May 31, 2020 – Return to Fern Gully – SEPA Blueline

Fern Gully?

Eric and I returned to our little slice of stay-at-home order heaven today for the fifth time.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  Cool, low humidity, dappled sun filtering through the rich green landscape, and cooperative fish all contributed to the experience.  I did not forget to look around today and simply appreciate this little spot.  We were hoping for rain on Friday, but all we received were very localize thunderstorms instead.  There is no gage on this creek, but there are a couple in the area, so I was watching the short spikes diminish to nothing throughout the day on Saturday.  Thankfully, because this creek is a freestoner with another freestone tributary nearby the area we fish, we benefited from a stain in the water even though the flow was normal to low.  Our previous experience here this month was challenging in high sun and low water, the fish spooky.  I rigged my nymphing rod today, and was able to fish with it all day, but I did bring along my 3-weight small stream dry fly rod just in case.  There were three instances in total where I wished I had the dry/dropper to throw at them, but that feeling evaporated the minute both Eric and I were able to catch risers stalking up and gently tossing small nymphs at them.  

A pretty, good one.

Besides those memorable instances, the other defining moments of this trip were when we caught fish in fishy spots that we have tried at least four other times with no luck.  As I suspected, as the season progresses, the fish have spread out from their winter and early spring holes.  With caddis, midges, sulfurs, stones, and a ridiculous number of crane flies to choose from, fish can afford to take up summer residences in little hideaways.  Instead of saying, There is a fish here, and then scratching my head after neither of us catch anything, today we caught fish in these heavy cover spots and deeper, darker riffle sections that have looked too good not to produce.  We landed no giants today, not that we have seen more than one that looked to be pushing 14 or 15 inches, be we landed a handful in the 11-inch range, which is fine small stream fish.  We took a good long water temp reading today, and it was 60 degrees F around 9 AM, so the fish were in prime fighting condition.  This reading was also encouraging because it indicates that even after the hot days last week the creek remains in a healthy range for now, and we may get a couple more visits in before we rest it for the summer.

Many smalls, light and dark.

We met at my house in the predawn hours and caravanned over, casting our first lines before 6 AM.  In keeping with the theme that fish have spread out, we saw a splashy rise in Eric’s childhood swimming hole on our first approach to the creek.  We did not get this one, but as I mentioned above, we did target and land other risers later in the morning.  Fishing was not on fire to start, and it never got crazy like one previous visit, but we had a steady pick all morning, and we caught fish at our favorite spots coming and going.  In our current ranking order, this trip falls around third place even though it was second in terms of numbers.  We caught more larger fish on the morning we still rank second—such prima donnas. 

A few better ones too.

Eric had a vendetta with one that got away last visit, so we fished thoroughly but quickly through the best holes on this stretch of the creek.  We are starting to learn this creek and were confident that we could stick a few more on the walk back downstream if we stayed out of the water and planned a stealthier way into the honey holes on the second visit.  While neither of us landed the fish that have been separately haunting us a bit, we did catch fish at the prime bend pools as expected, including a couple in the 11 to 12 inch range, and our arrogance about catching fish on the return was not without merit either.  In fact, we caught numbers on the return visit to a couple spots, albeit smaller fish in many cases. 

The average was 7 to 9 inches, but they can pull in this water temperature!  A couple of the larger fish played much bigger.  I still believe I had a double hooked in a very deep hole because there was no way a 10-inch fish could pull the way this one was pulling.  I could totally be wrong, too, since it took a long time to even reveal one of the fish, the one I landed, in this stained, deep hole—he (or they) just kept digging for bottom and the undercut bank.  We jumped a couple that came off the line when they got below us, but only two looked or felt bigger, and I only saw one 11 or 12 incher laugh at me as he leapt and shook Eric’s caddis larva out of his mouth.  Besides the larva, and a walts in the same size 16 range, I also caught many fish on a size 16 pheasant tail with a bit of flash and color worked into it—all very basic patterns and smaller was better today even though those large cranes were around.

One of Eric's better ones.

We landed in close proximity and quick succession a pair of risers, which was a blast.  This is something I do all the time now, but I don’t think Eric had thought to try in the past or if he did never had confidence in the effectiveness.  The old euro-rig is not a one trick pony!  We were both fishing SA Mastery Competition Nymph line on our 10-foot rods, and even in lower water on a small creek, we caught a mess of fish in several situations.  I did not even grease the line for this one, just laid out a cast and set the hook when the sighter darted upstream just a hair—a lot of fun for both of us!  We did not enter the tributary today, as the flows were low enough on the main branch, but we did end the day sneaking into a spot downstream of where we park, a place where we have ended a trip a few times and with success.  We did not land the 12 incher who lives here, but I did have that assumed double here, and both Eric and I landed fish in adjacent pocket water and small plunges, places we had not landed trout in the past, so that theme of spread out fish continued to the end.  

The green caddis larva worked well.

The beauty of starting our fishing day so early is that we were content with a complete, productive day by noon.  Even at that time, it was still cool and getting breezy.  The woods are thick now, so the brightness of the road was a shock after spending time in this tiny Eden for a few hours.  Eric was calling one previously unproductive spot that produced today, Fern Gulley (he does have two young daughters)  and it felt like a rainforest with the post-rain dampness and cool air back there—and the literal ferns everywhere, of course.  As we got out of our waders and readied for home, we snapped a couple pictures of a large sulfur that had hitched a ride on Eric’s new waders.  Hmm… an evening visit in the cards?  If only I were a dry fly man.  At any rate, the early shift was a lot of fun for a couple dirty nymphers.  

New phone, new camera, a lot of pics this trip!