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...