Fly fishing Minnesota

[Phoenix A]

Looking at a trip mid September to possibly southeastern Minnesota or Northern Minnesota to see family. Anyone have recommendations or tips on self guided wading spots?

[Kevin Brugman]

Phoenix.

While I grew up in South Dakota just over the state line from Minnesota,
I did not do any fishing in the state.  However, Tom Rosenbauer recently
did an Orvis Podcast on July 31 where he had 2 guests and one of them
was a guide from Minnesota and he talked about a number of parks and
streams in both northern and southern Minnesota.  He talked to Mel
Hayner of Driftless Fly Fishing Company.  This part of the interview
started at the 1:24 portion of the podcast.  Rather than retype in what
I just listened to, suggest you just listen to the podcast.

A second resource is Tim Holschlag who is a guide in Minnesota and wrote
an excellent book called "Smallmouth fly fishing: The best Techniques,
Flies and Destinations" In Minnesota he references the following: 
Cloquet river, specifically from the Island Lake Dam down to the St.
Louis River,  Snake River, specifically from the Snake River Forest east
of woodland County Rd 11 near Mora, The Root River south of Minneapolis,
between Chatfield and Rushford, the Otter Tail River in the dammed
impoundments up near Fergus Falls.  He also references the upper
Mississippi river and the Boundary Waters area.  Not specifically in
Minnesota, but he also references the Cedar River as it passes from
Minnesota into Iowa, so that may be another good spot.

Hope this helps.  And remember, stretch those vowels out while you are
there and you will sound like a local.

Kevin

[Yambag Nelson]

If you are flying into MSP it is a two hour drive to Hayward Wisconsin which is the musky capitol of the world.  If you are interested in chasing musky there is no better place to do it.  September is a great time to be out there as the water is cooling.

[Carl Z.]

The Minnesota Driftless region is supposedly nice.   I also would check out info on the North Shore to see  when the Coasters come into the rivers. But the area inland that feeds the North Shore creeks is supposedly thick with Brookies, but getting to them requires work.

  
You can also check the Wisconsin Driftless region, but I don't know how far that is.  

Carl

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Carl Zmola

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http://www.tpfr.org
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[Erika B]

This month’s Trout magazine from TU had an article about Minnesota, it was fascinating!

[Adam Harris]

Just returned from a trip to Northern Minnesota.  Only casually fished on Big Turtle Lake near Marcell, MN.  Early during the trip, there was a bass fishing tournament being filmed for broadcast there.  Turtle is a well managed smallmouth fishery.  You can look through the MN DNR site for the lakes that have lake trout.  If you're looking for smallies, pike, muskie, I highly recommend a day or half day float on the St. Croix River on the eastern border about an hour east of the Twin Cities.  No shortage of waters to fish in the state.  We drove along the Rum River on the way back to the Twin Cities and it looked very enticing.  If you're driving through, consider an alternate route through Michigan and try Grayling, MI.  Didn't get to go in the fly shops there as we arrived after business hours, but from outside they looked great.  Word of advice:  Get your flies and gear before you go.  Most outfitters are heavy on conventional tackle and are pretty low as the end of the summer season is approaching.  Links below:

https://www.ronsflyshop.com/ 

http://www.oldausable.com/