MN creek stocks brown trout

[Lee Borgersen]

Windom, Minn., creek stocked with brown trout in advance of Saturday trout opener.

  ........
WINDOM, Minn. -- There may be a major spring snowstorm hitting the region this week, but the calendar says it’s time for Minnesota’s stream trout fishing opener.

  .....
In advance of the opening day for trout fishing Saturday, April 13, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Fisheries staff were busy Tuesday stocking a pair of area streams with brown trout. It’s a tradition that has spanned more than 50 years, offering area residents an opportunity to fish in a corner of the state not typically known for trout.

  ...
Ryan Doorenbos, Area Fisheries Supervisor at Windom, said trout fishing has become a tradition for anglers, with just two streams stocked in this part of the state. On Tuesday, the DNR stocked 450 brown trout in Scheldorf Creek, northwest of Windom, and 2,500 in the Redwood River at Camden State Park, south of Marshall.

  .....
“It’s typically done right before the opener,” Doorenbos said, adding that the two locations are stocked because the streams have more groundwater influence and therefore stay cooler than most southwest Minnesota water bodies through the summer.

“Brown trout have a little more tolerance of warmer temperatures,” he noted.

The trout were delivered to Windom via semi tractor-trailer from Lanesboro, where they were hatched and raised to a year old. In addition to the southwest Minnesota stops, fish were also being delivered Tuesday to streams near Hutchinson and Ortonville.

“The trailer is a series of tanks and each tank is separated,” said Doorenbos, noting that oxygen is pumped in and a specific number of trout are in each tank to prevent overcrowding.

Once the truck arrived in Windom, the 450 brown trout for Scheldorf Creek were netted from the trailer’s tank and transferred to the Windom Fisheries stock truck for delivery to the creek.

While stocking numbers may fluctuate slightly from year to year, Doorenbos suspects there aren’t a lot of trout that remain in the local stream over winter. It isn’t the goal of the DNR to stock enough trout to get natural reproduction, he added.

“It’s to create a unique opportunity for people who might not be able to make it to southeast Minnesota (to fish for trout),” Doorenbos said. “We provide catchable trout, and they can do it locally here — they don’t have to travel all the way across the state.”

An advanced biology class at Southwest Minnesota Christian in Edgerton assisted in Tuesday’s brown trout stocking at Camden State Park. The class has worked with the DNR for the past four or five years, Doorenbos said. Assisting with the stocking has become part of their curriculum.
“We give them opportunities to do some hands-on learning,” Doorenbos said. “This is kind of the pinnacle of their class — to be able to see the top predator in the Redwood River.”

  .....
To catch trout in Minnesota, fishermen are required to have a valid Minnesota fishing license as well as a trout stamp. People can have up to five trout in possession, with only one over 18 inches in length. A park pass is required to fish in a state park.

               
Ryan Doorenbos, Windom-area supervisor from the Minnesota DNR Fisheries office in Windom, hands a net full of Brown Trout to Luke Rossow, a fisheries technician, as they stock a creek near Windom.

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[Rebel SS]

Ours were done two weeks ago, as my previous article showed. 

[Lee Borgersen]

Ours were done two weeks ago, as my previous article showed. 

Reb...
Just curious   Do they have much problems wit poachers before da official opener.

[Rebel SS]

No, not really. There's always seems to be  a game warden down in that area behind every tree...plus, don't know about elsewhere, but there's lots of regs down in the trout streams here that can be confusing, and every stream has different regs. One issue is where does a certain stream end, and another begin? Wrong spot, and ye get whacked. Ya need a book to keep track of what is where... no live bait, (some streams do allow worms or flies) artificials only, catch and release, slot limit, etc....pretty much a purist group that even bothers with it down here. I don't anymore, plus ya haveta buy yer trout stamp, too. Too much fussin' around for me.


Trout fishing regulations in southeast Minnesota
Special regulations on 22 trout streams in six southeastern Minnesota counties are listed below by regulation type. Click on "Map" to find the location of the streams and the portion of the stream governed by special regulations.

Regulations summary
Stream name

Stream length (miles)

Map

Special regulation for these streams is: Protected slot limit for trout 12" to 16" (bait allowed), bag limit of 5 trout, no more than 1 over 16".

Beaver Creek, East

2.3

Map  PDF

Forestville Creek

2.6

Map  PDF

Mahoods Creek

0.2

Map  PDF

Root River, South Branch

4.8

Map  PDF

Spring Valley Creek

6.8

Map  PDF

West Indian Creek

3.0

Map  PDF

Wisel Creek

8.6

Map  PDF

Sub totals:

28.3

 

Special regulation for these streams is: Protected slot limit for trout 12" to 16" (artificial lures or flies only), bag limit of 5 trout, no more than 1 over 16".

Canfield Creek

1.6

Map  PDF

Garvin Brook

5.0

Map  PDF

Gribben Creek

3.9

Map  PDF

Hay Creek

4.0

Map  PDF

Logan Creek

0.9

Map  PDF

Trout Run Creek

13.3

Map  PDF

Whitewater River, North Branch

12.1

Map  PDF

Sub totals:

40.8

 

Special regulation for these streams is: Catch-and-release for all trout (no bait allowed).

Belle Creek

7.3

Map  PDF

Eagle Creek

2.3

Map  PDF

Root River, Middle Branch

12.5

Map  PDF

Vermillion River

19.5

Map  PDF

Zumbro River, North Fork

11.9

Map  PDF

Sub totals:   
51.2

 

Special regulation for these streams is: Catch-and-release for all trout (artificial lures or flies only).

Camp Creek

2.7

Map  PDF

Kedron Creek

1.1

Map  PDF

Root River, South Fork

7.7

Map  PDF

Whitewater River, Middle Branch

9.2

Map  PDF

Sub totals:

20.7

 

Special regulation for these streams is: 12-inch minimum size for brook trout, bag limit of 1 (artificial lures or flies only).

Trout Valley Creek

7.2

Map  PDF
 
Total miles under special regulation: 148.2

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[Steve-o]

Purists?  Maybe.  But they are also largely conservationists.  Limestone creeks and rivers that support naturally breeding, wild trout are a very rare, fragile ecosystem, which are susceptible to changes in the water table due to city and farm use and fertilizer and other waste run off.

The increased restrictions on some streams generally reflect the fragility of the resource, but I'd be naive to think that politics doesn't come into play when some of the decisions are made.  And I'm not implying that "politics" is a four letter word - like we so often do.  There are simply several diverse groups (farmers, fishermen, ecologists, DNR, municipalities, etc.) who have competing interests with respect to how to best use, manage and protect these rare resources.  No one group is happy all of the time.

[Rebel SS]

Okey-doke. Whatever you say.

[glenn57]

Okey-doke. Whatever you say.

whats your problem, others can have opinions and not be wrong...…...sheez!!!!!!!

[Rebel SS]

Whats yers? Did I say he was wrong? Point out where...You oughtta talk! The second half of narrative I WAS going to post didn't post right away...but it doesn't matter now.

[glenn57]

the whatever you say narrative was all it took.

[Rebel SS]

Wonderful!!!!!!!!!! I'm thrilled! 

[Steve-o]

Its my fault too, when I keyed off the term purist.  I think "purist" refers to someone who thinks the only "right" way to catch a trout is to catch it on a fly rod and release it immediately.  The term "purist" - in my view - only becomes derogatory when a purist looks down on a non-purist.

I've caught trout both ways, fly rod with dry flies and spinning gear with worms; sometimes I kill a legal limit of trout, other times I throw them all back.

Yes, you have to allow for a difference of opinion. 

[glenn57]

Wonderful!!!!!!!!!! I'm thrilled! 

pretty much proves my point, in my opinion anyway!!!!!!!

wait an hour and smite me again...……..don't care.

[Rebel SS]

Ya, and us purists can't buy our stuff at that certain bad store either, Walfart.   

[Rebel SS]

Wonderful!!!!!!!!!! I'm thrilled! 

pretty much proves my point, in my opinion anyway!!!!!!!

wait an hour and smite me again...……..don't care.

I DID NOT smite you.....did you want me to? Someone did ME, though. I don't give a rat's azz.

[glenn57]

Ya, and us purists can't buy our stuff at that certain bad store either, Walfart.   

never said you couldn't. just said I wont because i'm not supporting the richest people around that force cities to bend over backwards and products that are made violating child labor laws and other reasons.

[Steve-o]

Someone did ME, though.

Wasn't me.   

[delcecchi]

Ya, and us purists can't buy our stuff at that certain bad store either, Walfart.   

never said you couldn't. just said I wont because i'm not supporting the richest people around that force cities to bend over backwards and products that are made violating child labor laws and other reasons.

They force cities?   Who has the guns, the cities or Walmart?

[glenn57]

Wonderful!!!!!!!!!! I'm thrilled! 

pretty much proves my point, in my opinion anyway!!!!!!!

wait an hour and smite me again...……..don't care.

I DID NOT smite you.....did you want me to? Someone did ME, though. I don't give a rat's azz.

why not???? I wanna catch del!!!!!!!!

[Lee Borgersen]

Jews boys need ta settle down here. Just blame it on Lee since he's da one started dis topic.