Limestone Trout

Another day another spot on Spring creek. The water was just as high and just as discolored, but Mike and I didn't come to sit in a hotel room. So we fished. And if you know what you are doing, and we both do, you can catch trout in the worst of conditions. The fantastically dense trout population in Spring Creek was definitely in our favor. It didn't take long.

I worked a spring mouth where the water was clearer first. Out of two takes there I hooked one fish. I then changed from two nymphs to a sculpin and one nymph and fished that in a soft seem behind a bridge abutment. The flies fell quickly and I felt extra weight there. I set into the snag and imediately roll cast to knock the fly free. That's when the snag, a mid teens rainbow, jumped and tossed the hook. I continued downstream and missed a handful of very quick grabs on the sculpin. Eventually I got another solid hookup. The sculpin had actually hung up and the fish hit the shrimp and hooked itself. I had to wade out to get him free from the branch.

Macroinvertebrate biomass is one of the largest factors in making Spring Creek such a strong trout fishery. Mike was keen on showing me this by kick seining. Surprisingly, the first seine turned up a sculpin amongst all the sow bugs and baetids.

There were not a whole lot of shrimp, but there were some. There were even fewer cress bugs. There was, however, a ton of sow bugs.

We moved a couple miles downstream after that. I got one the board there pretty quickly with a nice fish on a Vladi Worm.

And, lest you thought the tailing trout were a one time thing...

The fish in the water.

The fish out of the water.

I've noticed a distinct difference in behavior, color, and strength with these brown trout. There's something special about limestone streams. Their temperature and flow stability is fantastic and they have really spectacular biomass. In my mind brown trout were made to live in these types of streams, and even though they are not native it feels like they belong.

Spring water. Crystal clear.

The rest of the afternoon was frustrating. I missed a handful of fish on nymphs doing the Leisenring Lift then caught one on a black sculpin. I felt like w should have been getting far more action than we were though. Perfect drifts with proven flies went untouched. Today, on the other hand, was a real morale booster. But you will all have to wait a day or two for that.