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Trout Unlimited MINNESOTAThe Official Publication of Minnesota Trout Unlimited - March 2015 Tying the Stop and Go Soft Hackle Eagle Creek - History and Lessons Learned Enter the MNTU Photo Contest Book Review - Flyfishing the 41st Little Long Lake - A Hidden Gem Stream Buffers - The Time to Act is Now! And Lots More! without written permisssion of Minnesota Trout Unlimited. Trout Minnesota of permisssion written without Copyright 2015 Minnsota Trout Unlimited - No Portion of this publication may be reproduced reproduced be may publication this of Portion No - Unlimited Trout Minnsota 2015 Copyright Fishing Our Habitat Work: The Sucker River ROCHESTER, MN ROCHESTER, PERMIT NO. 281 NO. PERMIT Chanhassen, MN 55317-0845 MN Chanhassen, PAID P.O. Box 845 Box P.O. U.S. POSTAGE POSTAGE U.S. Non-Profit Org. Non-Profit Minnesota Trout Unlimited Trout Minnesota Trout Unlimited Minnesota Council Update MINNESOTA The Voice of MNTU The Season of Anticipation By JP Little, Minnesota Council Chair On The Cover elcome to the 2015 spring Second, the Minnesota TU council is Minnesota Trout Unlimited hosting a regional meeting of TU coun- Fishing Duschee Creek in Fillmore statewide newsletter. Well, cil and chapter leadership from across County in Southeast Minnesota after a W it is official: Groundhog Day is behind the upper Midwest on March 27-29. rainstorm. Photo by Jade Thomason. us and Punxsutawney Phil has seen his This will be a good opportunity to share shadow, which means that at least six best practices, regional differences and a more weeks of winter are ahead of us. little time on the water. If anyone who By the time you read this we might be reads this would like to get involved in right in the middle of the spring snow- that please contact me or John Hunt. storms that invariably seem to accom- Incidentally, John has recently become In This Issue pany the high school sports tournaments. our National Leadership Council (NLC) There are a couple big TU events com- representative for the state of Minnesota. • Fishing the Sucker River ing in the month of March. First, the John is replacing Steve Carlton, who just Tom Helgeson’s Great Waters Fly Fish- finished a 5 year term. Thanks to both • How to tie the Stop & Go Soft ing Expo will be running March 20-22 John and Steve! Have a great spring ev- Hackle with Paul Johnson. at the National Sports Center in Blaine. eryone. The Expo is chock full of activities, all • Flytying and educational op- related to fly fishing, for young and old Tight Lines! portunities. alike. • Why we need more streamside buffers now! • Programming for you to attend at the Great Waters Flyfishing Table of Contents Expo. • And much more! Getting Trout in Your Classroom...................................page 4 TU’s Regional Meeting...................................................page 4 Book Review - Fly-Fishing the 41st............................page 5 Fishing The Sucker River.............................................page 6 Join TU Today! Stream Buffers...............................................................page 8 Want to subscribe to this newsletter? Tying the Stop & Go Soft Hackle...................................page 10 Join Trout Unlimited! See the back page for details or visit www.tu.org to Burgers, Beer and Blue Winged Olives..........................page 11 sign up. The Challenges of Winter Fishing..................................page 11 Little Long Lake - A Fishing Opportunity to Share.........page 12 The Fight to Save Eagle Creek - A History.......................page 14 Trout Unlimited Minnesota is the of- ficial publication of Minnesota Trout Expo Conservation Programs.......................................page 16 Unlimited. Issues are distributed to all members of Minnesota Trout Unlim- Deforestation in the Headwaters...................................page 16 ited chapters. Subscriptions are avail- able by joining Trout Unlimited. See MNTU Chapter News.....................................................page 18 the back page for further details. Reeling It In....................................................................page 20 Copyright © 2015 Minnesota Trout Unlimited. No Portion of this publica- tion may be reproduced without writ- ten permission from Minnesota Trout Unlimited. Advertising rate sheet available on re- quest. Send all editorial and advertis- ing correspondence or other inquiries to the editor: Carl Haensel 2067 E. Pioneer Rd Duluth, MN 55804 [email protected] Send address changes to: Trout Unlimited, 1550 Wilson Boule- vard, Arlington, VA, 22209. TCTU volunteer Brian Bermel of Savage releases a hefty Eagle Creek brown trout. Check out the story on page 14 to learn about the history of restoration and challenges on this stream 2 From The Executive Director Effective Conservation Requires Unified Focus By John Lenczewski, MNTU Executive Director innesota has begun its peri- I recently heard a few well intentioned, odic updating of its manage- yet ill informed, individuals suggest Mment plan for Lake Superior that Minnesota can magically restore and its tributaries. In chatting with a “coaster” brook trout by eliminating number of anglers who have spent many naturalized, self-sustaining steelhead decades wading North Shore rivers, we and the presumed competition for food. agreed that the altered hydrology of our This search for an easy scapegoat not watersheds stands out as the most sig- only ignores the real hurdles to coaster MNTU nificant hurdle facing the wild trout and restoration, but also needlessly alienates steelhead trying to survive and thrive countless passionate conservationists we Connections in these steep freestone rivers. Historic must work with to succeed. Any actual (and fairly recent) logging practices, impact of theoretical or actual competi- Executive Director John Lenczewski road building, gravel mining and land tion between wild brook trout and wild practices and hydrology. We remain [email protected] conversion away from forests have in- steelhead is insignificant and dwarfed by champions of coaster restoration. How- 612-670-1629 creased runoff rates, and reduced water the real problems with hydrology, low ever, our knowledge of these watersheds www.mntu.org storage, groundwater recharge and base base flows, high water temps, connectiv- convinces us that if we restore hydrol- flows in streams. As a result, we now ity and degraded habitat. ogy, base flows and water temperatures have flashier systems with much lower wild brook trout and steelhead will both Minnesota Council Chair base flows and much warmer summer MNTU has long led efforts to restore thrive. Effective conservation means JP Little water temperatures. Observant anglers native “coaster” brook trout along the working with every willing partner on [email protected] and resource managers have correctly North Shore, including successfully watershed improvements without refer- identified improvements to hydrology as pushing for a 20” minimum size restric- ence to which coldwater species may the most important need for sustaining tion in 1997, conducting the first ex- utilize the habitat. MNTU will continue TU MN Newsletter Editor any wild salmonids, regardless of spe- tensive genetic investigation of brook to focus energies on the real issues and Carl Haensel cies. trout genetics on the North Shore, and avoid counterproductive musings pitting [email protected] working tirelessly to improve land use conservationists against one another. 218-525-2381 Gitche Gumee Chapter Jon Aspie, President [email protected] 218-724-5014 Headwaters Chapter Bob Wagner, President [email protected] 218-586-2798 Hiawatha Chapter Carl Berberich, President [email protected] www.hiawathatu.org Mid-Minnesota Chapter A wild limestone spring creek brown trout ready to head back to the depths. Learn about how changes to stream buffer enforcement can help our streams in the article on page 8. Micah Barrett, President [email protected] Twin Cities Chapter Editor’s Angle Mark Johnson, President [email protected] Opportunities of Springtime 612-564-TCTU www.twincitiestu.org By Carl Haensel, Editor his time of winter is gear prepara- patches as well and I sat down to relax Waybinahbe Chapter tion time. At least it should be, if in the sunshine along the river. It was Rod Prusi, President Tthe computer was not distracting then when I saw the first blue wing olive [email protected] me. From building and repairing rods to mayfly hatch of the year. Big “sailboat” tying flies, spooling reels and patching mayflies were gliding down a long pool, waders, they all lead me to think about and it wasn’t long before the trout started Win-Cres Chapter the opportunities of springtime. Soon, inhaling them. I hadn’t planned on fish- Joe Lepley, President winter will begin to release its grip on ing mayfly dry flies that day, but I had a [email protected] Minnesota, and streams and rivers will couple along. Soon we were into a nice www.wincrestu.org flow with renewed vigor. Insects will bunch of fish, hungry after a long winter. hatch and trout will rise, earlier in the season than a person might think. I hope that when you read this, you start to prepare to explore Minnesota’s trout Visit MNTU A number of years back, when guiding streams this spring, and start packing in the Whitewater River valley in the your fly boxes for all of those “just in Online winter trout season, a truly warm day case” opportunities. If you are in need occured. It was one of those days when of flies,