Mother Nature said "Nope!!!"
I spent the day biking in a cold breeze, the temperature didn't get above freezing, and it sleeted. If you haven't biked in sleet, don't. Its painful.
Not only did the conditions make those many mile on the bike a pain, they prevented good fishing. There were fish in the stream. I saw them, including one whopper over twenty and some big ones that I will mention later.
The first stretch I fished is low gradient with fine gravel bottom and some plant life. It is almost spring creek like. I saw the occasional rise, and the above mention twenty plus among many eight to ten inch wild browns. I tried big nymphs, small nymphs, wets, and worm patterns. Nothing would budge.
So I went to try a section of this stream I had scoped out yesterday on a topographic map. I found something amazing:
This pool was one hundred yards long, up to fifteen feet deep, and in the depths I could see shadows. Huge shadow, with tails slowly moving with the current. Brown Trout. Enormous fish that would ignore every fly I had. I will be back to this spot, on a summers evening maybe, with big dry flies and streamers. If I'm lucky this spot will remain secret until then. I wandered upstream. There I discovered a gorgeous little tributary. I suspected it would hold Native Brook Trout. Sure enough it did, and I caught a tiny one on a Copper John. I know that there are bigger fish there too, and when weather permits I will catch some.
On the way home I spotted one magnificent stream I also need to visit some time. It runs through a deep gorge. No doubt some gems are hiding in it's turbulent runs.
Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be conducive to big Browns on my home river.
That was a productive adventure. Beautiful water and woods. The sleet you could have done without I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteThe fish will be waiting for you in the Spring. Thanks for the experiance.
Fish on...