1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Fly Fishing
›
3. The best trout water, Page 2

Water is our most valuable resource,and I am all in favor of keeping our water clean. Did you all know that the waters in Michigan have gotten cleaner over the last 40 years? Did you also know that as a result of cleaner water on the Au Sauble that fish size has dropped? DNR is looking at ways of getting more nutrients into the river system.

Hi Everyone! I am new to TroutNut and what a great article to start with.

I thought just for fun I would bring up Minnesota. No, its not the "best trout water" but I have had some great experiences here. My favorite place to go is a little stream in the Southwest of Minnesota in Beaver Creek valley state park. (what a load off to finally share it). I am still a very novice fly-fisherman but my passion for it will drive me to be better someday.

Anyways! Beaver Creek Valley State park is centered on a little spring coming out of a rock wall and you have to walk to at least an hour to get to trout water. The Valley is quaint and beautiful, the water is crisp and untouched, the the surroundings are beautiful.

Just thought I would share where my heart lies at the moment. Can't wait to go back

-Patrick

This precludes about 98% of the flyfishing community from taking your spot - even if it's no longer a secret, your fishing is pretty safe.

Welcome to the forum, Patrick.

-Shawn

P.S. That reminds me of a story John Gierach tells in his book, Fly Fishing Small Streams (an excellent book, by the way). In describing a favorite stream, he tells of a point on the trail where you can literally see the spot at which countless fishermen had stopped, taken a disappointed look around, and then turned back downstream to fish the bigger water. According to Gierach, just upstream of that spot is where the fishing really starts to get special.

If when you mean "best trout water" are you talking about the places with the best trout populations of trout, the highest number of quality trout streams, the best wild trout populations, the best habitat, the best water quality and the least pollution plus the best average sizes of trout? If you are then I don't think that anybody can deny that one of the western states probably takes the prize then. I would put my life on that actually. If your talking peoples favorite places to trout fish than you will get tons of different answers, but If you clear away all the bias, I hate to say it, the west is the best.

smallstream, if you had to pick one state to fish for the rest of your life it would be . . .

Shawn,

The first time I walked all morning I was starting to get discouraged at the stream and then their was a fast moving bend and I think there must have been another spring feeding it becouse the waterway grew quiet a bit.

Thank you for the greating, I look forward to contributing in my own way (probobly most commonly in the form of questions)

Your flies are beautiful. I work in glass (a blaster, not a blower) and you colors remind me of my own work. www.dimensionalglass.blogspot.com

I guess wyoming or montana, but picking from those western states would be a tough choice haha.

Stunning work, Patrick. You have a wonderful eye for color and shape. It is hard to convey meaning in abstraction, but you communicate very well through your work. I am flattered you like my work and compare it with your own.

-Shawn

I don't want much, just:

Solitude
Silence
&
Scenery

Dick

Hi,
In the '70s I tried to fish for trout here in Mass. There were very few wild trout, yup lots of pollution. Since I didn't have the time, money, etc to go back to my native VT, I fished for bass. Right now, I'm finding that has changed, the forests are recovering from excessive logging (our hills were barren a century ago), the polution has been cleaned up (except for PCBs, and they are only in some rivers), and there are now wild trout in rivers that were cess pools in the '70s. The waste water treatement plants make the water more fertle than they were, so there are more insects, etc. The rivers with PCBs are not stocked, and the meat fishermen don't go there, so you are fishing for wild trout, with other catch and release fishermen. I've seldom left New England becouse I feel that WHAT you are is more important than WHERE you are. The world is NOT going to adapt ti your expectations, you have to adapt. You can find good fishing wherever you live if you look for it.

Just a note about the tailings ponds around Butte several of them have fishable populations of large trout 5-10 pounds in fact. Now that is not to say that you can eat them because they are catch and release, because of the heavy metals, but there are fish in those places. Even in Butte in Silver Bow Creek there are now counted populations of very water sensitive cuthrost trout. Yes this area of Montana has a long way to go to be healthy again but it is on the way.