October 31, 2021 – Some New Tricks but Only a Few Treats - SEPA Blueline

An early start with young Eric.

Eric and I have not been back to our little spot since August, when we used a dry dropper to land some smalls.  With the rain on Friday this week and the cooler fall temps, I was hoping this Sunday was going to be the day, but in the end it was just a decent day.  We probably landed 25 to 30 fish between us, but fewer than ten of them were over 7 inches long.  The best fish were a trio of 10 to 11 inchers, including a nice colored up male to end the afternoon.  Besides just getting out together for the first time in a long time, the highlight was probably catching fish in new spots where we have come up empty over the past three years.  A couple reasons for that, I venture.  For one, the storms this year altered the creek quite a bit in some spots, nothing major but just the usual filling in of holes with gravel and those new deadfalls.  We caught a few YOY, which was encouraging, and even two rainbows, a first here in three years and not as welcomed.  More on that later.  The other reason fish were in exciting new places was the season, of course.  We had great flows and a good stain, almost too good early in the morning, so the fish were not in the riffles and plunges for the most part.  They were hanging in the softer water, riffles of a very specific flow rate and depth, or those swirly, foamy back eddies.  When we found the right conditions, we could almost call our shots—almost.

Some early fish, inching up in size.

We were suited up and fishing by 7:30 AM and had early success.  I jumped a decent fish on a jigged bugger around some wood, and Eric played clean-up with a fuzzy tag fly in the same hole.  I stayed with the bugger for an hour and had more follows and swirls than hits.  I even had one come clean out of the water for it as I Iifted to recast, but they seemed to feel the bug more than see it.  I eventually switched from olive to black and landed one more on a bunny leech before abandoning the streamer game as the sun began lighting up the water.  I stuck another during this early shift after rigging to nymph, and it happened to be in the hole where we first confirmed for ourselves the presence of wild browns in this creek.  A few other favorite spots were too altered to fish or at least fish effectively, so we moved quickly upstream until we eventually found more consistent success sometime closer to 10 AM, I bet.

Some birth defects, interlopers, and new wood on the way to more success.

After a storm about a year ago, maybe more, I pointed out a new undercut that was forming below a sycamore tree.  Slowly over time it has gotten deeper and more defined.  I told Eric that this was going to be a spot someday, and it finally produced a fish today.  We had a similar experience further upstream, too, landing two trout, a chub, and getting bounced one other time at another hole that I have always claimed should hold some fish or at least one good fish.  Thankfully, a favorite plunge pool and another deeper run where we usually find success also paid off, though the latter was chub heaven too.  A sign of how warm the fall has been, we caught more chubs today than we probably have in July and August on this creek.  A sign of just how much water came flushing out of a tributary, Eric also tangled with two stocker rainbows—they fought like wet socks and looked pretty bad after a warm summer and fall, not to mention a log flume ride or two after Ida and friends.  This spot often holds wild browns, and it had the right flow for today’s fishing, so it kind of sucked to have two interlopers blow up the spot, especially because we fished so slowly today that we did not revisit any of our favorite holes on the hike back.  It was Halloween after all, and Eric has two young kids, so unless he was dressing as a fisherman and walking the neighborhood, he needed to get back in the afternoon.

My best two of the day; Eric in a prime spot (in another season, perhaps).

We were fishing so slowly, however, because we continued to catch fish in different spots, and we notched fish in places we rarely if ever catch them.  At the end of the first beat we usually fish on this creek, there are two bend pools formed by an S-curve in the creek.  The first one is Eric’s and the second one is mine, though the second one is large enough that often we both score multiple fish from it.  The water was pushy through the first one, so until Eric altered his approach for fall, high water conditions he could not buy a hit.  Eventually he found the right weight fly and got bounced in a back eddy.  I was in the back waiting my turn, but I was also eyeing things up and tying on another bug.  He sort of turned up his hands eventually and motioned for me to go for it, and I did land a pretty 11-inch hen out of that back eddy on a heavy jigged prince.  

A close up of one of Eric's best of the day.

Always the gentleman (Eric not me) he still let me have first crack at “my hole,” and I did get a plump 8-incher out of there on my first cast.  Full disclosure, I always get first crack at this spot because I likely lost the biggest fish we have encountered in this creek, perhaps twice if I count a fish that broke me off on a bugger last year.  On a hike with a fishing rod with his mom hunting morels, Eric might have even landed this fish in May of this year—it was a solid 14 inch buck with those shoulders and that pointy snout—but the one I lost looked even bigger.  Eric stepped in next and got a chub, which means do-over, and then got another average trout too.  My turn now, and the third trout from this hole was our best of the day.  I would not bet on twelve, but pretty close.  He was one of only a couple (and, granted, we tangled with mostly immature fish today) that was changing for the spawn.  The hen I landed in Eric’s hole and him might make a good couple in a few weeks.  Our best fish was also our last because Eric’s girls were waiting for the festivities, which were really fun this year.  After some quiet years, and Tami and I now parents to a too-cool teenager, it was fun to see at least 30 kids come around for candy this evening.  We almost ran out!  Overall, a pretty decent day, I must admit.

A b roll beauty.