I fished the Dark River today north east of Chisolm Minnesota. I went up HWY73 and then east on CR65 where it intersects the river with trails off of this road. The skies were sunny blue with an air temp of 66. The water temperature was 55 degrees in 3 spots I checked. No visible hatches, with and occasional caddis here and there and I thought I saw a Blue winged olive, but didn't get a chance to look at very good. No visible rises either. There was a slight wind, but not to bad. The water levels seemed like normal, but this was my first time on the river, so not completely sure, but it wasn't rain swollen or anything like that.
I managed to catch 2 small browns and 2 suckers. I lost a decent trout that I teased out of some wood cover. I tried alot of different things, but the caddis larvae imitation is what I caught all the fish on. I had to put a small splitshot on to get it down fast.
The Dark River itself reminds me of a miniature Brule River (the Northern Wisconsin one). The water is stained, typical of northern minnesoa trout stream which rely alot on rain water and snow melt for its flow. Also many rivers and streams flow thru bog type areas. The botton was a mix of sand, silt, gravel and boulders. Plenty of deep holes and logs/trees for fish to hide in and is where I got most of my action. It's easy to wade and with some tight spots where trees are overhanging over the river, but most of it lets you make some good false cast.
I did check for bugs in the rocks and boulders. I saw a few small mayfly larva, but alots of different types of caddis larvae (mostly cased caddis). I also noticed a few leeches, 2 small bluegill, minnows and some creek chubs.
My impression of the Dark River was mixed. When looking at the river at a glance, one would think that it would hold quite a few brook trout. So I was excited when I was walking down the trail and took my first glance of the river. The first thing I saw were schools of suckers, which is not a bad sign, but I wanted to see trout. It did look like there was some stream work done to it in the past, but is barely noticeble, unless your looking for it. The forest or agriculture department has been down along the banks doing some work with the trees. I did meet one person from the agriculture department. He was nice person who stopped his ATV and chatted for awhile about fishing and the river. He did say I would be happy fishing this section of the river. It was a relaxing river to fish, with not alot of technical challenges for any angler. If one could work this river with a little bit of time on the river, you could learn how to get those bigger fish to come out and play. It looks like it has potential to grow some decent fish, but not is numbers tho. Generally I got the feeling that it got warm in the dog days of summer and plus it does not have a huge source of bugs like mayflys and caddis. I'll probably check it out the Dark River this summer when I has some time and want to fight Minnesota's state bird the Mosquito, plus the ticks should be out in full force by then as well.
Until next time.....tight lines..
