salmonoid
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2007
- Messages
- 2,722
It's been an off year for fishing for me. The weather has vascilated a lot - too dry early on, then too wet, and now too dry. I've set the alarm for a number of Saturday excursions but haven't got up once this year - snooze three or four times, then snooze permanently. Gaps of more than a month separated my fishing in July and August - I was an hour away from a destination and fifteen minutes away from being out of cell phone range in early August when I got a text from my wife that her car had been rear-ended. It looked like that trip would be postponed indefinitely, with preparations for the school year ramping up for an August 24 start of classes, but I managed to finish up my software installs with enough of a cushion that I took a vacation day the Friday before classes started.
I was too tired mentally and physically to drive Thursday night, but hit the road around 4:15 Friday morning. I had really hoped to chase a storm that stretched across the state Thursday afternoon into evening, but that fizzled, leaving my destination mostly high and dry. My first hour on the stream was a bust. Although I took a water temp of 62 degrees, I knew that the preceding week had heated the water to levels that trout could not tolerate and they had moved up, looking for cooler locations. I did have my one and only snake encounter of the trip, early on:
I'm not sure what leaves ringneck snakes like this, but it is the second beheaded ringneck snake I've seen in the past five years. Both were lying on logs over streams.
Further upstream, a few fish started to show up, although not in quantities I've encountered in Augusts' past.
Last year, I encountered six hummingbirds along the stream in one afternoon. This year, the encounter would be with these fellas. I think I saw six millipedes, which was about the extent of live wildlife I saw that were not of the piscatorial nature.
Conditions were definitely low and clear, but surprisingly, three trout are in this photo:
One of the challenges I enjoy under these conditions is enticing the browns to show. It is a whole lot easier (usually) to catch them in higher, muddier water, but they can be enticed from their lairs with low, gin clear conditions too.
The brookies? They're just a bit more opportunistic and rarely seem to shut off.
The browns hang out in the dark. Find rocks like the one in the middle of the stream (current flows left to right, but here is deflected towards me, by the big rock brownie home).
A few years ago, I coaxed a fifteen inch fish out of here twice, once on the way upstream, and then again on the way downstream. That fish moved on (passed on?) but has been replaced with this little fellow:
This fish had a shunted tail. I've caught enough fish like this over the years for it to be a noticeable trait, but I'm not sure what causes it.
This little pool had about a half dozen brookies in it. This stream is often dry in August, so it definitely has been a wetter middle of the summer.
Monarda blooms (bee balm) were sadly waning. They are one of my favorite summer plants to encounter streamside.
But with a nod towards the upcoming season, golden rod was starting to color.
I setup camp mid-afternoon, took a nap and woke up, with my legs feeling like they were locked in place, the consequences of falling asleep with bent knees and being dehydrated. I was toying with the idea of doing some moving night fishing all day long, but kept psyching myself out. But I had marked a spot about half a mile downstream from where I was camping, and as dusk started to fell, I figured I might as well do it. It turned out to be a whole lot harder than I thought it would be. The little bit of moon that was still around was setting and it's hard enough to sneak up on a shallow pool during the day and not line fish, let alone do it at night when you can't even tell where the shallow pool is. But I did end up doing a little spotting with my headlamp. One decent pool that did not yield a single small fish during the day proved to harbor a nice 16-18" brown. Maybe I was too early in the evening, or maybe I was outside their feeding cycle, but I yielded two trees and zero hits on that half mile excursion.
The early morning start was starting to wear on me a bit, but I managed to toss a few bugs in the water at my campsite. There was one huge crash in the vicinity of one of my casts, but I believe it was aimed at some other quarry on the water surface. I thought I was going to take the skunk, but finally managed one small guy on a black gurgler.
I wanted to followup with a middle of the night outing, so I set my phone for 3AM, but when it went off, the thought of putting on cold pants and socks (freaking leaking waders!) and stepping out into the chilly night squashed that plan.
When I fish with my brother, he often tries to find some sort of natural bait in an area we are fishing and uses that to try and fool some fish. I don't relish flipping over logs or rocks to look for bait - my luck would have me finding a snake. But he often finds a worm or a grub and almost always when he does find something, he entices a fish out of a lair somewhere. Where he missed a fish on our last outing together on an earthworm he found, I managed to pull out a fish on a SJ worm. This morning, I didn't have him to point me to a fish, and my expectations were pretty low. But the sun was not high yet and I started to have some follows on small crayfish patterns and small worm/grub imitations. One fish I fooled with (or he fooled with me) and he came out to inspect a dozen times, if it was one.
Usually the fish that come out during the day are the smaller ones; night is the time when the bigger fish feed. So I was not expecting the large dark shadow that emerged from under a rock ledge when I cast across the stream. I have no idea if the fish took, but I set the hook anyway and came up emptyhanded. The shadowed reversed itself. But the next cast, the shadow darted out again, and this time, my timing was good. I could see the fish's beautiful red fins in the water, as he made his runs back and forth, and a few short moments later, with a few false runs towards my net, I had a pretty 16.5" brown in hand.
I didn't think lightning could strike twice, but on the very next cast, an even larger shadow darted out, inspected, and then disappeared for the rest of the morning. I did manage a few more smaller fish. The red adipose fins never cease to amaze me.
I had a lazy remainder of the morning and didn't break camp until mid-afternoon. Downstream fishing is usually not my thing, but dapping a bugger or grub on the downside of rocks is an effective late summer, low water technique. I picked up a few more fish as I hiked out.
A very much lighter colored brown, possibly a fish that was in transit?
Almost stepped on a rattler on the stream bank on the way out last year. This year, the vegetation levels seemed to be lower.
2015
2014
I heard a huge tree crash down overnight, and had visions of bears knocking it over, looking for fat grubs. Whatever bear dropped this, it was surely pigging out on the blackberries!
August remains a great time to fish, if you can find water that hasn't warmed too much. I encountered no fish that were in hunker down, survival mode, which is not always the case. I don't like hiking in squelching heat and humidity, so to bask in a few days of 75-80 degrees is a perfect August day, in my opinion. To catch fish on top of that is a wonderful bonus. Enjoy the day!
I was too tired mentally and physically to drive Thursday night, but hit the road around 4:15 Friday morning. I had really hoped to chase a storm that stretched across the state Thursday afternoon into evening, but that fizzled, leaving my destination mostly high and dry. My first hour on the stream was a bust. Although I took a water temp of 62 degrees, I knew that the preceding week had heated the water to levels that trout could not tolerate and they had moved up, looking for cooler locations. I did have my one and only snake encounter of the trip, early on:
I'm not sure what leaves ringneck snakes like this, but it is the second beheaded ringneck snake I've seen in the past five years. Both were lying on logs over streams.
Further upstream, a few fish started to show up, although not in quantities I've encountered in Augusts' past.
Last year, I encountered six hummingbirds along the stream in one afternoon. This year, the encounter would be with these fellas. I think I saw six millipedes, which was about the extent of live wildlife I saw that were not of the piscatorial nature.
Conditions were definitely low and clear, but surprisingly, three trout are in this photo:
One of the challenges I enjoy under these conditions is enticing the browns to show. It is a whole lot easier (usually) to catch them in higher, muddier water, but they can be enticed from their lairs with low, gin clear conditions too.
The brookies? They're just a bit more opportunistic and rarely seem to shut off.
The browns hang out in the dark. Find rocks like the one in the middle of the stream (current flows left to right, but here is deflected towards me, by the big rock brownie home).
A few years ago, I coaxed a fifteen inch fish out of here twice, once on the way upstream, and then again on the way downstream. That fish moved on (passed on?) but has been replaced with this little fellow:
This fish had a shunted tail. I've caught enough fish like this over the years for it to be a noticeable trait, but I'm not sure what causes it.
This little pool had about a half dozen brookies in it. This stream is often dry in August, so it definitely has been a wetter middle of the summer.
Monarda blooms (bee balm) were sadly waning. They are one of my favorite summer plants to encounter streamside.
But with a nod towards the upcoming season, golden rod was starting to color.
I setup camp mid-afternoon, took a nap and woke up, with my legs feeling like they were locked in place, the consequences of falling asleep with bent knees and being dehydrated. I was toying with the idea of doing some moving night fishing all day long, but kept psyching myself out. But I had marked a spot about half a mile downstream from where I was camping, and as dusk started to fell, I figured I might as well do it. It turned out to be a whole lot harder than I thought it would be. The little bit of moon that was still around was setting and it's hard enough to sneak up on a shallow pool during the day and not line fish, let alone do it at night when you can't even tell where the shallow pool is. But I did end up doing a little spotting with my headlamp. One decent pool that did not yield a single small fish during the day proved to harbor a nice 16-18" brown. Maybe I was too early in the evening, or maybe I was outside their feeding cycle, but I yielded two trees and zero hits on that half mile excursion.
The early morning start was starting to wear on me a bit, but I managed to toss a few bugs in the water at my campsite. There was one huge crash in the vicinity of one of my casts, but I believe it was aimed at some other quarry on the water surface. I thought I was going to take the skunk, but finally managed one small guy on a black gurgler.
I wanted to followup with a middle of the night outing, so I set my phone for 3AM, but when it went off, the thought of putting on cold pants and socks (freaking leaking waders!) and stepping out into the chilly night squashed that plan.
When I fish with my brother, he often tries to find some sort of natural bait in an area we are fishing and uses that to try and fool some fish. I don't relish flipping over logs or rocks to look for bait - my luck would have me finding a snake. But he often finds a worm or a grub and almost always when he does find something, he entices a fish out of a lair somewhere. Where he missed a fish on our last outing together on an earthworm he found, I managed to pull out a fish on a SJ worm. This morning, I didn't have him to point me to a fish, and my expectations were pretty low. But the sun was not high yet and I started to have some follows on small crayfish patterns and small worm/grub imitations. One fish I fooled with (or he fooled with me) and he came out to inspect a dozen times, if it was one.
Usually the fish that come out during the day are the smaller ones; night is the time when the bigger fish feed. So I was not expecting the large dark shadow that emerged from under a rock ledge when I cast across the stream. I have no idea if the fish took, but I set the hook anyway and came up emptyhanded. The shadowed reversed itself. But the next cast, the shadow darted out again, and this time, my timing was good. I could see the fish's beautiful red fins in the water, as he made his runs back and forth, and a few short moments later, with a few false runs towards my net, I had a pretty 16.5" brown in hand.
I didn't think lightning could strike twice, but on the very next cast, an even larger shadow darted out, inspected, and then disappeared for the rest of the morning. I did manage a few more smaller fish. The red adipose fins never cease to amaze me.
I had a lazy remainder of the morning and didn't break camp until mid-afternoon. Downstream fishing is usually not my thing, but dapping a bugger or grub on the downside of rocks is an effective late summer, low water technique. I picked up a few more fish as I hiked out.
A very much lighter colored brown, possibly a fish that was in transit?
Almost stepped on a rattler on the stream bank on the way out last year. This year, the vegetation levels seemed to be lower.
2015
2014
I heard a huge tree crash down overnight, and had visions of bears knocking it over, looking for fat grubs. Whatever bear dropped this, it was surely pigging out on the blackberries!
August remains a great time to fish, if you can find water that hasn't warmed too much. I encountered no fish that were in hunker down, survival mode, which is not always the case. I don't like hiking in squelching heat and humidity, so to bask in a few days of 75-80 degrees is a perfect August day, in my opinion. To catch fish on top of that is a wonderful bonus. Enjoy the day!
