Tori McCormick

The spring steelhead run on rivers along Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior is just starting to crank up as warmer temperatures have begun to open iced-over tributaries across most of the region.
The annual spring spawning migration, thanks to a cold, snowy and rainy early spring, is about two to three weeks behind schedule, which has many steelhead diehards champing at the bit, state officials say.

Juan Gomez is obsessed with fishing, stream-trout fishing in particular. Just listen to him rhapsodize about the winding waterways he grew up fishing in the Driftless Area of southeast Minnesota.
“It’s listening to the creek’s babbling and the sounds of nature around me,” said the 33-year-old spin fisherman from Chatfield. “I love it… because I can read the water, calculate my casts based on where I think the fish are and know that a smart trout won’t give me a second chance if I miss a strike. It keeps bringing me back because these are the waters where I grew up fishing.”

While the 2026 trout “harvest” opener for inland streams doesn’t commence until April 11, opportunities abound for stream-trout anglers over the next several weeks in southeast Minnesota.
The streams of the southeast Driftless Area are open to catch-and-release fishing until the opener. That includes some 750 miles teeming with brown trout, rainbows, and brookies.