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Fall is Prime Time for Fishing Iowa Trout
DECORAH, Iowa - Northeast Iowa draws thousands of anglers from across the state to its cold water streams and excellent trout fishing. But anglers can expect to see a few more non residents sharing the stream in Iowa's Trout County because on September 30, Wisconsin and Minnesota stream trout seasons were closed. "We get a lot of anglers from Milwaukee and other parts of Wisconsin, from Illinois and from Minnesota," said Bill Kalishek, fisheries biologist at Decorah for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "They come here because we have excellent number of wild trout as well as plenty of stocked trout, and excellent, high quality streams." The quality of Iowa streams continues to improve. As recently as 25 years ago, only six streams had good enough water quality to support natural reproduction of trout. Since then, there has been a large effort to improve land use in watersheds, improve stream habitat, and create partnerships with landowners, government agencies and other local groups to improve water quality. Today, there are 34 streams with consistent natural trout reproduction. He recommended four areas where a number of quality trout streams are in close proximity to each other, have good access, and have lots of fish. The Highlandville/Dorchester area has Waterloo Creek, French Creek, North Bear and South Bear creeks. Near Marquette/McGregor, Big Paint, Little Paint, Bloody Run and Sny Magill are good streams. Around Manchester, fish Spring Branch, Bailey's Ford, Richmond Springs and the Maquoketa River. In the Dubuque area, try Bankston, Little Mill, Little Turkey River and Swiss Valley for quality trout fishing. "The further into the fall you go, the less fishing pressure you will see on these streams," Kalishek said. And the streams further north from Hwy. 20, have fewer people fishing as well. The technique to catch trout in the fall is pretty straightforward. Whatever spinning tackle worked in the summer should work in the fall. Fly fishing anglers can continue with the summer/fall hatch flies, but should change to wet flies, streamers or nymphs, later in the fall. Iowa does not have a closed season for trout fishing. The announced and unannounced stream stockings continue through October. The stocking hotline is 563-927-5736. Nonresidents can purchase a one day [$9], three day [$16], seven day [$30.50] or annual [$39.50] license, and the required fee [$13.50] to fish for trout. The trout fee is good for the remainder of the year. More trout fishing information is available on the Iowa DNR's website
www.iowadnr.gov.
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