South West MN

[907FlyGuy]

I took my daughter out to the Little Cannon River and Vermilion River today. We found a school of about a dozen 12-15 inch trout near the falls in the middle of town on the Little Cannon and I was going in for the kill until my daughter tried out her throwing arm with a rock dead in the middle of the school. I didn't see any other sizable fish after that. The fingerlings were feeding on top water bugs though.

The Vermilion was more my daughters speed. We found a ton of worm dunkers and had a little trouble finding a spot big enough for my daughter and I. We watched a frustrated bait fisher leave a nice spot and quickly landed a 5 inch brown on a black bead-headed woolly bugger. I spotted several more small trout very close to the parking lot, but was unable to fool them despite changing through 5 different nymph patterns. It was mid afternoon though and they were inspecting their meals quite thoroughly.

[907FlyGuy]

Went out to the Vermillion again today, but by myself this time. The bows were stacked on top of each other. I caught a few on a brown woolly bugger. Another guy just upstream was catching them on a prince nymph. The fish we were catching were all around 9 inches. The other guys said somebody caught a 22 inch brown about a half hour before I got there.
15 April Verimillion river woolly bugger 2.jpg