The Crazy Shrimp

"The Crazy Shrimp"

The Crazy Shrimp is a brooky trout fly I created the other night using pink floss, copper wire, flashabou, and a blend of possum and UV ice dub in shrimp pink and yellow. It looks like a freshwater shrimp, cress bug, sow bug, scud, or any number of things. It has huge appeal for brook trout when fished like a wet fly or stripped downstream like a streamer, and of course it would take fish dead drifted as well. Yesterday it took some very nice brookies, and today I wanted to see how it would work on a classic freestone. 

I chose a stream I haven't fished in a couple of months. It has some big wild brookies in its many runs and pools. It is certainly the prettiest stretch of water in the area, particularly in the spring with all the fresh green in the deep ravine and moss on the waterfall rocks, but also with the winter's first snows. 

In the pool above a native brooky took the Crazy Shrimp. It was on and off in a second.

While I was sitting in the spot from which I took the picture bellow something very interesting happened. I caught one brooky out of the tail of this pool then began casting towards the head, where the biggest fish usually sits. I got a take, but the brooky came off right as I got him to me. To my surprise, he stayed a few feet bellow where he came free and began feeding again! I cast to him a few more times and he bit the fly, but only very gently. Then I watched his buddy swim down to join him. I put the fly in front of them and the newer one nailed it. If you don't move abruptly, you can catch brook trout three feet away from you!

There was one pool that seemed to be the sweat spot. I hooked five different fish there and landed four of them. This struck me as odd, and naturally so.... I have never caught fish out of that pool before regardless of how good it looked! Perhaps the new tree that fell in it provided enough cover for the char to move in. The best of the day was one of the fish out of this pool, a healthy male who apparently shares my lack of fashion sense... he looks like he forgot to put on his spawning dress! 

The streams are treating me well despite how dry this summer was.