With news Thursday of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ plan to stock state lakes with some 2.

Friday, April 21, 2000

With news Thursday of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ plan to stock state lakes with some 2.6 million walleye, I couldn’t help but appreciate just how well-thought of our fishing resources are.

One man, in particular, keeps his focus on Southern Minnesota’s most precious fish – the trout.

First, to give you an idea of how much of a draw the trout in this neck of the woods are, witness the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press, which both sent their outdoors writers to cover the opener of catch-and-keep trout fishing at Forestville State Park in Preston last Saturday.

While there, I had occasion to spend time with Jeff Broberg, a Rochester geologist and the president of the Minnesota Trout Association (MTA). Broberg, who lives a three-minute walk away from a trout stream in Elba, Minn., shared his thoughts on trout, trout and more trout in what amounted a State of the Trout Address.

"I fish for a meal about once a week," said Broberg, who figures two/three trout are a good meal for him and his wife.

The limit is five trout, not more than one longer than 16 inches. A person can have two days worth of limit in the freezer.

Broberg knows men who catch and release more than 2,000 trout a year. One of them harmlessly clips the soft dorsal fin – located just before the tail – in order to recognize the fish when he catches it again.

As a trout fisherman, Broberg holds his own, while rarely, if ever, keeping his limit.

There is a reason for his behavior. Broberg said that typically half of the trout in Southeastern Minnesota’s 700 miles of trout stream are fished out by the end of the season’s first month.

"The number of fish are subject to over-harvest," said Broberg, who illustrated just how precious the region’s 1,000 acres of trout water is by comparing it to the single 45,000-acre Lake Mille Lacs.

With that in mind, Broberg fishes using a spin caster and a rapala in a scene not exactly a page out of "A River Runs Through It."

"To catch big fish," he said, "you need big bait."

Broberg said large trout sometimes – even in clear water – follow the rapalas up to darn near the tips of his boots.

"It’s a big thrill," he said, "as much as hooking and landing them."

Broberg is at the top of an organization that claims a 50/50 split in its membership between fly fishers and spin casters.

Contrarily, Trout Unlimited, a national organization, counts a more romantic 80 percent of its members as fly fisherman.

Where’s the romance on the Minnesota trout scene?

Sixty percent of Trout Unlimited members leave their state to fish elsewhere. Only 25 percent of MTA trout fisherman ever find reason to venture out of Minnesota.

"We’re the common fishermen," Broberg insisted.

Fishing in some of the richest waters.

Brady Slater’s column normally appears Tuesdays