Well, thanks again for all the kind words about the pictures, we sure hit it just right last wknd. :-D
And with an impending trip to Memphis for work in the cards for this week, I decided I needed a bit of 'me time' and ran back up today. The forest has done her thing and I'm awfully thankful that we were there for the full glory, what a show last wknd! Not that it wasn't a nice day out there today...
Tested fate and walked thru the tunnel, was on the water 9ish exploring a new to me stretch. The big idea was to fish back up around to the car...but there sure is a lot to old Penn's Creek, she's a growin' on me.
Had a nice start out of the blocks, picking up this thin and hungry looking lookin' rainbow on a swung soft hackle. Nice colors, but somebody feed this fella!
Then a bit of a dry spell for and hour or so, fishing the top of the C&R zone, which was coincidentally the only time I had to share the water. Miles and miles and miles to this stream and I have four other fellas leap frog on around me headin' downstream. No worries though, plenty of considerate space given, so it was all good. Picked up this hungry 12"er on a big golden stonefly in that fast water above the wire.
Tried throwing a hopper for sh!ts n grins in the flat water, but the wind and leaves made that a futile effort, so switched over to my goto #12 bh softhackle dropped off an even bigger softhackle for the next batch of churned up water. Was surprisingly rewarded by making this fella's acquaintance. Nice strong, full bodied 15-16"er, fish of the day!
Post release sulking...
After that is was time eat my sammich and enjoy that beverage I'd been carrying all morning..
Rest of the afternoon was kinda slow, some bugs in the air, but nothing that I would call a 'hatch'. Was gettin' on toward 3 o'clock and started thinkin' about that drive home. Still a lot of water between me and car, but bailed to the road above the island and took a shortcut across the corner there at Panther Run with an itch to look for a possible riser in the flat water above. So I go to step across Panther, and think to myself, 'Wonder if I'll kick up any brookies??"
When wonder of wonders I look down into the little pool in front of me and there's this 13" or so brown laying there finning in the current...so being the a$$ that I am, I grab the net and work it in in a Ninja like fashion and surprise! I've got a fish in the net...sure was purty.
But, boy did he look thin, and so did the flow coming down thru Panther...so I hop skip jumped the 10yds or so along the cascade and let him loose back into Penn's, hoping he'll put some meat on those bones over the next couple weeks.
And yeah, did actually run across a couple sporadic risers there in the flat water, finally fooled one with an ant. Trout sure do like ants...
Just another fine fall day, good times.
