Winter Fly Fishing Whitewater State Park

I made it down to the Whitewater River yesterday near Rochester MN, the temps were great and so was the fishing. There was a layer of fresh snow on the ground and everything looked fresh and new. We made it to the river around noon and started fishing a shadowed section of the river. We went through 3 or 4 big deep holes swinging streamers and came up empty handed. We were beginning to wonder if all the trout had moved into the sunny areas to warm up a bit. I decided to nymph a couple of the holes we had previously fished streamers to see if fish were, in fact there, and sure enough they were. Caught a nice bow in one of the deeper slower pools on a pink scud. Another smaller brown followed shortly after.

It started to get a little cool in the shade and our guides were icing up, so we moved out into the sun for the rest of the day. We fished a few holes right near the Whitewater State Park buildings. Russ was bound and determined to get one on a streamer and had a couple of nice follows by some bigger browns from underneath overhanging log jams. None would commit. I continued to fish one lonely pink scud and caught another nice rainbow that jumped the hook just before I was able to land him. Another small brown followed shortly there after. I only saw a few midges throughout the day and there was nothing rising at all where we were fishing. The north branch of the Whitewater was mostly open where we were fishing, some of the slower deeper runs had quite a bit of shelf ice. It looks like colder air is going to move in this week so I am glad I was able to get out yesterday.