December 29, 2016 – A Return to Stony Creek Armed with Midges and Better Info!

Still not very big!

Before Christmas, I spent an unproductive hour and a half over at Stony Creek, which I thought got its annual Black Friday stocking by the co-op.  Well, I have bad days like everyone, but even though it was cold that afternoon, I was a bit surprised that I only had one hit and didn’t see any fish, especially at midday on a small creek.  After I posted a report about my fishing furlough prior to the holiday, including the skunk at Stony, I got an email from Alex who told me that the fish were too small to stock on Black Friday and that he had helped stock before Christmas Eve, nearly a month later than usual.

The day brightened just before dusk after a day of light rain showers.

My mother in law has been in town since December 23, staying with us in our small house.  We have had some fun outings and meals, but I was ready to stay home and not join the party today.  Everyone but me went out to lunch and another retail excursion, so I had a couple hours to kill, especially if I stayed close to home.  I loaded up around 2 PM and headed over to the park.  The rain that had fallen during the day was tapering off, and I even saw some sun just before dusk, but the water was in the mid-30s and the air was in the low- to mid-40s.  Not a perfect day, and fish were sluggish, but it ended up being a good, short trip for a late December afternoon.

Cookie cutter rainbows

Besides one decent rainbow about 12 inches long, the rest of the 8 fish I landed were all cookie cutter 8 or 9 inchers.  I can only imagine how small these guys were a month ago—sub-legal, no doubt!  They were fat and feisty, though, so I had some fun during my small window of opportunity.  

A big buck

I couldn’t get fish to hit even a dead drifted streamer, but midges accounted for all eight and a bunch of misses and short fights, which will happen on short-hitting fish taking size 20 nymphs, I suppose.  It was good to get out, and the only other fishermen I encountered was a father/son team out with the fly rods as well, so the quiet was good medicine.  I also had a fox sighting and took a photo of big buck who’d squared his shoulders across the creek from me.  Thanks to Alex, I logged yet another trip for 2016.  I am considering one more tomorrow while Tami takes her mom to the airport….??