Slamming Brookies

I usually go brook trout fishing to relax, with no real goals other than enjoying the woods, the water, and catching a few gorgeous wild fish. But every now and then I focus my efforts on catching large numbers of big brook trout. Today I got to my stream of choice, the brook in the deep ravine, and I knew right away that the conditions were absolutely perfect. The water level, clarity, and temperature were perfect. It was the kind of conditions that tell me it's a big brooky day. I tied on the Ausable Ugly. Today was not a day for messing around with different patterns. The Ugly is buggy, get's down to the bottom, and has more movement than pretty much every other fly in my box. I fished every pool thoroughly. If I caught a fish I didn't stop there. It isn't uncommon to catch more than one in a good pool. I caught two small ones right away, but the third fish proved that I was doing the exact right thing...

This big hen took in the middle of a pool that I have only caught fish in on two occasions. She fought well but I had no trouble getting her to hand.

I caught two more little guys in a plunge pool before sneaking up on the pool above. At the very top there is a nice deep trough between two sheets of rock. The water at the surface is extremely turbulent, but bellow is a nice soft pocket. I knew there had to be a fish sitting there. I high sticked the Ugly through that trough about 14 times before I felt a tug. I lifted and a nice fish came splashing to the surface before running down the plunge into the next pool, where I fought it and finally wore it out. This time it was a big buck!

I kept at it, and I caught plenty more fish, and quite a few over the average size. My end total was 13, pretty good for an hour of fishing!