Trout Grand Slam on GIANT Dry Flies

Last two years have pretty well refined the way I fish a stocked trout stream. I'm catching more and bigger fish and having a lot of fun with it. Frankly if stocked trout weren't so willing to eat gaudy streamers and huge foam floating flies during the day there would be next to no reason for me to want to catch them. Call me a snob if you want, if that trout isn't big and willing to eat a big meat fly it had better darn well be wild or I frankly don't much want to fish for it. Sure, I'll mess with stockers on nymphs or dries for a little while but I'm not really into that whole shtick. I've got plenty of small wild trout to go out and catch with those flies, but what I don't have are big wild trout that will eat meat flies within such proximity that I can go after them any time I want. Stocked trout are pretty dumb and will therefore attack mice, so yeah that's what I'm going with. The take is something to dream about. Predatory instinct. I love it!

This post is late. Tuesday is when I should have written this. But the wild fish took priority so here we go two days later... instead of putting a full day in on the Salmon I decided to get there right when the action started the day before. Within a handful of casts I had a rainbow shadowing the mouse. Four casts later and the fish wasn't interested any more. I got out my secret weapon, the foam Steelhead Waker. Deal sealed.

There's one species down. I crossed the river and changed back to a Morrish Mouse to work my way down to some water that can be fished from river right at these flows and found some active fish. After a few one-and done takers I found a fish that hit over and over and over, often three or four times in one cast. It also often leaped 3 feet out of the water on four or so takes. It was crazy to see one fish hit so many times, and I was starting to wonder what its problem was. Then I hooked and landed it and saw exactly what its problem was... it can only be described as "genetic f***ery" by the hatchery. It was a tiger trout. A rarity for sure, a fish I've only caught five of. These fish, wild or stocked, are incredibly aggressive. And very beautiful I might add.

A bit later and a ways downstream I caught a whole mess of browns, which was a bit surprising to me since the hatchery browns have been, in my experience, some of the least willing to hit the mouse during the day. But I got some pretty good sized ones so I'm not going to question it. 

As darkness fell I caught a few more browns. Then, in that last little bit of sunset, a bigger fish hammered the mouse. After a strong battle I landed another fantastic trout, a 19 inch brook trout. That was the last fish of the day. A good one to end on.