Maurice,
Got a late start today and everyone bailed so I went solo. Took your advice and moved to a tailwater since it was later in the day. It worked out better that way since I could do my "combat fishing" thing since no one was tagging along. I covered a lot of water with only one pattern and ambushed all the aggressive (or stupid) fish. All but 1 were brownies, some wild. Thought I might run into you there.... Took a lunch break and drank all the beer (I had some extras in case I ran into you).
Driving up along the Susky tempted me to stop and try for smallies, but I made the right call in going for trout. I agree with woolybugger about smallies being the best game fish for the fly rod, but the bass fishing just plain sucks in the lower Susky and its tribs. Unless they've schooled up somewhere and he found them all ;-) They've just plain disappeared from most of the water I've been fishing for the last decade or so.
Funny how, as the bass fishing has deteriorated over the years, I switched to using bass tactics for trout in the summer and I just hammer the trout - go figure. Haven't used anything lighter than 4x this year, usually 2x or 3x because of the big patterns I use and I do pretty good on some of the heavily pressured streams where most guys are fishing 7x. I just pretend they're smallies when they attack the fly, but they just don't fight that hard... the big creek chubs fight a little better than the trout, and I've been catching some really BIG chubs.... but they ain't smallies either. Hopefully the smallies will make a comeback.
I can think of a few "trout streams" out there that probably would be better off managed as smallmouth bass water. They should stop stocking trout over viable smallmouth populations in streams that are marginal for trout because of higher summertime temps. Better fishing with sustainable wild populations of fish that fight better than hatchery trout. Sounds like a winner to me, but I should probably shouldn't mention the streams I'm thinking of. Some of you guys would have a coronary if I suggested which ones ;-)
I wet waded a very popular spring-fed trout stream on saturday and couldn't believe how warm the water was. I saw tons of anglers out. They're all fishing light tippet and probably unknowingly killing most of the trout they catch by fighting them too long on the light tippet. No wonder they keep stocking the heck out of it. Would be a great smallie stream, but the local fly shops and guides probably wouldn't like that idea.
Paul, I can give you and Merle a heads up on where I found some willing fish, even if they were only brownies. Hopefully I can hook up and fish with you guys one of these days. It would be good seeing you guys again.
tim b.
