Imagine what it took to deposit debris on this tree limb. High water, seriously high water! The tree is on the bank of a small southern Minnesota stream. We estimated the limb to be about fourteen feet above the normal water level.
What you don't see in the photo is the chair that is hung up on the main tree trunk. You wonder where is came from. Was it someone's fishing or hunting seat left near the river. You hope that's where it came from. Looking around, you can imagine it came from somebody's yard. There is a lot of debris piled up along all the trees in the background of the photo. The nearby farmers field has very large piles along side of it that were removed for planting. You can imagine that the water reached all the way across the forty acre field and close to the farm house.
Since we were there to fish we also wondered about the trout. Were there any left? Before we made the trip we contacted the MN DNR and found they had done some shocking after the flood. They assured us that the adult population was in good shape. We fished the stream for a couple of days and caught plenty of browns. No arguments here.
Typically water of this magnitude spells doom for the young and the weak. In some streams the adult fish would get back to business the following year and produce another batch of young. The stream we fished is supported largely by stocking fingerlings. The fishing should continue to be good as long as the DNR keeps up the stocking.
Based on what we observed and the shocking that the DNR did, adult trout are adept at surviving floods. Populations are affected by the loss of the young, but will continue on through spawning adults or stocking. It may be a good idea on some waters to release the adult spawners. This will help the replacement of the lost young the following season. The ability of trout to survive a major flood should set us at ease. They won't be wiped out.
