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....