Below are some notable fisheries we have in our area. There are many, many more out there. If you have any questions about where to fish come on in the shop and we can look at some maps and get you going in the right direction.
The Kinnickinnic River is located only 25 minutes from the fly shop. It is designated as a class one stream having good populations of naturally reproducing brook and brown trout. The Kinni is 22 miles long and can be divided into upper and lower proportions split in half by River Falls Wisconsin. The upper Kinni above River Falls meanders through farm fields and has more of a sandy bottom, below River Falls it drops into a canyon and has a predominately rocky bottom. Both the upper and lower are amazing trout fisheries and hold good numbers of trout. While most trout are in the 8-14 inch range it is not uncommon 16-18 inch fish do inhabit these waters. 22 inch browns are taken on occasion as well.
The Rush River is about twice as long as the Kinnickinnic and is located about 50 minutes from the fly shop. The Rush has good populations of trout and has a mostly a rocky bottom except for the very upper section. The Rush is at the very top of the famous Driftless area. Because the Rush is more similar to a freestone stream and slightly warmer than the Kinni it produces bigger food for the fish which results in larger fish on average.
South East Minnesota has a plethora of great trout water that is very accessible to the trout angler. The first noteworthy water is only 30 minutes south of Saint Paul, the Vermillion River, which flows through Farmington MN. A little further south near Red Wing MN is Hay creek and is worth drifting some bugs. Further south near Rochester MN, about 2.5 hours from our shop there are a number of great trout streams. These include the Root, Whitewater, Camp Creek, Forestville Creek, and Beaver creek just to name a few. SE MN is definitely worth exploring with a fly rod.
The Mississippi River is one of our favorite rivers for smallmouth bass and is one of the best smallie fisheries in the country. There are good populations of smallmouth bass in the Mississippi and some of our favorite water is between Brainerd MN and Saint Cloud MN. Being such a big river it is much easier to catch smallies from a boat. We like to use western style drift boats to access this amazing fishery.
The Saint Croix is another great smallie fishery and is close to our shop. Again, being such a big river it is much easier to find and catch smallies from a boat than from shore. Our favorite smallie fishing on the Croix is above Taylor's Falls Minnesota all the way up past Danbury Wisconsin.
The Brule River in Wisconsin is one of our favorite Steelhead Rivers. Located east of Duluth about 45 minutes the Brule is a beautiful 44 mile long freestone river that dumps into Lake Superior. It has good populations of resident trout as well and some large brown trout can be taken in the fall. Fall is also one of our favorite times to catch steelhead.
Twin Cities. Believe it or not the greater twin cities metro has some amazing fishing to offer. Arguably some of the best metro fishing in the United States. We regularly hit up lakes right near downtown for muskies, pike, sunnies, crappies and largemouth bass. Carp are another one of our favorite fish to chase on the fly in the metro. Some notable metro lakes are Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, Nokomis, which all have populations of good sized muskies and most other warm water dwellers. The only thing you won't find many of in the metro lakes are smallmouth bass. The waters get a little too warm in the summer for smallies.