The TMA's have been stocked. For me, that means it's time to throw mice. It doesn't matter how cold it is, these dumb pellet heads will probably hit mice. And if I'm going to target freshly stocked trout, it's going to be on my terms, not theirs. How ever I can get the most enjoyment out of them, that's how I'll target them, and for me big foam topwater flies are definitely the most fun way to catch trout that aren't ready to take an Elkhair Caddis or Parachute Adams yet.
Yesterday was a doom and gloom forecast kind of day. Big snow. I was in agreement with the forecast, it looked like it was going to be a big one. And then the low did what it looked like it would do last week, track far to the south. And we have maybe 3 inches. Maybe.
I expected to fish in falling snow yesterday. I did, but not as much as I had hoped for. Mostly, it was just cold. I tried to nymph for a little while, just to get an idea of where the fish had been stocked. That proved to be ineffective, so I tied on a woolly bugger, found fish, switched to the mouse, and got the first mouse munchers of the season.
Not long after I released that rainbow, I got a little surprise. Phil Sheffield showed up. Phil and I have nearly crossed pathes on the water a few times. We were going to fish albies with our mutual friend Mark Phillipe last fall, then I slept in. But finally we found ourselves on the same water at the same time, and we had a grand old time, catching some trout, enjoying the day, having some laughs. This is the kind of day that sums up stocked trout fishing for me. If you can't do it with crazy streamers and mouse flies and with a great friend, why even bother. Right?
Nice--I'll try that-maybe I'll make a mouse no less. I have some deer hair. The recent stocked fish are definitely weird. But I cannot bring myself to use play-dough. That's where I would draw the line. However imitating play-dough with feathers and string---now there's an idea! Mouse patterns and play-dough patterns!
ReplyDeleteMy home water TMA has not been stocked but has a lot of holdovers from the fall. The last fly they fell for was a cool little magenta number I tied, in early March, and a minnow pattern I also devised. But then they went off the flies (the ones I tied and tried!) and I found a bunch more in the slack water ponding portions of the river, using twirly tail rubbery lures on a jig or hook/bb. One on a white spinner. I switched to wooly buggers of the same color with no luck. The rubber twirly things apparently do not look the same to the fish as the wooly bugger that's for sure. But I've also noticed that not all hackle feathers are created equal. Some just seem to fall down on the job and slick back, while others stay standed-up and vibrate as the wooly is twitched.
In comparing a woolly bugger to a twister tail I doubt appearance has much to do with it. It's almost definitely in the presentation. Make a white woolly bugger act exactly as the twister tail did and I guarantee it would catch fish just as well.
DeleteThat water is tied with 2 others for favorite stocked river in my area, well within an hour of home anyway
ReplyDeleteIt's a very pretty river, I wish it still held fish over. Used to have a fairly target-able wild population.
DeleteTell me more about the wilds, what they were, when they disappeared...?
DeleteWilds as in wild brown trout and wild native brook trout. I should say, they haven't completely disappeared from this river, but catching one is extraordinarily rare. For a while this river had a year round trout population, including holdover hatchery trout, wild browns, native brook trout, and sea run browns. In the late 90's there was still a pretty target-able number of wild trout. De-watering has done them in. Unfortunately I've been able to see the effects first hand, from 2010 to 2013 I caught wild browns and the occasional brook trout with some frequency in certain parts of the river. After 2013 it I've caught no more than three. In September 2016 the main stem of the river very near the mouth was at single digit flows. In a natural stat, it should never be under 30. It sucks to only be 21 and be able to say "oh yeah, this river was better back in the day". The rate at which the whole watershed has deteriorated as a trout fishery, leaving the only targetable wild salmonids in a handful of tributaries, was incredibly dramatic and has hurt me terribly. I know the potential, I was there to see it right at the end. Maybe in 10 years it will be better but if I had to bet on it I'd put money on it being worse.
DeleteGosh that really stinks.
DeleteLove it. That's a pretty cool idea, actually. I may throw some mini mice at some stockies down this way. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteLet me know if you do, not every river is equal here in CT. You'd think these homogeneous stocker trout would respond to flies similarly in different rivers but there are places that I've fished that just don't produce at all, even the day after they were stocked!
I wonder of temperature and pH has anything to do with this phenomenon?
DeleteI doubt it.
Delete