{"id":11268,"date":"2018-04-28T19:30:37","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T00:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traun-photo.com\/dan\/?p=11268"},"modified":"2018-05-01T11:52:40","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T16:52:40","slug":"hay-creek-minnesota-browntrout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/traun-photo.com\/dan\/hay-creek-minnesota-browntrout\/","title":{"rendered":"HAY CREEK – Minnesota #browntrout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hay Creek<\/h1>\n

Hay Creek\u00a0is a small\u00a0trout<\/a>\u00a0stream in southeastern\u00a0Minnesota. It has its headwaters west of\u00a0Goodhue\u00a0and empties into the\u00a0Mississippi River\u00a0just to the north of\u00a0Red Wing.\u00a0\u00a0It runs 25.1 miles,\u00a0over half of which is a Minnesota designated trout stream.\u00a0Like the\u00a0Vermillion River, Hay Creek receives extensive fishing pressure due to its proximity to\u00a0Minneapolis\u2013St. Paul.<\/p>\n

Hay Creek was named for the hay meadows near its banks.\u00a0A railroad once ran along Hay Creek from the claybanks near Goodhue to the pottery and stoneware factories in Red Wing, which also made use of the water from the creek. The railroad was torn up in 1937, but traces such as\u00a0tres<\/a>tle<\/a>\u00a0pilings remain.\u00a0 ~wikipedia<\/p>\n

\"Hay<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stream-side<\/h2>\n

I arrived stream-side around 12:45 p.m.\u00a0 I was hopeful that the warm sun and pleasant temp would be productive.\u00a0 Six other cars lined the side of the dusty gravel road.\u00a0 I walked over to survey the water by the bridge.\u00a0 I could see trout slurping Blue-Winged Olives (bwo) from the surface.\u00a0 A site like that installs a perma-grin on my face.\u00a0 It didn’t take me long to return to my car and get things situation.\u00a0 Since the fish were still feeding like crazy I wasn’t going to pass up the nice run immediately upstream from the bridge.\u00a0 My first cast yielded a feisty 10″ brown.<\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/a><\/p>\n

I caught a few more smaller ones in the same stretch and then moved on to another spot further upstream.<\/p>\n

\"Hay<\/a><\/p>\n

A wee bit further upstream is a nice riffle with a deep run below.\u00a0 I noticed there were a few Caddis flies in the air in addition to the bwo.\u00a0 There were trout slurping bugs from the surface here as well. It didn’t take long to catch a few more trout here.<\/p>\n

\"Brown <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Brown <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The trout were in a full-on feeding frenzy.\u00a0 I switched over to an elk hair caddis fly and continued upstream.<\/p>\n

The Honey Hole<\/h2>\n

When I arrived at my favorite spot on this stretch of Hay Creek, the grin continued…there were Caddis flies everywhere.\u00a0 I inhaled a few, but didn’t care.\u00a0 They were crawling all over me.\u00a0 The fish were hitting like crazy; I wish I had brought the GoPro.\u00a0 After catching a dozen or so fish, the action stopped.\u00a0 Check out the video below.\u00a0 I tried to fish a bit more after a rest, but I think the trout gorged themselves on Caddis flies.\u00a0 It was time to give the run a rest after having caught a good number of trout.\u00a0 I had a good run and decided to head back to the car.\u00a0 I didn’t connect with any monster trout this afternoon, but the action was plentiful and steady; you can’t ask for much more than that.<\/p>\n

\"Caddis<\/a><\/p>\n