Brooky Quicky

I had a short family outing today, and I decided to show my mom and brother a special stream that is in some particularly beautiful surroundings. In the stream are some sizable wild brook trout, although I've felt the past two times that I visited this stream that it wasn't showing its full potential. Today I think it was generous. We were there for no longer than half an hour and I had my line on the water for maybe ten minutes. I caught four brookies on the only fly I used, and Ausable Ugly, and they were all good sized, healthy, and dark colored creatures. Awesome! What a great, albeit short trip with family.

Flies Now

Screw this weather. We need the rain, but why did it have to wait until after I got home to start? I'm already done re-stocking all of my fly boxes except for three (I have a lot of fly boxes for a lot of species and types of water). It's gonna be a long winter, that is unless the fishing is good.

Duck Observations

I went to the Bell Pond yesterday to see if some carp were on the flats. Unlike many fish carp feed pretty well in the winter. If you can find a place small enough they may spend part of the day in shallow water. I didn't see any in the flat although there were some bubblers in deep water. I did observe some interesting duck behavior. When I got to the pond there was a flock of hooded mergansers there. These are beautiful birds with striking black and white coloration. They are also exceedingly skittish and although I tried to get a photo of them they left before I was able to.

I also saw some interesting behavior by some mallards. I watched them come in from the North, dropping in altitude, spot me, then make an ark that put them on course to the lake just to the north of the pond. The saw me, said "Heck no!" and went to the next best place! No fish at all yesterday or today. Gotta go after brookies tomorrow.

Covering Water

I started today day early, about 7:15 is when I got to the river. I was joined by a friend for a couple of hours, but just before he arrived I put a couple casts in to see how my fly would fish. First cast a rainbow came from ten feet upstream to chase the fly. By the time he got close the fly was already out of the water. I threw it back in and he clobbered it.

A little bit before my friend had to leave I stuck a smaller one on the same deceiver style articulated streamer. Another chase, recast, and clobber.

I decided on a whim to visit a stream I last fished two years ago. It looks sweet and it really should have brookies, but today I caught the same number this time as last time... which is zero. I did, however, catch some shiners and spotted an unidentified fish about 6 inches long, maybe a salmon parr.

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I then jumped over to a bridge crossing on a bigger river that I have never been to before. I just wanted to see how good it looked, it is not likely many fish avoided being taken home here. It is super deep and that means the state probably puts most of the brood stock they put in this river in this hole. Definitely worth running streamers through next spring.

My next plan was to visit a pool that I know has some nice holdovers in it. Here is a nice brown doing some head and tail rises:

A Sedgehammer caddis pattern was sipped by the gorgeous rainbow above before the surface activity slowed. I never did get the head-and-tailer.

In the faster water at the head of the pool the Ausable Ugly once again showed it's fish catching ability, bringing a brown and two rainbows to hand. I missed two takes as well.

I made the long trip back to where I started to find more rising fish. First I caught a small rainbow on an Elk Hair Caddis, then something crazy happened. I tied on a soft hackle cdc hendrickson emerger. On what I decided was going to be my last cast with that fly I saw a wake come up behind it as I stripped it in. I stopped my retrieve and the fly floated back up to the surface where a big mouth engulfed it. After giving the 3 weight a heck of a work out I was able to land this awesome rainbow, about which something seemed very familiar. When I got home this evening I compared photos of the first and last fish of the day, carefully examining the markings. They were indeed the same fish! What an interesting way to end the day....

Streamer Junky

I had big plans today. Pike. This is one of those times of year when Pike get all juiced up. But my friend who was to be my partner in crime backed out and I needed to regroup, quickly! It was already too late in the day for me to make the run to my favorite brooky stream so I decided to go after another type of monster. It has been a little while since I last chucked streamers on the Salmon and I decided today was the day. It might as well be, not much fishing is going to happen tomorrow and Sunday is going to be chilly! I'd rather reserve Sunday for a long ride in waders.

The leafy- tannin staining in the water has gone. Slightly more consistent rains have meant the stream is gradually getting more and more healthy. It's still stupidly low, but it is better. VERY clear. I tend to start out crazy... today my first fly was a Drunk and Disorderly with gold polar chenille... very bright! I had a few takes on that fly. Good ones, but I was just getting started. I got my first fish on a black Peanut Envy. She was chunky!

Eventually while going through the fly rotation I tied on a yellow Snot Goblin. That was good for a couple of fish before I lost it on an USO (Unidentified Submerged Object). The first that I landed on the Snot Goblin was a stunning buck who went airborne a number of times.

The second one on the SG gave a strong pull on the take, despite being a smaller fish. To finish off the day I tied on a smaller fly, a #10 Ausable Ugly. The more I use this fly the more I love it. Today I was using it on 1x and a sink tip and it still managed to catch me the prettiest fish of the day.