April 3, 2022 – Called an Audible and Switched it Up a Little – SEPA Limestoner

A dozen little jewels in tight spaces before the next front or was it between fronts?

Eric said he was ready to go today, but then the weather got complicated for him at work, so by 10:30 this morning we spoke and decided to go our separate ways.  He eventually ended up going down the street for a fresh stockie, but I just couldn’t do it.  Before leaving the house after 11, I ran through some spots close to home and knew the weather would keep folks in the house at least until the sun came out, but I ultimately ruled out stocked fish this early in the season.  That said, I have to be around my desk at lunchtime a lot this week for training online, so if I fish it will likely be for some of those fresh stockies.  The Sunday after Opening Day did not feel like a trip I wanted to make just yet, though.  Instead, I took a gamble that I might have this particular section of a popular creek to myself, and I was lucky enough that it worked out.  The rain that was supposed to happen barely made a mark on the gages last night and never really arrived today, so the water was low and clear, especially close to the skinny headwaters where I was.  I targeted one deep hole with the jigged bugger and mono rig I had on my 9 footer, and I moved one fish and landed a chub and an uber dink brown.  It was time to retool and meet the challenge of the day, I guess.  I took the time to rig up a tapered leader and a dry dropper rig and had a lot of fun after that. 

Fooled a few small stream decent fish, even a couple risers.

I only saw a few risers, and I actually targeted two of them successfully.  There were not enough risers or bugs to throw a BWO dry the size needed to fool them on the surface, but both rising fish I targeted took the size 18 dropper.  I also landed probably 10 more small but lovely wild trout on the dropper close to cover in what deeper water I could find.  Besides the cloud cover, the conditions were difficult, so it was a great day to refresh my small stream skill set for a few hours.  I caught half on a little flashback BWO nymph and half on a CDC red tag fly, both very small.  Even creeping, kneeling, hiding behind what cover I could find in the leafless woods, I spooked a bunch of fish.  That is par for the course in low water on a small creek, but it was good to see so many survivors, as this section of the creek was hit pretty hard by last year’s storms.  There were at least two former honey holes unapproachable because of oddly deep water and down trees.  The creek is barely 10 feet wide in spots, and yet there is now a section that is waist deep and full of rotting leaves.  I tried to navigate one such spot to get in position for a great undercut bank, but fear of taking water over the chest waders, made me retreat and bushwhack to the next spot instead.  Late last year in stained water, I did not even attempt to wade this one section because it looked so deep and mucky.

Some colors, but not much to hide behind yet.

More wind arrived around 2 PM, of course.  What else is new this year?  It sounds like a parade of fronts most of this upcoming week too!  I persisted even though I was increasingly hanging backcasts or landing casts a couple inches too close to cover through no fault of my own, but when I didn’t blow up a hole, I was still able to land a few more in the wind.  By 3 PM, it looked like a storm was coming and the wind was pretty ridiculous at times, but I sneaked back to the spot where I tossed the bugger to start, and I landed one more fish for good measure.  The best fish was all of 10 inches, and most were 6 or 7 inches, but that was what I expected here.  It was more about fooling them in tougher conditions, and I would have been happy with a handful.  To have three hours of steady action was an unexpected blessing and far better than rainbows with all their fins stubbed from rubbing the cement pond too long.  You will probably see a couple pics of those this week, however....