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Home › Waters › Minnesota › Root River
River · Driftless Area · Minnesota

Root River Fishing Guides

The main stem of Minnesota's Driftless Area trout country, running through Lanesboro, Rushford and Houston with spring-fed tributaries holding wild brown trout and a warm-water main stem full of smallmouth.

A dark forest stream running fast over stone
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Root River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Root River

The Root River drains the bluff country of southeastern Minnesota, the unglaciated Driftless Area where cold limestone springs feed hundreds of miles of small trout streams. It runs east through Chatfield, Lanesboro, Whalan, Rushford and Houston to the Mississippi at Hokah, and the Root River State Trail follows it for sixty paved miles, which makes this one of the easiest trout regions in the country to explore on your own.

The fishing is really two fisheries. The tributaries and the upper branches, the South Branch through Preston and Lanesboro, the North Branch, Trout Run, Rush Creek and dozens of smaller spring creeks, hold wild brown trout in high densities plus native brook trout in the coldest headwaters. These are small-stream, short-cast, careful-approach fisheries and they are the reason anglers come to Lanesboro. The main stem below the branches warms through the summer and turns into a very good smallmouth bass float, run by canoe and kayak from the many liveries in the valley.

The Houston gauge reads the main stem low in the basin. A few hundred cfs floats comfortably and wades where the gravel allows; after a Driftless thunderstorm the river spikes hard and runs the color of coffee, then clears within a day or two. The spring creeks clear much faster than the main stem, which is why local anglers move to the tributaries after rain.

Lanesboro is the hub, a small town almost entirely built around the trail, the river and the fishing. Preston, Rushford and Houston have lodging and shuttles.

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The photo at the top of this page is not Root River.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Root River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Root River cfs

Now: 994 cfs, read 3:45 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 05385000, ROOT RIVER NEAR HOUSTON, MN).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Preston and the South Branch: Minnesota DNR trout stream easements and parking areas.
Lanesboro: town access, the state fish hatchery, and the trail hub.
Whalan and Peterson: main stem accesses along the state trail.
Rushford: access at the North Branch confluence.
Houston: main stem access near the gauge.
Hundreds of marked DNR angling easements exist on the tributaries; signs mark the boundaries.

Seasons

January through March: winter catch-and-release trout season on many streams; check current dates.
April through June: the main trout season, hatches, high water after storms.
July and August: cold spring creeks fish well; the main stem turns to smallmouth.
September and October: fall brown trout, low clear water, the best sight fishing of the year.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Root River?

As of Oct 19, 3:45 am, the USGS gauge ROOT RIVER NEAR HOUSTON, MN reads 994 cfs, the 79th percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Root River?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Channel Catfish, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass on the Root River in Minnesota.

Are there fishing guides on the Root River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Root River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Root River?

Preston and the South Branch: Minnesota DNR trout stream easements and parking areas. Lanesboro: town access, the state fish hatchery, and the trail hub. Whalan and Peterson: main stem accesses along the state trail. Rushford: access at the North Branch confluence. Houston: main stem access near the gauge. Hundreds of marked DNR angling easements exist on the tributaries; signs mark the boundaries.

When is the best time to fish the Root River?

January through March: winter catch-and-release trout season on many streams; check current dates. April through June: the main trout season, hatches, high water after storms. July and August: cold spring creeks fish well; the main stem turns to smallmouth. September and October: fall brown trout, low clear water, the best sight fishing of the year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Root River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Minnesota agency site: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/regulations/fishing/index.html