Final Hour

Mike and I made one last push on spring creek Sunday morning before saying goodbye. For once, instead of raining all day and being dry all night, it rained all night and brought the level up even more for us. I started out of course, fishing to the trout nymphing up on the grass. I started trying to get one on a dry fly. We had seen these fish and others rise during our time there and a fish in inches of water is an easy dry fly target. No dice, even though I saw a midge type rise while I was rigging up. I switched to a crane fly nymph and was immediately into a very pretty brown.  In the next back eddy up, I got a second. In the third, I missed one. In the fourth and final I hooked and lost a some-teen inch fish that was absolutely ablaze in orange and red. A fish I really would have loved to have gotten a photo of.

No enhancement. This is what it was really like. 

I changed to a streamer and worked down, catching one small fish and getting another that came in fouled. I don't take photos of snagged fish even if they are as nice looking as that one was!

I then crossed a bridge and walked down to a place where clear water was dumping into the creek. Initially all I saw were suckers. Big ones. But after a bit of spot and stalk I found a big hatchery escapee rainbow feeding actively. I tied on a pink Frenchie, added a split shot, and started to work the fish, which was sitting in a very inconvenient spot as far as current goes. It may have taken at on point but I couldn't see my fly or feel anything so I was basing my hook set entirely on what I saw the fish do. I kept making the best drifts I could, focusing right on that rainbow's head, when I got distracted by some motion just next to the bow. There was a big brown that I hadn't even seen, white mouth open wide and head shaking angrily. Now, what I should have done was lightly lift the rod and proceed to carefully fight the fish. What I did was make an aggressive downstream hook set and break the fish off. That really was a good fish. Not huge, but big enough to be impressive. And it would have been a heck of a sight-nymphed trout. But now, what I really have is a looming image of the fish that could have been and a big reason to get myself back to Spring Creek very soon.