That Creek

There are some streams that I know for a fact have held wild trout recently enough that they should still be there but which haven't revealed themselves to me. There is one such stream that I've fished on and off for six or seven years without catching a single salmonid. It looks good, I know people that have caught wild trout there, and the fishing was always good, but I never caught a brown or brookie there. Sunfish, fallfish, white suckers, bass, and chain pickerel made up for the apparent absence of trout, but I was always a little confused that I couldn't find these mythical wild trutta purported to live in this stream. This was "that creek", that weird place I couldn't quite figure out.

Then, on a day not unlike many others I'd visited this place, doing nothing I hadn't done here many times before, this happened:

I was a little taken aback, so many years of troutlessness in this creek and then this little one shows up in the first minutes of the trip. I released it and said thank you. After that, things were business as usual again. I didn't see another trout nor evidence of them, but caught plenty of beautiful fallfish.

A few days later I was back, and virtually the exact same thing happened. I almost immediately caught a wild brown trout, this time a long, lean, spawned out hen.

And then, as with the previous trip, it was pretty much back to business as usual, though I did find a couple probable redd sites.

I'm very intrigued by this creek, I always have been. I have my suspicions that it holds some very large browns. Most of it's length is fishable and it's exactly the sort of stream I'd expect a few wild browns north of the 20 inch mark to reside in. Beyond that it has this weird super winter active fallfish population. I'm not sure why, but the wintertime behavior of fallfish varies drastically from stream to stream. In some the virtually go dormant in the coldest months and become impossible to catch, in others like this one it's about as good a season as any to go looking for them. I've no idea why that is.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

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