The Passion Only Grows

The desire to fish small streams is high for me, if able to I'd do it everyday, well I can't so when I have the time I make good use of it. I also like looking at the maps and try to find that next small blue line that just may hold a trout or two. While gazing the other morning I found such a line and decided to make the drive to explore it. The morning chosen was after a nasty night of storms, some of which laid down a lot of rain in a short time. My concern was that the runoff would cause the stream to be muddy and swift. Well the decision was made and off I went.

I arrived at the stream around 6:30 and the sun was just starting to crack through the trees. As I got out of the car the first thing I noticed was the air temp,"chilly" to say the least. I quickly put on a heavy outdoor shirt and never took it off all day. I was geared up in short time and up the woods road I walked. The air was still and the ground and woods were wet. As I walked I soon heard the sound of moving water, a sound that was somewhat louder than normal. That seemed to say maybe "high, fast" water. I soon reached the spot where I would try to walk down to the stream. Upon seeing the water I was relieved. I was flowing pretty good but not to where it would cause problems.

The gentle part of the outing. A nice walk on some soft earth.

The stream was so inviting, its rapid plunges, and soft tails just spoke of a beautiful day.

I tried to show just how steep it is in this blue line valley. Once down to the stream walking along it is not to bad.

My first reward of the day. The brookie grabbed the fly just as I was lifting it out of the water, he seemed to be swimming the falls to make sure he did not miss the morsel of food that was about to fly away. Several brook trout were taken from this pool at various locations.

The stream is a series of pools, runs and riffles making it a perfect home for brook trout.

Most of the trout were about the same size or smaller. That's not unusual for these mountain streams, being the pantry is pretty meager.

I chose to wet wade this day. I had a pair of water shoes, which by the way are wonderful, "no slipping" and light weight. The water was cold and I took the water temp and found it to be 56-58 degrees.

Cold water clarity. Going back to the size of the brook trout in this stream being all about the same size. I knew there had to be bigger trout in this stream and in this pool I saw just that. Only the camera never did, perhaps another day. But the pool did give up another trophy.

Several casts later, just as the fly hit the water a trout rose and went to the bottom with it in his lip. My little glass 3wt bent and had the task of subduing the wild creature, which it finally did. You would think that after so many trout it would be no big thing. Not with me, it's like it was my first. The passion only grows.