ALONG THE BOIS BRULE RIVER — Dain Fladmark was a little discouraged after losing several trout Saturday morning. Losing a fish can do that to you, but his patience paid off in spades before 10am
Fladmark, of Knife River, was drifting a hand-tied yarn fly — chartreuse and pink — into a popular hole in Wisconsin’s most popular trout stream when the fish struck.
“It just sat there for a good two seconds. At first I thought it was under. Then it went crazy,” Fladmark said of the battle with the 24-inch steelhead migratory rainbow trout that his friend, Wyatt Zwak of Duluth, had netted. .
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
That would be too much trouble on most opening days, when most anglers are just happy to be out, when the river is low and cold and someone is fishing almost every good spot by the time you get there. .
But Fladmark isn’t done yet.
Minutes later, using a rod he borrowed for a few casts from Duluth’s Eric Beyer, Fladmark hooked another steelhead, this one just an inch or so shorter than a fist. This time it was on a rock fly on the hook.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“I’m not feeling well after a few losses earlier. But now, this is a good morning,” he said as Beyer took the fish for him. “My first steelhead on a fly.”
A great opening morning indeed, up and down the river below Highway 2, a chance to take the lures off the fly rods and feel the cool water against wader-clad feet.
The air temperature hovered just above freezing and the inch or two of snow that fell overnight wasn’t a problem. Not even the foot of snow in the woods from the storm earlier in the week, nothing like the three feet of snow in the woods that greeted the anglers’ opening day last year.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Just above Fladmark, 9-year-old Liam Nicholson of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, sits on a log, hoping to regain feeling in his toes after crossing the river and still waiting for his first to land. -first steelhead.
But he soon stepped back into the water, made a few perfect casts and carefully watched his orange strike indicator, the fly-fishing version of a bobber, as it drifted downstream just above his lure: a single chartreuse bead on a hook.
Then, bang.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“My heart was pounding,” Liam said later.
The boy did everything his friend and guide, Scott Pavelski, told him, which was to keep the rod up and keep pulling back. The on-the-water instruction worked well. Liam reeled in a plump, 18-inch steelhead that Pavelski had netted and released after a few photos.
“He’s a good listener,” Pavelski said. “And a good fisherman.”
Then there are high-fives around.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Proud father Billy Nicholson watched the whole thing play out from just up the river.
“We just started fishing last fall,” Liam said.
“This must be his fourth fish on a fly,” added Billy. “And his first steelhead. And his biggest fish on a fly… Wow.”
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
The concern of many anglers heading into opening day is that the warm winter and lack of ice on the river may have pushed trout to run upriver, spawn and return to Lake Superior before the fishing season – this year starting at its latest possible date. — even started. But the cold snap in late March seems to have slowed the spawning run a bit, and it’s clear that plenty of fish are still hanging on.
Farther down the river, Duluth’s Kent Paulsen and Wrenshall’s Brandon Meyer landed in an easily accessible hole not far from the road. This is one of those places where, it seems, almost every spring, steelhead like to stop for a while and hang out on their way upstream to spawn.
“The first fish I caught in the river was in this hole, many years ago,” Paulsen said between casts. “I usually don’t go out on opening day. Too many people… But the weather was great , and I have a free day, why not?”
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
When we last saw them, just around 9 a.m., Meyer — his first time fishing Brule — had caught a few small rainbows and brown trout, but the duo was still hoping for its first big fish of the day . But they weren’t in a hurry to leave either. And, eventually, as often happens as the sun rises a bit and the water temperature warms up a bit, they both catch a nice opening day trout.
“We moved in and put a bunch in the net,” Paulsen texted. “Small nymphs are the ticket. I had seven steelhead and a big brown.”
Contributed / Kent Paulsen
Conditions, Paullen said, were pretty good. The river is low and slow, with no significant flow of snow runoff yet. But the water is not cleared either. A little taint in the water usually makes the fish less scary, and that’s a good thing.
As for the Nicholsons, this is also their first time fishing in the storied river. But it was clearly not their last. The father-son duo was deeply hooked on Brule’s allure.
“We have to go home tonight (to Stevens Point) because it’s Easter,” Billy Nicholson said. “But we’ll be back. Soon.”
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
- Open only downstream from US Highway 2 to Lake Superior.
- The season begins on the last Saturday in March and continues through Nov. 15.
- Fishing is prohibited from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise.
- The daily bag limit is five trout or salmon total.
- Rainbow trout — minimum size 26 inches (only 1 may be kept).
- Brown trout — minimum size 10 inches (only 2 may be larger than 15 inches).
- Brook trout – minimum size 8 inches.
- Salmon – minimum size 12 inches.
- An internal trout seal is required to fish for trout and salmon in the river and its tributaries.
- Brule River State Forest angler parking lots are for day use only; Overnight camping is limited to designated campgrounds.
- While most of the land along the river is part of the Brule River State Forest and is open to the public for fishing, there are many parcels of private property along the river that are not open to the public.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Minnesota North Shore steelhead
The Minnesota steelhead trout season is open year-round but generally does not resume until the ice is gone in North Shore streams and the trout begin moving upriver to spawn. That should happen soon, as soon as the big patch of snow begins to melt rapidly.
Minnesota’s Lake Superior streams are catch-and-release only for wild rainbows with unclipped adipose fin, mostly steelhead rainbows. The limit for hatchery-raised, clipped-fin fish, stocked steelhead or any remaining Kamloops rainbow trout, is three daily, minimum size 16 inches.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
