V
Van_Cleaver
Member
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
- Messages
- 742
I didn't bother writing this as a stream report since it was the same old same old but with some interesting twists. I stole (that means got in undetected) a couple hours of fishing today between 11 and 1pm, after looking at two prospective jobs. Stated off in a fast riffle in a local area I haven't fished this season. A beadhead with an ant trailer under a long 5x tippet section was my weapon of choice. I had an indicator but was holding it off the water and basically short lining. I carefully fished an area I felt would hold fish and was rewarded with a beautiful 12'' brown, but only after a bunch of really good drifts. Went down a little farther and picked up another almost identical. Fins all intact orange spots starting to show; not a lot different than stream bred fish would look, despite their origin. I suspected there were more fish but they were being pretty picky, so I reworked the edge seam of the top part and got a third cookie cutter brown.
By now I was getting bored and slowly crept up stream to an area I remember used to hold some hard to catch trout. It was deep enough on my side I had to unsling my pack and were it around my neck to protect my boxes of flies. The middle was all sand and silt with an occasional rock, and it was dead sunny out. I pushed out about a 14'' Smallmouth but no trout. Now I should mention the stream is only about twenty feet wide and overhung with weeds on my side and trees on the other. I finally spotted some trout laying dead in the sun. Had to use a modified roll cast to get above them and on the first decent drift one of them darted, so I lifted my rod tip. Even though my indicator never moved he had already taken and angrily shook his head as he darted for cover. A couple cast later the same scene repeated. The third time I lifted my rod as soon as I saw movement and my three weight bowed nicely, another feisty brown. I played him down stream on purpose but he spooked the pod.
I waited a bit and roll cast under the tress on the far side and actually got a strike that moved the indicator. A nice rainbow jumped and released himself. Slowly worked upstream and hooked a few more landing a couple. It was eye opening how shallow they were holding, and in marginal cover. Then again, the weeds and other structural obstacles make this way more challenging than the average angler wants. Fine by me; it was tough enough to be interesting but there were still plenty of trout available. The water was still a reasonable 66 degrees, too. Bottom line is the same; keep modifying your technique till it works. BTW, the reason for the indicator was that the fish were mostly lying very shallow and I greased the indicator, leader and front of the line section to implement a good drift. I still needed weight to get down.
By now I was getting bored and slowly crept up stream to an area I remember used to hold some hard to catch trout. It was deep enough on my side I had to unsling my pack and were it around my neck to protect my boxes of flies. The middle was all sand and silt with an occasional rock, and it was dead sunny out. I pushed out about a 14'' Smallmouth but no trout. Now I should mention the stream is only about twenty feet wide and overhung with weeds on my side and trees on the other. I finally spotted some trout laying dead in the sun. Had to use a modified roll cast to get above them and on the first decent drift one of them darted, so I lifted my rod tip. Even though my indicator never moved he had already taken and angrily shook his head as he darted for cover. A couple cast later the same scene repeated. The third time I lifted my rod as soon as I saw movement and my three weight bowed nicely, another feisty brown. I played him down stream on purpose but he spooked the pod.
I waited a bit and roll cast under the tress on the far side and actually got a strike that moved the indicator. A nice rainbow jumped and released himself. Slowly worked upstream and hooked a few more landing a couple. It was eye opening how shallow they were holding, and in marginal cover. Then again, the weeds and other structural obstacles make this way more challenging than the average angler wants. Fine by me; it was tough enough to be interesting but there were still plenty of trout available. The water was still a reasonable 66 degrees, too. Bottom line is the same; keep modifying your technique till it works. BTW, the reason for the indicator was that the fish were mostly lying very shallow and I greased the indicator, leader and front of the line section to implement a good drift. I still needed weight to get down.
