Cows in your back cast

An upcoming move kept me housebound with chores for most of the holiday weekend but I managed to sneak out to my favorite little spring creek today to tangle with some brown trout. Terrestrial action should be heating up any time now and I was itchin' to see my favorite stretch to find out if anyone was lookin' up out there. The water was too stained to make fish spotting very easy and although there were plenty of ants out and about nothing was interested in my beetle and ant combo rig. I switched over to a streamer and moved a bunch of fish (a few GOOD ones) but couldn't get them to commit. They followed, flashed and short-struck every streamer in my box and I managed one fish in six solid hours of bank walking.


I hooked the fish from a high bank, and since I left my net at home, landing him was no easy feat. Wading in the stream is illegal and also impossible in most spots because of the soft mucky bottom. I must have looked pretty comical laying down in the grass with my head and arms out over the stream trying to reach the water without going in head first. I finally managed to grab hold of the fly and work it loose, but I was unable to get a pic of the fish. So you'll just have to take my word (and anglers never lie about fish size) that he was a nice 16 - 17 inch brown.

Later in the afternoon, I switched to a different stretch and had similar results. I saw a few fish and got them to move on the streamer, but no takers. I did get to hang out with the cows though - wonder why the water was dirty downstream?

Even though it was only a one fish day, the fish seemed active and hungry, so I'm optimistic about the summer fishing. Come on grasshoppers...

Beetlemania

After a couple weeks off, I was charged up to get back out to the Park. Things have gotten a lot greener out there in my absence and the streams are starting to drop fast. One look at the water and I knew my tactics were going to need to be a little different today. This thought was brought home at the first couple pools I came to with the site of every fish in the vicinity fleeing in panic at my approach. It was time to be a little more stealthy (not that easy for someone of my particular build) and go to a longer, finer leader. After I fine-tuned my tactics things got a lot easier, but let's hope we get some more rain soon to keep things going out there.

The fish on this little crick were definitely keyed in on terrestrial insects. I started off with an ant pattern that I tied up recently and discovered that my blind ass still couldn't see the fly even with a little orange indicator tied on it (Back to the drawing board on that one). So, I switched to a foam beetle pattern (with a bigger orange indicator) and that did the trick. The fish were attacking the beetle with gusto, sometimes moving several feet out of their feeding lane to slash at the fly.

The best fish of the day. This brown put a nice bend in my old Granger. He came out of the head of the pool pictured above and the cast was made from the same spot I snapped that pic. That gives an idea of the long casts that were needed today to keep from spooking fish.

I love terrestrial season and today just wets the appetite for the madness that will ensue on the spring creeks when the Japanese beetles and hoppers show up.

I really like the texture of this picture:

Another beetle eater and a solid brook trout. This guy splashed me just as I was about to snap a pic and got water on my camera lens, hence the crappy picture.

For good measure, I'll throw in a shot of a nice little bucketmouth I caught on Saturday evening. It's nice to have friends that live on the water...