Eddie Rivard Fly Fishing: Indian Winter

Indian Winter is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that rarely occurs in winter in the Upper Midwest.

I already had plans to go fishing on Sunday with Nick but with Indian Winter in full swing and with the forecast predicting that extreme cold would be returning later next week I figured it was time to strike while the iron was warm.

While I usually don't mind going fishing by myself I saw that my buddy Shebs was planning on fishing today as well so I sent him a message to see if he wanted to join forces.

After I finished making plans with Shebs for this morning I told Foxy that I was going to go fishing without her. She was totally bummed.

I picked Shebs up at his lair in Southeast Minneapolis around 9:20am. From there we headed south to a creek that Shebs thought showed some promise based on past stocking reports and taking into account the streams that flowed into it. I enjoy the challenge and uncertainty of checking out new places so I was stoked.

I watched from high up on the bank as Shebs tried at the first hole we came across.

We didn't catch any fish here.

When we arrived at the next spot Shebs walked upstream from the bridge and I walked down to the next bridge and started working my way back up. We agreed to meet back at the car in an hour. I was very hopeful about this river. It was very beautiful. The sky was blue and the water was too.

When you see clumps of grass in the trees like this they were left here in periods of flood. I could tell that this creek had flooded recently. By tasting a hand full of the grass I could tell that it flooded last June. Yes I am that good.

Everything was right with this place but there was no trout. I spotted a school of chubs and some suckers but that was it. I couldn't believe that Shebs had brought me to such a place.

When we arrived at the rendezvous point Shebs and I had some words. We decided to head to another stream that we knew held promise. We were down but we were not out. Not yet anyways.

Arriving at our next location I noticed that this place was also full of beauty. And we quickly noticed that it held trout because we kept spooking them whenever we walked close to the stream.

We fished for almost two hours and hadn't caught a thing. The worst part was that neither one of us had even had a bite. My patience was being seriously tested. At least it was unseasonably warm.

I was walking upstream in the direction of the car. I was still casting here and there but my attention was waning. Then I saw a rise in the middle of the stream. This gave me hope. I cast over to where I saw the rise and let my bugger swing in the current. Just like flies on shit that fish was hooked. It's so amazing how catching a fish can turn your day around. I am the greatest fly fisherman there ever was!

I was so happy. But I remembered that Shebs hadn't caught a fish yet so I was a little sad for him. I didn't have too much time to be sad for Shebs though because as soon as I set my trout free I heard Shebs yelling for me to come to him. He needed help landing a fish. I ran as fast as could.

Shebs had hooked into a monster. The trout measured a whopping 22 inches. Shebs was so happy!

Check out that kype!!

After that we continued towards the car because Shebs had to get to a birthday party for his big brother. I swapped in a Pink Squirrel of Prey for my Wooly Bugger and hooked another Brown but failed to land him. It was a good day.