot before spooking all of the trout in the area by running right over the top of it with your boat, you could sometimes be successful.

Dry Fly Fishing Brown Trout Brule River Kayak Wisconsin

This beautiful brown took a dry fly – the stone flopper!

Kayaking the Brule River in Wisconsin

It was good to get out and stretch our legs once in a while and stand in the icy cold spring water.

Brule River Wisconsin Wood Turtle

The infamous Wood Turtle.



A Change of Pace

We gave the trout a break today and fished some warmer water on a local river. It’s one of my favorite places to go in the summer when it starts getting hot out and not a whole lot else is going on. It’s great for wet wading or floating down in your canoe or kayak. And it’s most fun to fish with a fly rod.

Cloquet River Minnesota

As suspected, the majority of fish caught were smallmouth bass. There are a lot of them in this river and will keep you busy. They are not always that big but they are river fish and fight hard. These river smallies are especially fun on fly rods – a great way to spend a hot summer day. We did manage a couple of nice pike as well. We found all of the fish in slack water, side pools, and wherever the water was the warmest. The fishing will continue to get better in August as the water warms up more.

Minnesota Northern Pike

This hungry pike took a deceiver twitched slowly through some slack water.

Minnesota Northern Pike

Drew’s first pike on a fly! Congratulations!

Though smallmouth make up the majority of the fish population, this river is known for having pretty much everything. It drains a number of reservoirs and has numerous smaller streams that flow in. You never know what you might find. It sounds like I’ll be back at it tomorrow, this time from the kayak…