Most anglers had trout on the stringer

[h2ofwlr]

By John Weiss, Rochester Post Bulletin
Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2014 8:49 am

Saturday's trout opener was lousy. Or it was good. It was cold and windy — or it was surprisingly pleasant.

Pick your description. Depending on where you were and when you fished on Saturday, almost any description might be correct.

Mauer Brothers Tavern in Elba, near all three branches of the Whitewater River and a place that holds an annual big-trout contest, had no fish registered.

"Not a trout, nothing," said Paul Mauer. Not one fish even came in Monday or Tuesday either. That's very unusual, but not unheard of, he said.

Water was high and muddy for the opener, though conditions were looking better early this week, he said.

But not all reports were so poor. Despite wind and some very nasty thunderstorms Saturday, Department of Natural Resources conservation officers turned in some surprisingly upbeat reports.

• Kevin Prodzinski, Wabasha, "worked a very busy but sloppy opening weekend of trout fishing in the southeast."

• Scott Fritz, LaCrescent, said that "even with rainy weekend, (the opener) was successful.There were many fishermen with limits. Area streams were in great shape."

• Mitch Boyum, Rushford, "reports working a busy trout opener. Fishing was fair to good as most anglers had some trout on the stringer. Rainbows were the most common along with a few brown trout as well."

• Tom Hemker, Winona, "reports a busy trout opener but the weather made for less people and less fish caught than usual."

• Joel Heyn, Plainview, "worked trout anglers over the weekend.The rain muddied up most streams and slowed the fishing down.Anglers were still finding fish on a few of the streams that were pretty clear."

• Tyler Quandt, Red Wing, "Trout anglers did well, with numerous limits of trout seen in the bag."

A DNR reminder: Just because you see a car parked along a stream doesn't mean everyone can fish that stream. If there isn't an easement and it's not public land, you need permission to go onto the land to fish that stream.