Sunday Kirk and I paid a visit to a stream that neither of us had fished since last spring. The stream has produced some fine brook trout in the past and we were excited to see how the stream and it's residents fared over the bad summer and early fall. Well we found out, and I'll tell you about that in a later post.
We then moved on to another stream to see if we could find some action. This stream is a beautiful little tumbling freestone that flows out of the hills. It has a variety of plunges, some very deep, as well as pools and my beloved riffles. We each fished an assortment of flies, from dries to wets and soft-hackles and nymphs. Just downstream from the riffles in the first photo is a culvert, in front of that culvert is a very small pool. I let my fly a Pickett Pin drift and soon I had my first fish of the day. It was a very small wild brown, and he was welcomed.
Some of what this stream is. As tangled as it looks it has some great holding places for the trout.
I came upon this nice slow moving pool. I still had the Pickett Pin on. Casting towards the large rock on the right I saw a fish come up for the fly. Having noticed several winter stones in the air I changed the fly and put on a caddis dry.
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Photo courtesy of Kirk, RKM |
Fishing the pool the same way I fished the wet fly, I drifted the caddis the same way. On the third drift the trout rose and I had my first fish to hand.
A precious wild jewel...he was one several I would catch on the dry from that pool. It appears that this stream managed to survive.
Wow Alan - that spot... Inside corner, big rock forcing the current to scour the bottom, eddy and swirl and a hemlock. It's as if some one said "I'm going to build the perfect wild brookie cover" :)
ReplyDeleteHibernation
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Will you are very observant. That is a prime sopt every month of the year. As you said "perfect wild brookie cover"
Nice post, Alan. That is a beautiful little stretch of water you were fishing next to the big rock. One never knows anymore what is up around the bend..........
ReplyDeleteMel-Fly Tyin'Times
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Mel like Will described it so well...almost perfect.
There is just something really exciting when a fish takes a dry.
ReplyDeleteMark Kautz
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Mark, fly fishing for me is an almost 100% visual, and that puts dry flies #1
Their colors seem to explode in the winter. I'm envious of that water. Thanks for sharing your day.
ReplyDeleteRalph Long
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Ralph winter can be a wonderful time to be outdoors, especially when the air temp is near 40.
It is good news that the stream and its inhabitants survived the drought of 2016. Hopefully we are in a wetter weather pattern now and going forward.
ReplyDeleteParachute Adams
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Sam it was a sorry stream in Sept, I am so happy to see the trout doing well. I hope like you that we have a more trout friendly year.
Nice going Alan and Kirk! Glad to see the brook and brown trout managed to make it through the summer and to see a decent amount of water in there again.
ReplyDeleteMark Wittman
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Mark it has been good to see so many of the streams we fished holding on. We had one very bad outing on a stream that in the past has been very good. I think it will be a very long time for this stream to rebound.