roughfisher.com

I managed to scavenge a few pools over the week during breaks from work on a stream restoration project. Flows were pretty low on this stretch of river until the other day, when a couple inches of rain jumped it up a bit. Nonetheless, there were plenty of shiners, dace, darters, and chubs present in the pools. I did not spot any game fish or roughfish. I dragged a size 1 spinner with my ghetto travel rod through a of couple pools and ended up with these creek chubs.


Not the quite the fight of a bruiser buffalo, but a tightline is a tightline. This roughfisher will take anything he can get.

On a positive note, flows on the Otter Tail downstream of Orwell are down to 522 cfs. They haven't been this low since spring melt in mid-April. Flows finally dropped below the 80th percentile the other day. Hopefully this will help improve visibility and enable access to a few fish holding areas that have been off limits since spring melt. The higher flows forced quillbacks, redhorse, and other species like bowfin to move on to different areas. With some luck, they will migrate back upstream and forage in these spots again. I'll get a chance to find out in the next day or two; I hope I get a chance to snag one in the mouth.

Snoogins!