There seems to be a little bit of confusion on the part of old Mother Nature. The weather is supposed to turn colder and snow should be covering the ground about now.

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing exciting about shoveling snow, but a Christmas season without snow doesn’t exactly put a person in the mood to sing Jingle Bells. It wasn’t too many years ago that Santa was water skiing in December. There is a little too much ice on the lake for Santa to water ski this year.

With this in mind, the Department of Natural Resources has issued the following news release that should be of interest to for die-hard trout anglers.

Portions of 12 southeastern Minnesota trout streams (six north of I90 and six south of I90) will be open for catch-and-release winter trout fishing with barbless hooks Jan. 1 through March 31. Signs are posted on streams that are open for winter angling.

Additional winter trout opportunities will be available on portions of 25 more streams beginning March 1, when the 2003 fishing regulations take effect. The DNR approved a proposal to expand winter trout fishing in southeastern Minnesota after anglers voiced strong support at public meetings last fall.

In 2004, portions of 37 streams (approximately 135 miles) will be open from Jan 1 to March 31. Catch-and-release fishing opens on all southeastern Minnesota trout streams on April 1, 2003. Anglers may harvest trout starting April 12, 2003.

Minnesota’s winter trout season opened on an experimental basis in 1988. Creel surveys conducted in 1988 and 1989 and additional data have shown that the winter catch-and-release season does not have a negative impact on trout populations.

To minimize possible harm to trout populations, anglers are encouraged to consider the following: After catching a fish, minimize its exposure to cold air by keeping it in the water as much as possible; avoid walking through shallow riffles, which often contain trout spawning beds.

Areas open for winter trout fishing on Jan. 1 are listed in the 2002 Fishing Regulations Handbook. Maps of streams where winter trout fishing opens Jan. 1 are available on the DNR Web site at www.dn-r.state.mn.us. Streams open for winter trout fishing on March 1 will be listed in the 2003 Fishing Regulations Handbook.

I know there are quite a few trout fishermen in the local area. I have some friends that do a lot of trout fishing in the summer months. I guess I have never thought about doing it in the winter, but it could be kind of fun if you have a mild winter day.

With the weather the way it is right now it would definitely be safer than getting too carried away with ice fishing.

I have done a little trout fishing. Not enough to claim knowing much about it, but enough to say I’ve done it.

When the kids were younger we went to the Black Hills on a vacation with some friends. I took along the fishing poles and was determined to try some trout fishing.

We bought a 24-hour license and the plan was to fish Stockade Lake from noon one day to noon the next. The first afternoon and evening we caught enough fish to last the whole vacation. It was really quite fun.

My boys still remind me of how I almost lost my fishing pole. I had laid it down to take a fish off one of the kid’s hooks when a big rainbow decided to take off with my bait. My rod went flying down the bank of the lake and I had to dive headfirst to catch it before it went in.

My boys seem to get a lot of satisfaction out of mentioning this whenever there are a lot of people around. They have to throw in how that’s the fastest they had ever seen their old dad move. Yuk! yuk! I guess they learned more than one thing from me.

I plan on giving trout fishing another shot, but probably not in January or February. These are the months I like to think are set aside for hockey and ice fishing.