Sometimes A Small Stream Can Give Up A Big Fish

Mid February, the whole of brook trout forest takes on the look of steel, gray, dark and cold. It was such a day that I ventured to a familiar stream, a stream that has some spectacular brook trout. The last time I fished this stream it was on the wild side, it was struggling to keep its water within its banks. Ice chunks were almost every where which made for a very difficult outing. This day the stream was swollen from recent heavy rains. My thought was to drift a bead head nymph, one with some color and flash and try to entice a strike. A good hour and a half and all I was gifted was a bump.

I even used Pete's "TROUT1" method which is "when the water is high fish close to the banks" and....

that's how I came upon this jewel.

I have learned to accept days as such, slow and not much happening. It is days like this that I try something different. I went to a stretch of stream that I have not fished in years. Below a set of falls I found some water that in the past has been productive from time to time.

The first run below the falls I drifted the nymph and it took a strong hit. The fish was on and as it came close I saw it was a silver gray fall fish. Not a bad start.

I fished for some time without a single strike. Nearing the end of my day I cast the fly to this pocket. The line stopped and suddenly the stream erupted. The fish leaped and ran, then he leaped and ran again. The strength of the fish was not like I was used to from fish in this stream. I had all I could do to keep control and I hoped the fly held. Finally I gained the upper hand and glided the fish into calmer water.

The trout lay in the water with it's eyes looking wildly at me, the fly barely holding. The rainbow was in prefect shape, strong and well conditioned to fast water....a small stream steelhead?

As I lifted the fish from the water I could not believe it's power. I noticed a pronounced kype and thought it looked like the steelhead I had caught in the salmon river in NY. I placed him back into the stream, fly had already fell out. It did not take but a second and it was a memory.

"Grand Kids Run"

When my grand kids were young we took them to a little stream for a day hike. They were thrilled to just walk in the water pick up stones and find lots of squirmy critters as well as a host of crayfish. The woods were full of birds and the never ending scolding squirrels. We came to a section of stream that needed some help with the flow direction. So my two engineers rolled up their sleeves and got to work. They moved some stones from the far bank and they placed them along with sticks and branches to enhance the flow enabling the water to move to an undercut bank. Construction completed we had lunch and talked about what we did and how it benefited the trout. The name given this area would be "Grand Kids Run"

Over the years nature had changed the run...I had fished it each time I visited the stream and over the years had on and off success.

"Grand Kids Run" this is how it was when I fished it one winter day.

This was the brown that was holding in the run that day.

I did a post about this outing and fellow blogger Ralph Long of "Ralph's Fly Box" read it and drew a beautiful likeness of that brown. The drawing was gifted to me and is truly appreciated.

The drawing of "Grand Kids Run" has been framed and hangs where I look up and see each time I'm at my desk. Thanks Ralph...your quite a talent.

Where Have All The Winter Stones Gone, A Long Time....

Winter stoneflies, those little black critters that cover the stream banks on some of the coldest day of winter. These flies that have been about as mentioned in a couple of blogs as being prolific this winter. As for me I have not seen even one. I have put some time into my winter outings, and have seen some trout rising but they were feeding on those flies that one can't see, "midges". So again I tried to find my first winter stone on this outing.

The "starling and purple" has worked for me in the past as a good winter stone imitation, so I selected it, and gave it ample water time to "get it done"

No winter stones here, only winter wood. Beautiful though.

Here is a trout holding spot if ever there was one. I know from experience they hold here and they feed on winter stones. Ten drifts with the starling and nothing...then another ten drifts with the bomber and the same result.

I fished pretty much the whole stream, perhaps three hours and nothing. I did not see even one winter stone. Was I frustrated? No way, these kind of days happen in the winter. This is usually where I stop fishing this stream. There is a small brook that comes into the stream and it is here that I've had success in the past. I cast the starling and purple along the soft seam, it drifted just under the surface. It had moved only a few inches when a trout moved on the fly, but did not take.

A half dozen more casts and "bam" hit and hook. A highly spirited brown took the fly. He pulled and ran to every place he could...in the end he gave it up and glided into my hand. My three hour plus day was a success. A handsome wild brown sipped my winter stone...P.S. I still have not seen a winter stone.

Woodchuck Caddis

The woodchuck caddis....with groundhog day in the books and so much attention paid to this lovable rodent I chose to splash some attention his way also, be it a week plus from his day, better late than never. I'm not really sure who was the creator of this fly but it sure looks like a bit of Fran Betters influence in the fly.

The materials are woodchuck, dubbing, I used orange opossum, and brown and grizzly hackle.

As you can see it has a great caddis shape.

And it has super floating ability.

I tie them with a "hot spot" at the tail end of the fly. This one uses hot orange thread. I also use a yellow thread spot.

And yes they do work. I was able to bring a few to the surface on my last outing.