Prospector
Well-known member
Time: 200pm to 530pm
Weather: 46 degrees, cloudy with light rain off and on
Water: Clear, 50 degrees, flow on low side
Insects: a lot of Sulphurs hatching for the size of stream. Saw as many as 6 floating down together. Also saw March Browns
This unstocked stream was a 30 min walk through the woods. It’s places like this that I use for a frame of reference of what it might have been like when the Native Americans roamed the land. There is no road noise. I saw a lot of footprints but none were made by a human being. There is a high degree of beaver activity in this bottom.
There are many streams like this one within a 45 drive from my camp but many of those streams have roads close by. That puts those streams on the stocking list and changes the dynamic considerably. All of those streams also have lots of sandy deposits that I can only imagine occurred over decades or hundreds of years of beaver dams being in their valleys. Some comparable streams to this one, where beaver activity is still commonplace would be Spring Creek (the one in Forest Co), Caldwell Creek, Salmon Creek, Ross Run, The Branch, upper portions of East Hickory and Middle Hickory.
You walk on deer trails and pass bear scat a few different times causing me to look around and see if I’m being watched. The well aerated stream has a bit of a low roar that keeps you focused on your immediate surroundings. Usually focused on the next hole or any available holding water. Then a strategy of how to attack it. The fish have a huge advantage because casting is difficult and cover is usually readily available for them to duck into.
I use a nice fly rod with well made fly line, leader and tippet and some nice flies. If I was sent back 100+ years I can’t imagine how I could ever catch a fish here. I would go hungry or catch frogs and crawfish.
So luckily my time on the stream is all for fun and I can catch a few fish and take in the surroundings and leave with a nice sense of fulfillment like the vast majority of this board does.
On this day on my walk in, I meet up with a porcupine about 50 yards from the water’s edge. He wants to get away from me but the hill is too steep and he does a backward somersault twice before trying to enter a hole in a rockpile. His head goes in but body gets stuck. I hurry past so his fear will subside. Upon leaving the creek at day’s end I slowly walk an old logging road and spot 2 bucks feeding in a clearing that was a beaver dam not long ago. I walked past without being spotted just like the bear that maybe watched me earlier. In between those 2 points of beginning and ending, I caught 5 trout: a brown, rainbow and 3 brook. In that order. Not a very good return for 3 1/2 hours of fishing but I did see the biggest sulphur hatch I ever saw on a small stream. I’m sure I spooked many fish before my fly ever hit the water.
I did not wear waders and the streamside brush was thoroughly soaking into my pants above my knee boots in the 46 degree air. However it was all worth it and I guess its why many of us like to fish that way occasionally or maybe all of the time.
Photos...
The beaver dam shown is probably 6 ft high. The abandoned dams and huts are also very neat to look over. The brookies were on the small end.
Weather: 46 degrees, cloudy with light rain off and on
Water: Clear, 50 degrees, flow on low side
Insects: a lot of Sulphurs hatching for the size of stream. Saw as many as 6 floating down together. Also saw March Browns
This unstocked stream was a 30 min walk through the woods. It’s places like this that I use for a frame of reference of what it might have been like when the Native Americans roamed the land. There is no road noise. I saw a lot of footprints but none were made by a human being. There is a high degree of beaver activity in this bottom.
There are many streams like this one within a 45 drive from my camp but many of those streams have roads close by. That puts those streams on the stocking list and changes the dynamic considerably. All of those streams also have lots of sandy deposits that I can only imagine occurred over decades or hundreds of years of beaver dams being in their valleys. Some comparable streams to this one, where beaver activity is still commonplace would be Spring Creek (the one in Forest Co), Caldwell Creek, Salmon Creek, Ross Run, The Branch, upper portions of East Hickory and Middle Hickory.
You walk on deer trails and pass bear scat a few different times causing me to look around and see if I’m being watched. The well aerated stream has a bit of a low roar that keeps you focused on your immediate surroundings. Usually focused on the next hole or any available holding water. Then a strategy of how to attack it. The fish have a huge advantage because casting is difficult and cover is usually readily available for them to duck into.
I use a nice fly rod with well made fly line, leader and tippet and some nice flies. If I was sent back 100+ years I can’t imagine how I could ever catch a fish here. I would go hungry or catch frogs and crawfish.
So luckily my time on the stream is all for fun and I can catch a few fish and take in the surroundings and leave with a nice sense of fulfillment like the vast majority of this board does.
On this day on my walk in, I meet up with a porcupine about 50 yards from the water’s edge. He wants to get away from me but the hill is too steep and he does a backward somersault twice before trying to enter a hole in a rockpile. His head goes in but body gets stuck. I hurry past so his fear will subside. Upon leaving the creek at day’s end I slowly walk an old logging road and spot 2 bucks feeding in a clearing that was a beaver dam not long ago. I walked past without being spotted just like the bear that maybe watched me earlier. In between those 2 points of beginning and ending, I caught 5 trout: a brown, rainbow and 3 brook. In that order. Not a very good return for 3 1/2 hours of fishing but I did see the biggest sulphur hatch I ever saw on a small stream. I’m sure I spooked many fish before my fly ever hit the water.
I did not wear waders and the streamside brush was thoroughly soaking into my pants above my knee boots in the 46 degree air. However it was all worth it and I guess its why many of us like to fish that way occasionally or maybe all of the time.
Photos...
The beaver dam shown is probably 6 ft high. The abandoned dams and huts are also very neat to look over. The brookies were on the small end.
