Oh, The Colors of Fall

This evening I had the urge to go out into the woods and tempt some wild trout with buck tails. I wasted no time in getting to the stream. It was getting a healthy dose of yellowed leaves, and the water was low and incredibly clear. I think the leaves make it appear even more transparent than usual.

The first fish to come to the Edson Tiger was a beautiful female Brooky, a perfect native. This was a special fish, above average in size for this stream. She was coated with small orange spots that were darker in the middle than on the outside, a trait common in this stream's natives. 

The catching continued, with two nice wild Brown Trout. Both took a yellow marabou streamer; the first coming from his post in from of a rock to smash the fly, the other speared out of an undercut. I missed plenty of takes in between as well. 

Farther upstream, in a long pool, a big wake chased my fly. The streamer was then ignored, so on went another. When that came up flat, I noticed a few small poppers in the box and decided they might do the trick. One went on, and sure enough a big brown came up to clobber it. I missed him twice! I'll get him next time. The next pool had a riser, and with a Red Humpy another fantastic native Brook Trout came to hand, this one a colored up male. He was displaying the orange- red spots much better then the female had. He was returned and I left the stream for the evening.

Connecticut Fly Angler in Maryland

This weekend I was visiting with my Auntie and Uncle in Maryland. I hadn't seen them for some time. I really enjoyed reconnecting with them and exploring their farm; and, of course, doing a bit of fly fishing. On Saturday Uncle and I, along with my brother, went to a local river, the Monocacy. It was a fairly cool, slow river: wide and shallow. It was not long before I was catching big Maryland Redbreast Sunfish on wet flies.

My first Maryland fish.

After I got tired of those, I tied on a little popper and caught a couple Smallmouth, a big chub, and some more chunky panfish. The chub was a heck of a surprise.

We called it a day and went to pizza hut. For the rest of the afternoon we sat and talked, or enjoyed the company of their two dogs (Rocky and Maxie) and "Cat".

Rocky, getting in my face.

As the evening wore on I explored the fields, and fished for small shiners and chubs in the tiny spring creek down the hill from the barn. I can't tell you how beautiful this area is. unfortunately, corporate America is slowly encroaching on the farmland, and in a strange scene on one side of the road would be a Walmart, on the other a rich green soy crop.  

The next morning I did some of the weirdest fishing I have ever done. The day before I had seen a very interesting looking canal in the middle of Fredrick. I immediately expected it would be loaded with carp. This morning I discoverd this to be true. There were Commons and a few Koi. There were also Largemouth Bass and Bluegills. These, unfortunately, were all I caught. I did have one of the large carp follow my sucker spawn pattern down, but I don't knot that it ate. I was plenty happy with the Bass and Bluegill. It was fun. I like doing weird stuff, and fly fishing and urban canal is fairly strange. I'll have to make another trip next year. I regret  not taking pictures of those carp....

Not my usual habitat.

Sipping Midges

This is not a post about trout. It is about Bass and pan fish. Today I went to the farm pond to find a heavy midge emergence of size 14 midges. I had to go home to get the right gear. When I got back, I took a nice bluegill. Then I got the daintiest of takes. It was a disturbance, then a slurp. None of the fish came above the surface, there was barely even a dimple. Silly me, I thought it was small. Nope, I was briefly hooked into a fair sized largemouth. With a similar take I got a smaller one. Fish never cease to amaze me.

Rivers

A good qoute:

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river, and he's not the same man."
-Heraclitus

The Streamer Cause

This evening I was ready to go out and fish the Salmon River with streamers. In fact, the only boxes I packed were loaded with Bucktails, Woolly Buggers, Clousers, and Barely Legals. When I got to the pool of choice I saw some risers, but those were not what I was looking for. I tied on a streamer. Half an hour and two hits later, I remembered that I stuck one little stonefly In that box. To stave off the skunk, out it went. A moment later it was slurped down by a nice Rainbow.

After that I continued to fish streamers. Further downstream, I took one Smallmouth bass and had a brooky on briefly, bringing my day to an end. 

Perch Only

This morning I headed out into the rain for some action on the lake. Right away I found some exceptionally skiddish feeding carp. I got withing ten feet of them, crouched, and they spooked. I set up a Euro Carp rig, bated an area, and left that while I went on to cast flies for Panfish and Bass. Unfortunately it was not a bass day, but the perch were hungry. I caught around 20.

The Carp Drought Continues

For whatever reason, regardless of the time I am putting in, carp just haven't been showing this week. This morning I went out for an early session and didn't see more then two fish in several hours. The cold nighttime temperatures are likely to blame. It's about time for me to get out of the early morning routine and put more afternoon time in.

Lacking in Wild Trout

Today I went out and fished some small streams that I have been eyeing up for a while. Unfortunately, the only trout I could find were stockers in a spot I already knew. At least that's something. It blows my mind to find so many Brookyless streams when they are just the perfect habitats. It's just sad.