salmonoid
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2007
- Messages
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Sunday was forecast to be a fairly nice day and since Saturday became a work outside day, which pretty much precluded fishing, Sunday was penciled in for piscatorial pursuits. My wife reminded me that there was a memorial service scheduled for Sunday afternoon for a church member, so that narrowed the fishing window a bit, but I figured a fishing outing would be a good counter-balance to the more somber events of the afternoon. I wasn't sure what stream to tackle, but as I was leaving church Sunday morning, I had a divine revelation - a car in the parking lot sported a license plate that read "GEM-ES". I decided it would be the day of my first brookie outing of the year.
So after the memorial service, I took leave of the family for a bit. One stream I crossed over was surprisingly high and muddy, which I thought was a bit odd, given the general conditions that currently exist, but that stream turned out to be an anomaly (must have had some cows in it upstream). My target stream was quite low and clear, pretty much what I expected. I've never had a problem parking, but I guess everyone else had the same idea of being outside on a nice afternoon, and I managed to grab the last open parking spot.
Low and clear:
It took me awhile to land a trout. I started off with a BH green weenie and as typically the case with brookies, they were interested and would dance all around the fly as it floated downstream. I "rolled" a few (if you call seeing the flash of a five inch fish rolling them) but couldn't set the hook, except on a few nice specimens of tree. I switched over to a Royal Wulff and on the first cast, a legal sized brookie launched out of the water moments after the fly touched down. Of course, I missed the fish, but I eventually got in the groove and the fish started coming to hand.
The first year I fished this stream, it was a real treat. At least two-thirds of the fish were legal sized, with probably a good twenty percent in the 10-12" range. This year, I quickly came to realize that I'll need to come back in a few years, because a pattern emerged. A good three-quarters of the fish I caught were one-year old fish, but I caught them in sufficient quantity that if we have a couple good years for trout survival, I should be looking at some larger fish in a few years. I observed many YOY from this year too. One or two of those one-year old fish took the ride of their life, as even a light hook set launched them out of the water.
One of many one-year old fish:
One of the more colorful fish, with a split tail:
My Royal Wulff was fishing more like a Royal Coachman, but it was still bringing the fish in. I find that a sunken dry fly works very well.
I marvel at the way that brookies hide out in the shallowest of cover, and then charge out whenever something food-like enters their realm. I laughed out loud a couple of times when I would find a likely looking spot for a fish to be, make a cast, and out would charge a tiny brookie.
See that "big" pool, to the left of the rock in the middle? Brookie feeding ground..
Some fish clearly spent a good amount of time in the dark.
Some took advantage of root balls, as their primary cover.
I made it up to a pool that often ends up being a stopping point on outings and had one of the larger fish of the day whiff on my fly. I switched back to my BH green weenie and promptly managed to hook one of the two logs in the pool, and retrieval of my fly of course fouled the pool. Given another hour of daylight, I decided to press on.
The water got skinnier and I was reminded of an outing last spring, following a major batch of rain. The water was ripping pretty good and the fish were gorging themselves, I believe on red worms.
Hole in 2014:
Gorged brookie from 2014:
Same hole in 2015, fish caught here = zero:
One of the reasons I always have the urge to keep pressing on for any stream is that I often find fishable water above stretches that are skinny. A few years ago, I continued upstream from my usual stopping point and was pleasantly surprised to find some more rock pools after a stretch of about a quarter mile of lame habitat.
There was nothing particularly special about this fish, but it was the fish that topped my previous personal best outing on this stream.
It was time to begin the walk back to the car. On the way out, I heard the "Wuk, Wuk, Wuk" of a bird directly overhead. I looked up and spotted a pileated woodpecker, apparently annoyed at my presence. He flew off before I could snap a picture.
I gave the hole with the bigger brookies a wide berth on the way back and couldn't pass up the chance to try and hook the fish I missed on the way up through. Second cast yielded a hook up, but after bringing the fish close, it was clearly a smaller fish. A few casts later yielded a larger fish. It wasn't the biggest fish I had spotted earlier, but it was a nice way to wrap up a good outing, at 10.5". Fish looked like it could have used a few more ounces of food, for sure.
Looking forward to some more brookie action in the ANF in a few weeks, but hoping for a wee bit more rain in the meantime.
So after the memorial service, I took leave of the family for a bit. One stream I crossed over was surprisingly high and muddy, which I thought was a bit odd, given the general conditions that currently exist, but that stream turned out to be an anomaly (must have had some cows in it upstream). My target stream was quite low and clear, pretty much what I expected. I've never had a problem parking, but I guess everyone else had the same idea of being outside on a nice afternoon, and I managed to grab the last open parking spot.
Low and clear:
It took me awhile to land a trout. I started off with a BH green weenie and as typically the case with brookies, they were interested and would dance all around the fly as it floated downstream. I "rolled" a few (if you call seeing the flash of a five inch fish rolling them) but couldn't set the hook, except on a few nice specimens of tree. I switched over to a Royal Wulff and on the first cast, a legal sized brookie launched out of the water moments after the fly touched down. Of course, I missed the fish, but I eventually got in the groove and the fish started coming to hand.
The first year I fished this stream, it was a real treat. At least two-thirds of the fish were legal sized, with probably a good twenty percent in the 10-12" range. This year, I quickly came to realize that I'll need to come back in a few years, because a pattern emerged. A good three-quarters of the fish I caught were one-year old fish, but I caught them in sufficient quantity that if we have a couple good years for trout survival, I should be looking at some larger fish in a few years. I observed many YOY from this year too. One or two of those one-year old fish took the ride of their life, as even a light hook set launched them out of the water.
One of many one-year old fish:
One of the more colorful fish, with a split tail:
My Royal Wulff was fishing more like a Royal Coachman, but it was still bringing the fish in. I find that a sunken dry fly works very well.
I marvel at the way that brookies hide out in the shallowest of cover, and then charge out whenever something food-like enters their realm. I laughed out loud a couple of times when I would find a likely looking spot for a fish to be, make a cast, and out would charge a tiny brookie.
See that "big" pool, to the left of the rock in the middle? Brookie feeding ground..
Some fish clearly spent a good amount of time in the dark.
Some took advantage of root balls, as their primary cover.
I made it up to a pool that often ends up being a stopping point on outings and had one of the larger fish of the day whiff on my fly. I switched back to my BH green weenie and promptly managed to hook one of the two logs in the pool, and retrieval of my fly of course fouled the pool. Given another hour of daylight, I decided to press on.
The water got skinnier and I was reminded of an outing last spring, following a major batch of rain. The water was ripping pretty good and the fish were gorging themselves, I believe on red worms.
Hole in 2014:
Gorged brookie from 2014:
Same hole in 2015, fish caught here = zero:
One of the reasons I always have the urge to keep pressing on for any stream is that I often find fishable water above stretches that are skinny. A few years ago, I continued upstream from my usual stopping point and was pleasantly surprised to find some more rock pools after a stretch of about a quarter mile of lame habitat.
There was nothing particularly special about this fish, but it was the fish that topped my previous personal best outing on this stream.
It was time to begin the walk back to the car. On the way out, I heard the "Wuk, Wuk, Wuk" of a bird directly overhead. I looked up and spotted a pileated woodpecker, apparently annoyed at my presence. He flew off before I could snap a picture.
I gave the hole with the bigger brookies a wide berth on the way back and couldn't pass up the chance to try and hook the fish I missed on the way up through. Second cast yielded a hook up, but after bringing the fish close, it was clearly a smaller fish. A few casts later yielded a larger fish. It wasn't the biggest fish I had spotted earlier, but it was a nice way to wrap up a good outing, at 10.5". Fish looked like it could have used a few more ounces of food, for sure.
Looking forward to some more brookie action in the ANF in a few weeks, but hoping for a wee bit more rain in the meantime.
