I headed out to Preston on Thursday morning and made my way into forestville state park to fish the south fork of the root river. I parked at the anglers parking lot and took a hiking trail to the river. Beautiful spot, with clear water and dense foilage lining the banks. I was the only angler on the river. Fishing was a little tight and I spent most of my time actually casting while standing in the river. Lots of line mending and roll casting going on, so if you are a beginner, it may be difficult. The action was slow and I started out with a hopper around 4:00 pm. I took several 8-9" browns and then hooked a much larger brown around 14". I had tapered my leader down to 8X and was to aggressive with the fish, having it break off my fly. Later, I caught 3 more smaller browns on comparaduns and caddis flies and lost another larger brown on a stimulator. I missed at least 15 strikes. Presentation was key and the many side currents made good drifts difficult. I absolutely loved the solitude and at one point laid back for about an hour just soaking in the surroundings. There is a small amount of moss in the river but didnt really present any problems. Nice riffles every 50-60 yards and I worked the tail end of them. Between 7:00-8:00 there was a little activity as fish were taking midges.
Friday morning (6:00 am) I headed 15 miles north to Chatfield and the turned east to trout creek. Right at Troy there is a small gravel turn out designated for anglers. The creek runs through a nice pasture and casting was easy. Unfortunatley there was alot of moss and I struck out. I did get one strike on a pheasant tail nymph, but missed it. I think it is much better earlier in the summer. I only stayed for a bout 1.5 hours. I saw 5 deer and 4-5 turkeys in the pasture area. The trukeys made a quick exit towards the brush but I could hear them gobbling most of the morning.
I returned to Preston and fished just south of town where highway 52 crosses the root river. There is a pull out on the east side of the highway. I fished for about 1.5 hours taking 4 small rainbows on comparaduns. I then went to my hotel and took a nap.
Around 3:00 I went back to forestville state park and stopped at a picnic area just after the buildings of historic forestville. There are several paths that lead to the river. I made my way to a long deep pool and could see 40-50 trout hanging out at the bottom. The water was very clear. Standing downriver of the pool, I tied a 3 fly setup. Hopper followed by a CDC mayfly emerger followed by various nymphs. I tried pheasant tails, gold ribbed hairs ear, caddis and scud nymphs, all to no avail. I worked that pool for about an hour and then gave up. Went back to the same sopt as thursday afternoon and worked the same stretch as before. I caught 3 small browns and missed about a dozen but never hooked into anything large. Around 7:00 I made a complete mess of my leader and had to cut it(one of the disadvantages of a multiple fly setup). Unfortunately, I left my spare leaders at the motel..What an idiot.
Overall, the experience of being along a river all to myself was the highlight. I enjoyed the challenge and will go again sometime, probably earlier in May or June. I guess its back to bass fishing on the Mississippi river in St. Cloud.
Shawn
You are certainly correct, I wrote my summary from memory, which is obviously not so good.
