All Along the River

(gentle chiming music) - [Announcer] Get ready for an exciting episode of "Prairie Sportsman."

Join us as we brave the winter chill and head out onto the open waters of the Mississippi River in southeast Minnesota for some incredible winter fishing.

We'll also take a closer look at a new invasive species threatening our waterways, rock snot.

- Hey, it's Bret Amundson.

Welcome to "Prairie Sports" when we're about the outdoor opportunities in Minnesota, and the science research management and conservation behind those opportunities.

We got a great show for you this week and it starts right now.

(gentle dramatic music) - [Presenter] Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources and by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web@shalomhillfarm.org, and by Live Wide Open.

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, and the members of Pioneer PBS.

(gentle rousing music) - [Narrator] Winter in Minnesota.

Some call it the frozen tundra.

While snowbirds escape to the South, other hardy residents embrace the cold.

While ice fishing is one of the more popular activities in the colder months, there are select few angling die hards that resist the hard water crowds, and instead, hook up their boats and head out in search of open water.

(gentle rousing music) (upbeat rock music) - Welcome to Prairie Sportsman.

I'm Brett Amundson.

It's mid winter.

We're on the Mississippi River open water fishing with Tim Domaille from Fine Line Outdoors.

We're gonna see if we can get some big walleyes today.

It's pre dawn, it's just after 6:00 AM here.

It's 27 degrees.

I mean, who doesn't wanna put the boat in and go fishing?

Let's go.

(upbeat rock music) With the river having better than average clarity this time of year, we started fishing before sunrise to hit the peak morning bite window.

I hopped in Tim's boat and Dan jumped in the other boat owned by his dad, Wade.

It's mid-February.

Some people would say we're crazy for doing this, Tim.

- Well, the weather's nice.

(chuckles) I mean, everybody says, "Well, you know it's February."

Yeah, you know, but we're at 27, 28 degrees this morning.

The boat landing, the ice is not a factor here.

(upbeat rock music) We're gonna drag lighter jigs with plastics on 'em upstream rather slow.

And we're gonna start out a little shallower and see if the walleyes are shallow.

As the sun comes up, we'll just work our way out a little deeper.

(upbeat rock music) Nice fish.

- [Bret] Oh, nice fish.

- [Tim] Real nice fish.

- [Bret] All right.

- [Tim] You see the head shake on the rod here?

- [Bret] Oh yeah.

Here we go.

First fish of the morning, hooked up.

- [Tim] There he is right there.

(water sloshing) - [Bret] Nice.

(laughs) Oh yeah, that's a nice fish.

- So this is what we're after today.

- [Bret] I have a fish.

- Do you?

(Bret laughing) - [Bret] Good.

Well, we kinda doubled up here.

- [Tim] Good.

- I left my rod in the water to knot Tim's fish, and when I went back to grab my rod, I'm hooked up.

Here it is right here.

(water spattering) (Bret laughing) - [Tim] That's the way we wanna do it.

- [Bret] Yeah, nice double right away to start off.

- [Tim] Yeah, so this is what we're after right here.

- [Bret] Double release.

(water sloshing) (upbeat rock music) - [Tim] We like to run the 360 while we're doing this draggin' for the walleyes, and the reason we do is you can see like there's some logs.

So we wanna watch out for them.

There's some back here.

There's a bunch behind us, and there's a few up in here.

And what we wanna do is avoid those so we don't get hung up.

(upbeat rock music) - [Bret] Today, we're on Pool 4, the Mississippi River which starts just north of Red Wing and ends just south of Wabasha.

Even with below freezing temps, the water upstream of Lake Pepin never freezes due to a warm water discharge a few miles up the river.

And since it's border waters, walleye season is open year round.

(equipment rasping) - [Tim] Yeah, they like to stay right below the boat.

(fish rod wheezing) (water sloshing) - [Bret] Oh yeah.

Nice fish.

- There's a good one.

- [Bret] Fishing in the dark for ya.

- Yeah.

- [Bret] Nice fish.

- Really nice, beautiful color, thick.

You know, that's a male right there.

Just a thick male.

(gentle music) - [Bret] Meanwhile in the other boat, they're doing just as well.

What you got, Wade?

- Got a fish, man.

(water sloshing) No sir.

Look at that.

Look at that.

February walleye, open water.

(gentle sanguine music) - [Tim] I don't like the icefish.

I don't like walking on it.

If I was meant to walk on water hard or soft, I'd be god's right hand man.

I go here, you can see the water's open, and unless it's below zero for multiple days, this'll stay open and Everts Resort will stay open.

You can put in here and fish.

(gentle sanguine music) Beautiful, beautiful fish.

(gentle sanguine music) - Fish.

- [Tim] All right, Wade.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Bret] And just because we're fishing open water doesn't mean it's the same as summer fishing.

There are some tweaks to your gear that you might have to make to avoid some issues.

- [Tim] A lot of times we use braid with maybe even a floral carbon liter.

I do that quite a bit in the spring and summertime when the weather gets warmer.

But in all winter long, I run eight pound fluorocarbon just because braid soaks up water, and it really sticks in your guides a lot.

(gentle sultry music) - [Bret] Fish.

(wind whooshing) (gentle sultry music) - [Tim] Here we go.

This is a good one.

Good head thumps.

Lot of weight to it.

(wind whooshing) Doesn't wanna come.

(gentle sultry music) Come on, we're just gonna take some pictures and let you go buddy.

(Bret laughs) It's what makes it the whole day right here.

(gentle sultry music) - [Bret] There it is.

- [Tim] That's a good fish.

(water sloshing) - [Bret] That's good fish.

- [Tim] That's what we're looking for right there.

- [Bret] Oh yeah.

(laughs) Oh yeah.

Look at that fish.

- That's what we're after right there.

We don't want quantity, we want quality and we got 'em.

- [Bret] Well, I'd say that was worth the 3:00 AM alarm.

(upbeat sultry music) - [Tim] This is a great part of the river for the walleye fishery, walleye and sauger especially now, this time of year when there's snow on the ground.

It is tremendous fishing.

There's boats here today, but most of the time I'm the only boat here, I love it.

(gentle sultry music) - [Tim] Fish.

- [Bret] It's just about quarter after seven here.

We've been fishing a little over an hour.

That pre sunrise bite was on today.

We've caught a couple of really nice fish, and Tim's hooked up here with another one.

How's it feel, Tim?

- [Tim] Feels decent.

Not quite as big as the last one, but a pretty decent one.

You know, what's nice now is you get those nicer quality fish.

They got the good head shakes in them just like this and, you know, they're coming out this time year, just absolutely gorgeous.

The colors are phenomenal.

The fish are great.

Love fishin' this colder water.

We're in like 35.7 degrees, and it's just fun.

I mean, there's just no two ways about it.

- [Bret] There he is.

There he is.

- [Tim] Yeah.

There.

Another nice one.

- [Bret] Oh yeah.

- [Tim] Another real nice one.

- [Bret] Beauty.

- [Tim] Oh yeah, another nice one.

(gentle sultry music) - [Bret] Because it's mid-winter, a majority of the boat ramps on this stretch of the river are locked up with ice.

And some folks are ice fishing right next to them.

Fortunately, there's a resort on the other side of the border that keeps their ramp open so people can fish this part of Minnesota.

- We have a full service bait shop.

And then, of course, our two launches, year-round launch.

And we also offer a 24-hour service because it's impossible to staff the bait shop all the time especially for fishermen who like to show up at 5:00 AM (laughs) like you guys today.

And so, we have a 24 hour room, and we keep it fully stocked with fat heads, crawlers, you can pay for your parking and launch.

We have vending machines that have taco in it and snacks.

So, you know, if you're not an ice fisherman and you love the open water, this is the only place to come for that.

- [Bret] We still like ice fishing, but we're definitely glad that we went and checked out this mid-winter open water fishing opportunity.

(upbeat rock music) - [Tim] I probably spend more time on this river in a year than most people do in a lifetime.

If you wanna come and catch fish, this is a place to come catch fish.

- [Bret] And some big fish.

Sauger in Minnesota average about 12 to 15 inches.

But Pool 4 is an exception.

18 to 20 inch sauger are not uncommon here, and many grow to be 20 plus as we got to see today.

(upbeat uplifting music) Oh, little walleye.

- [Tim] Yeah.

- [Bret] Not bad.

Not bad.

Look at that.

That walleye just inhaled that jig right there.

And I'll tell you what, Tim, it's been a great day on- - [Tim] It has been.

- I mean, we've had great weather, we've had cooperative fish.

And anytime you get out here this time of year, you have to deal with the cold weather, the elements a little bit.

And sometimes, finicky fish.

- Exactly.

- But this has been pretty good.

- Yeah, we've had a great day.

We've caught, I don't even know how many walleyes, some very nice saugers, 21 inch saugers, 22.

We've had some really nice walleyes up to like, probably 26, but a lot of nice eaters just like that.

- It's a nice eater, but we're gonna put it back right now and let it grow a little bit.

Maybe come back down and catch it again.

- [Tim] Yes.

- But this has been a great time.

I really appreciate it.

- You bet.

Thanks for coming.

(upbeat rock music) (gentle whimsical music) - [Bret] It's a thick and slimy golden brown goo.

It's called rock snot, (sneezes) and it's invading our north shore streams.

(gentle whimsical music) - [Mark] The organism that makes this snot is a type of algae that is called a diatom.

It's about a 10th of a millimeter long.

You can't see it with a naked eye unless it grows in these big, huge masses.

And then it looks like snot.

And these diatoms, didymosphenia, lives on a big mucilage stock.

The diatom might be this long, but the stock that it produces is this long.

They're trying to do is, you know, they're living on a rock, and they're trying to get up to the, you know, where the water is the best and full of oxygen.

But to do that, they just have to keep growing.

Didymo is actually native in the country.

It has lived fairly happily on the shore of Lake Superior, and people don't notice it too much.

So the crazy thing that's happened in Minnesota is this is the first time we've seen it in streams in Minnesota, is these invasions of our North Shore streams here.

(gentle pulsating music) First time it happened was 2018 in the Poplar River - [Heidi] One of the fisheries staff at the Grand Marais, his name's Matt Weberg.

He noticed didymo in the Poplar River, and he called me.

- [Mark] got her a sample, she sent it down to us and looked at it and said, "Oh yeah, this is didymo."

- [Heidi] I contacted Mark 'cause I thought he'd be interested.

He's an internationally known diatom expert, so he's a real big deal in the diatom world, and he's very enthusiastic.

- [Mark] Clearly wasn't like a gob of something from Lake Superior that have been put up there because all of the other diatoms and algae that were in this sample weren't the stuff we find in Lake Superior.

(gentle pulsating music) Our next step was to try to find some funding sources where we can, you know, tackle this problem and get a handle on it.

On the current project where we're working on the rivers and nearshore area of Lake Superior was funded by LCCMR and projects started in August of 2021.

Didymo really is the triple threat to a stream.

It affects the ecology of the stream.

It affects recreational opportunities of the stream, and it affects the economies because people come up to enjoy the North Shore and enjoy our North Shore stream.

You know, you start trying to, you know, fly fish in this sort of stuff with all this goo on the rocks.

Instead of catching fish, you're gonna catch snot.

(chuckles) We saw it here in this stream right now.

It's probably close to an inch-thick coating.

Every rock, every rock out there is being just coated with a bunch of goo.

(upbeat ambient music) (gentle amorous music) So once a year, we do what we calling our blitz, and we hit everything from the Lester River all the way up to Grand Portage Creek, and we hit about 25 different streams, and then their corresponding lake sites as well.

- [Bret] Mark Edlund starts by testing the water depth and how fast it's flowing.

Researcher Joe Mohan uses probes to measure water temperature, salts, chlorophyll, and pH levels while Heidi Rantala captures insects.

- So I'm collecting stream insects with this device called a surber sampler, and it uses water flow to catch bugs in a net.

So I face the net downstream.

I usually pick out some of the big rocks first if I can, so that I can make sure that they get really clean, and I disturb the bottom and it causes the bugs, the insects to float up, (water sloshing) and it catches all the stuff.

And so, here's an example of one of the bug or one of the rocks that I collected.

And you can see the didymo on it.

A lot of the aquatic insects actually live on the sides or underneath of the rocks, not on the top where the didymo is growing.

So I brush all sides, and then I also take what's in this net and I put it in my bucket too.

And then to concentrate it, I just pour it through a soil sieve, which is a fine screen.

Oh, I see one little mayfly scurrying about in there but otherwise, I don't see a lot of bugs in this.

And then, I just save it in a Whirl-Pak which is just a brand name of these little plastic bags.

I just put my garbage in it so it doesn't litter the stream, and then I preserve it with ethanol, just alcohol.

I'll take these back to the lab at French River, and what I have to do then is to pick the insects apart from all of the didymo which will take quite a long time.

I'll do that under a microscope similar to the one that Mark is looking through right now.

That looks like, to me it looks like wet wool.

And I actually can see some insects.

They get killed instantly from the ethanol but it helps to preserve them so they don't get broken down by bacteria.

Stream insects are important food for our fisheries, and in places around the world where didymo is an invasive.

We've seen big changes in the stream insect communities.

It'll go from things that are really good, chunky fish food, things like caddisflies, and mayflies, and stoneflies to insects that are more kind of filiform body shape.

So things like fly larva, maggots, or actually some aquatic worms too.

- [Bret] Mark has the slimiest job.

He uses a Loeb sampler to scrub snot off the rocks and then suck it into tubes.

(water sloshing) - [Mark] So we've just gotten done collecting a whole bunch of the didymo and snot from the Devil Track River here into this bottle.

One of 'em, we're gonna use to look at how many diatoms and algae are there.

One, we're looking at what kind of bacterial community is found in these mats of didymo.

And the other is we're looking to figure out where the didymo came from.

And so, we are looking for a genetic signature specific to didymo, comparing it among the streams that have didymo to the big lake that has didymo, and then we have colleagues throughout the country who are sending us their snot samples.

(chuckles) (gentle chiming music) We're in the microscope lab at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station.

It's a lab that we've outfitted with some of the best microscopes that you can buy to look at very, very small things.

Diatoms are one of our groups of microscopic algae.

They're specialized because they have a little shell around them that's made out of biologically produced glass.

They take silica that's dissolved in our water, pull it into their cells, and they can polymerize glass.

And we can see in here, you know, the beautiful live didymo, they're good-sized cells that are in there.

They're healthy.

They have a golden brown chloroplast that is taking energy from the sun, doing photosynthesis, creating oxygen, creating sugars for themselves.

But we also see in there is that the diatoms are living on their stock.

There's two didymo in the picture right now, but their stocks' going all over the place, and it's that stock that is really the, you know, the mucus that we see in this rock snot layer.

That matte itself becomes its own sort of an ecosystem that this didymo is controlling.

And what that does is it changes the biology in ecology of the streams.

In particular, we see different algae that live within this mat of goo.

We see different bacteria.

We even see different insects that live in the goo.

So we're studying it.

When we were out last week with Heidi, she was collecting the aquatic insects that are part of the, you know, the food web.

She's gonna go through, pick 'em out, identify 'em, and then we're gonna see what they're eating.

So we'll see who's eating didymo or if anyone is eating didymo.

(gentle pulsating music) (gentle music) We've known that it's lived in the Great Lakes.

Said it was reported in Lake Michigan in the 1870s.

The first report we've had from Lake Superior was from the early 1960s.

I would expect that it's been in Lake Superior for thousands and thousands of years.

We just don't have a record of it.

(gentle pulsating music) We know that it had been living happily in places like Alaska, some of the rockies, you know, mountain streams and things like that.

But what's really been sort of shocking is where it's appeared in other places, you know, where it's never been seen before.

It has, you know, really shown up in, you know, abundant masses of it in places like Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico.

And then we head east, you know, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, New York, Vermont, Connecticut, you know, places that, you know, we had not experienced didymo in these places before and it's now growing there.

Places that are, you know, some of our nicest streams, you know, cold water, low-nutrient streams that we don't expect to, you know, have problem algal outbreaks in them.

The first things that we want to do is prevent it spread.

Clean in, clean out.

When you go into a stream, make sure your boots are clean, your boots are dry, your gear is clean.

When you leave the stream, let's clean it again.

We don't understand, you know, how the North Shore is gonna respond to it, and our North Shore streams are gonna respond to it, but that's what we're working on, spending our research effort to understand this brand new phenomenon on our North Shore streams.

(pulsating ambient music) - [Announcer] Stories about research into invasive aquatic algae, plants, and animals are sponsored in part by the aquatic invasive species task forces of Wright, Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac Qui Parle, Swift, and Big Stone counties.

They remind us to stop the spread of aquatic hitchhikers by cleaning up everything we remove from lakes and streams, including boots and waders.

Remove algae, aquatic plants, and mud from waders, hip boots, dip nets, and field gear before transport.

Rinse non felt-soled waders, hip boots, and gear with hot water or dry gear for five days or more before reuse.

Because felt soles are difficult to clean and dry, consider a non-slip alternative to felt.

If you must use felt-soled waders, designate them to a single body of water.

Stop the spread of aquatic invasive species.

(chiming ambient music) Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center, and a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota on the web@shalomhillfarm.org.

And by Live Wide Open, Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, and the members of Pioneer PBS.