Here’s a recap of the day:
Started fishing at around 12:15 at the lower end of the gorge. I fished with nymphs for about 10 minutes with no success before switching to a big streamer. On my very first cast behind a boulder a decent brown chased it back as I stripped it back and ate it on the surface, practically at my feet. I missed the fish, and immediately downsized my streamer to a mini version of the same fly.
I fished from the parking lot to the first railroad trestle without any more bites, although I kept seeing things behind my fly. I fished the piling closest to the right bank and had a 10-12 Incher short strike it two casts in a row, but it didn’t hook up. I attempted to wade further out to fish the middle of the bridge but I barely made it a quarter of the way out before I was losing my footing. That was the first and only time I ventured over 5 feet from the bank the entire day.
Soon I came the the part where the river splits in two just upstream from the trestle, and I fished my way up the smaller side channel. Near the top, I came to a very nice looking run that had very fast flows and a fallen tree up at the head. On my very first cast I got smoked by a big fish, and this one actually got hooked.
The fish was 16 and 1/2 inches, my first ever little J wild brown and my first fish on an articulated streamer.
I worked my way up to the second trestle over the next half hour. Wading was very sketchy in places but I managed to safely make it through. Along the way, I had several follows. Then, in the big pool below the trestle, I had a 15 or so Incher follow and ultimately hit the streamer twice, but he came unhooked after a second and it never returned on my following casts.
I fished underneath the trestle, casting as close as possible to the bridge piling and letting the streamer sink for a solid 10-15 seconds before stripping it back upstream very slowly. After about 5 minutes of casting I felt a tug and set the hook on my second trout of the day, a very nice 13 inch wild brown.
The wading got harder after this point and I didn’t see any promising side channels in sight, so I turned around and fished downstream to the first trestle. Along the way, I missed several fish, including another 15-16 inch fish that flashed on my streamer in the same side channel where I caught my big one.
After fishing the first trestle again, I returned to my car and drove around Barree, stopping to fish by the bridge and a few other spots, before returning to the gorge where I missed one more 10 incher below the parking lot.
I ended the day with two fish, but that’s still 2 better than last time and they were both very, very nice fish. A more experienced fisherman likely could have caught at least 6-7 fish in the same stretch I fished, I just kept pulling the fly away from the fish too soon and blowing all of the chances. Overall, it was a great day and I can’t wait to go back.
The side channel where the big one was hiding
The first trestle, this pic really shows how stained and fast the water was. Very difficult wading
The magic fly that got all but one of my bites
