Friday, April 28, 2017

Homewater Rainbows and Browns

So yesterday was a little weird. I would have written and posted this last night but I was doing awesome things, more on the later. But late morning early afternoon I fished my home river, which was in great shape with the rain but still higher than is good for a mayfly hatch. I had to nymph again. First fish was a very colorful salmon parr. Soon to smoltify, I'd say.

Not a five minutes later I hooked a sizable fish on the downstream drift. I was totally expecting a big brown given the spirited fight I got from this fish. Nope. It turned out to be a rainbow. This is pretty early in the year to be catching stocked rainbows here, but this wouldn't be the only one I'd catch this day. 


A few casts later I caught the fish I was here looking for, a gorgeous wild brown of good proportions. Instantly I was feeling better about the day. 



As I worked my way upstream I picked up a salmon parr here or a brown there, nothing serious. I did break off a 12 inch brown in one pocket. What a bummer that was. When I finally did hook a really good fish it was another surprise rainbow that took me on a 30yd run down the rapids. That one I thought was going to be a 18 inch wild brown... kind of a disappointment but whatever. 




I continued to catch small wild browns, a great sign that this stream will be healthy if the water level remains good through this summer and fall, but didn't get anything substantial until I got to where I caught the 11 inch wild brown last time. There I caught two fish, one smaller light colored one and the first a bigger extremely dark fish. What cool color variation! 




Dark brownie


Light brownie
Not far upstream is a huge boulder that I always make a drift next to but never ever catch a fish. Not a single one in 6 years. Yet today there was a trout there and I hooked it. It was a very nice brown, over 10 inches, and it ran downstream with me following closely behind. 



One more spirited healthy wild brown trout and I called it a day. See you again soon, favorite river. Hopefully the fish will be rising.


6 comments:

  1. So it looks like it faired pretty well through the drought. Lets hope that we continue with some regular periods of precipitation this year, especially in the fall.

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    1. It has done OK but not that well. Still a shadow of what it was three, four years ago. If we get a bunch of cool wet years it will be back to what it was!

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  2. Glad that boulder finally gave up that beauty. Six years, wow. All nice catches Rowan.
    Tie, fish, write and photo on...

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    1. Weird stuff like that is what keeps me coming back. There might be a fish there, there might not... there's only one way to ind out!

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  3. Fascinating patterns on these fish whether they're wild browns (dark or light), rainbows or salmon parr. Can't imagine what that journey to the sea would be like for the parr. Glad you had such a great day.

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    1. Certain death, really. There's next to no chance it will survive the journey.

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