Monday, February 5, 2018

Super Bowl Sunday Brown Trout


I wasn't overly enthused about the game, yesterday. I don't like the Eagles, and I don't like the Patriots. Two teams I'd almost equally prefer to lose....

So I went with the trout game instead. Throw streamers, catch brown trout. My initial goal was to check out a spot that Neal Hagstrom told me about on Saturday at the CFFA expo. Neal always has some really great information to share. So I went to the spot he suggested, knowing full well it was not the right time of year to find the huge rainbows he told me about. I got one pull in the run below the spot and found some sizable but not huge rainbows in spawning mode in an adjacent tailout. I had written this stretch of water off after fishing it thoroughly last winter without luck. It seemed to me it could only be productive when it was cold, it is kind of an isolated stretch of gravelly riffle with lots of slow, nearly empty skunky water both above and below. Now I know I need to try it in spring and early summer. And probably at night. 


I continued upstream to water I knew would be holding trout and I met up with Mike Carl. This is a moody river and we both covered quite a bit of water before getting a hookup. Mike broke the ice with a perfect wild brown.




I found a rainbow that was very willing to hit my streamer, but only after following it right to my feet. A good distance upstream I finally killed my skunk with a gorgeous mid teens brown.



A little while later Mike had to cal it a day. I wanted to see if I could get a few more fish so I pushed even further upstream.


Two deer... can you find them?
My second fish took the fly hard on the inside seem of a productive run. He was about as brown and a brown can be.


By that point I felt like I ha figured out pretty well what presentation the fish wanted most, but my third trout, by far the most colorful, took after I thoroughly fished his little run and turned to punch a cast upstream with my fly dangling behind me. My forward stroke was met with a lot more resistance than it should have. I turned back around to see a good sized trout launching itself across the run.



It had just started to sprinkle when I landed the last fish. I quickly released him and turned towards home. Every time I fish this stream I am more impressed. It isn't loaded with trout and it never will be. But the reclusive and moody brown trout that call it home are very special animals.


11 comments:

  1. Very nice trip report... sounds like a "super" time on the water...

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    1. It was! And I didn't even have to burn down the town when it was over haha!

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  2. Oh yes, nice water and beautiful browns. That was more fun than watching Superbowl pregame stuff.
    Tie, fish, write and photo on...

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    1. More fun than the pregame stuff and the game itself, really. Though it was a pretty good game.

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  3. Nice trip!
    I was out casting streamers instead of football too. And one I make up even worked. That made it all worth it. I wrote about it.
    There were other people out fishing the same stretch, too. Apparently you aren't the only one who eschews both the Eagles and the Patriots!

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    1. Good for you!
      Both teams have a lot of obnoxious fans, very easy to get sick of it all.

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    2. I'm from Philadelphia. So I should be an Eagles fan. But I only went to one game ever.
      Ironically, my cousin in law used to be an Eagles cheerleader!

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  4. Rowan
    Some solid looking browns you've got there!! Nice Job!

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    1. Thanks Pete,
      This river has a pretty good body of solid browns. Really, I'm looking for the guy that wants to eat all these ones!

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  5. Beautiful fish. I wouldn't know what to do with a trout that large!

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