April 2025 Every spring, as snowmelt charges the streams and the days grow longer, trout anglers eagerly await one of the season’s most iconic hatches: the Dark Hendrickson. This mayfly, known to entomologists as Ephemerella subvaria, helps kick off dry fly season and can offer some great surface action during the...
If you’ve spent any time fishing the cold, clear streams of the Driftless Region, you know that matching the hatch is often the key to success. Hundreds of fly patterns exist to mimic the many species of mayflies, caddisflies, and stoneflies that emerge throughout the season. But in recent years,...
On February 21, 2025 MNTU’s design engineers on its Trout Brook project, Emmons & Olivier Resources, Inc (EOR), received a Water Resources Excellence award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota for our recent stream habitat restoration project in Miesville Ravine County Park Reserve. We collaborated with...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=e2h6Bqc4S0LIyQhC&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjQsMTY0NTA2&v=JfhFGzSBFxk&feature=youtu.be For many anglers, winter means tying flies, maintaining gear, and daydreaming about warmer days on the water. But, those that do brave the frigid winter air to chase trout on Minnesota streams are sometimes rewarded with a mid-winter hatch of the tiny winter black stonefly (Allocapnia spp). Although trout feed...
Scuds are freshwater shrimp (bottom right) – a crustacean that lives among benthic invertebrates in the stream.
By Dr. Jennifer Biederman The Driftless Area, spanning parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, is renowned for its spring-fed streams, cold water, and limestone geology. These unique environmental factors create ideal year-round conditions for trout. In streams with the most groundwater influence, both flows and water temperatures remain fairly constant...
By Dr. Jennifer Biederman If there is one thing that many degraded streams across Minnesota have in common, it’s a lack key habitat types that support trout of all stages and ages. Many degraded streams lack riffle habitat. These shallow, fast-flowing sections of a stream, characterized by their choppy water surface...
by Dr. Jennifer Biederman Riffle habitats in trout streams are essential little ecosystems that provide an ideal environment for aquatic macroinvertebrates, which are small, aquatic organisms that play a crucial role in freshwater ecosystems – and the most important food source of stream dwelling trout in Minnesota. What is a riffle?...
By Dr. Jennifer Biederman The sight of an in-stream habitat improvement project in progress can be a bit eye-opening – heavy machinery, including large excavators are working along the banks and in the stream, often moving large amounts of soil to slope the banks while digging out silted in pools and...
Standing by a newly restored stream, the benefits are often clear: the eroding banks, invasive plants, and barren channels have been replaced with gently sloped banks, deep pools, spawning riffles, and thriving native vegetation. It’s easy to see how these improvements boost fish populations by creating better habitat for food...
