Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Strange Brookies....

Good morning friends. These are tough times upon us and we shall get through them.

We are fortunate that we can still go outdoors as long as we practice common sense and follow guidelines. On the beautiful small streams I visit social distancing is not a problem. I only encounter trees, boulders, and an occasional friendly brook trout. One such day I had a somewhat strange outing. My flies failed to get even a bump from the local stream dwellers. This strange thing persisted for a couple of hours. At times like this you start to wonder what your doing wrong. Perhaps I may be spooking the trout, or maybe the flies are wrong in some way. Well I came to the conclusion it was nothing I was doing wrong, but the brookies were not feeding.


It was about 11am when I reached this pool. It's located about halfway up the stream. The fly was cast and a hit, not really it was a submerged branch. A follow up cast and the fish struck.


Finally two hours into my outing and the first wild jewel was at hand.


As I continued upstream fishing pools as such, my friends turned on. Flies presented were taken readily.


At the end I concluded that this day turned out to be quite good.








18 comments:

  1. Pretty stream Alan. Wish ours were that uncrowded. :-) I assume you take along a cell for safety? I don't know how you cast in those spots!

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    1. billp
      Thanks
      Bill not a soul on the stream. Yes I do carry a cell, now if I only remember to charge it, just kidding. Five flies lost in combat that day.

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  2. Such pretty country and look, no snow.

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    1. Mark Kautz
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      Mark we had a dusting last week but it only lasted a few hours..winters gone.

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  3. Hi Alan,

    Such a fresh spring stream and some well conditioned brookies there.........

    I have had a few of those trips over the years on the little river Leven and had the same thoughts as you. 'Wrong Fly, poor casting, drag, spooked fish?'. It was only when I got home and went to log my day on our website that I have discovered I was covering pools that another angler from the club had caught a bunch of fish earlier in the day!

    Stay safe and take care

    Alistair

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    1. Alistair
      Thanks
      Alistair these day are what we wait for. Somebody in the pool before you will have an adverse effect on the catching. The other four don't do us any justice either.

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  4. Glad you had a super day afield Alan! Those are pretty brookies, and the laurel along that stream made me feel like it was June all of a sudden!

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    1. Hibernation
      Thanks
      Will being outdoors does a person good, especially these days. That stream is gorgeous when the laurel is in bloom.

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  5. Alan, that stream has "bomber" written all over it.

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    1. John Dornik
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      John you are so right. A couple of weeks from now and that's the only fly I'll need.

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  6. Alan
    Persistence is your fried on days when the fish are not feeding. On these days the seasoned angler such as yourself has success. Hope you and your wife stay safe in these trying times. Thanks for sharing

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  7. Bill Trussell
    Thanks
    Bill persistence is one word, Jeanette say's it's stubbornness, I like to call it Yankee "stick to it"
    All is good here Bill I hope it's the same on your end.

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  8. Thank you for lifting my spirits sharing your small stream adventures. What you do is a real gift.

    Sam

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    1. Sam
      Thanks
      Sam some spirit lifting is so needed at this time. Now hit the Swift.

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    2. With no travel mandated, I monitor my emails for my job. Phone isn't ringing much either. I wonder why am I doing this instead of fishing?

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    3. Sam, a question asked by many these days. Those couple of hours on the water can be so uplifting.

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  9. Got a email from the Maine Dept of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife today even though the entire state is shut down, its ok to go fishing(just be careful) nice to see somebody's their priority's straight!

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    1. RW Van Brunt
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      CT is pretty much doing the same. Just keep your distance. I think it's a good thing. Kudos Maine.

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