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| Just some pretty, average wild trouts on a bright sunny day in May. |
I poked around a small limestoner for a few hours today,
trying to take advantage of the good flows.
I am glad I stopped here instead of another nearby creek that was on the
list because the other creek was even higher, and I did not seem to benefit
from the higher flows today. Every trip can
be a new puzzle on this creek. It was
not like I wasn’t catching fish, either.
It was just that they were smaller and really making me work for
them. Some hits barely registered as
pause in the sighter, and I know I caught two fish by setting the hook on a
sixth sense vibe—like I knew that was where in my drift a fish was holding, and
I should give it a yank to confirm. Perhaps
it was chilly to start, and I did have to take a one-hour break in the late
morning for a conference call, so maybe I just missed it? No, I doubt it. It was a just a pretty decent day, but not
mad decent. Pretty and breezy and warm,
but not enough of something to get the caddis going like the last time I was
here. I had to leave around 1 PM, so
there is every possibility that the afternoon was much better, as the fishing
did improve a little after 11 AM. I just
had a steady pick of average fish. I
fished from 8:30 to 10 and had 5 browns and a recently stocked rainbow. After the phone call, I fished from 11 to 1
PM, and I bet I landed another half a dozen trouts, like 5 or 6 more browns and
another better looking rainbow too.
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| Good flows, but only the smalls got even mildly excited about it. |
In the absence of rising bugs, I had to shake a few trees
and bushes to confirm caddis, and most of the fish came on a green larva or a
brown larva. I also got a couple to take
a soft hackle on the dropper, both on the swing. I thought maybe the swing might have been the
thing, but even those hits were light today, as if the fish were just not
feeling it. The biggest fish was all of
12 inches and skinny, and it had been wounded by a barbed hook and had part of
her lip missing as a result. I have
pulled Rapalas with three sets of barbed trebles out of trees here this
year. The last time I was here, a
twelve-incher was average or even small, so a different class of fish was
active today, and not really the ones I was looking for. I also caught no rainbows last visit, and I
messed with two of them today. I guess
they are starting to wander. The last
round of rain probably pushed a few into unstocked water too, and yet I could
not get one to eat in one hole where I usually find one or two this time of
the season.
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| A couple bows too. |
I had to be home for the boy today, and I also had to
drive to Center City tonight to teach my first in-person class in probably two
years, so I could not stay longer or try another stretch. Like I said above, as the air warmed and the
flows kept coming down, there may have been a magic window in the
afternoon. I would not get a chance to
find out. Still, it was a pretty decent
day or pretty and decent. Sure, it is
hard to get too enthused about small fish, but catching a dozen trout on a
Wednesday in about 3.5 hours of fishing is not a bad way to spend some
time. The only person I shared the
stream with today had a paint brush in his hand not a fly rod, so there was that relative solitude on an oft-pressured creek, as well. I have some time on Thursday, so I may give
the other spot I had in mind a shot tomorrow.
It will probably benefit from another day of clearing and a warmer start
to the morning. Maybe I will even
stumble into a hatch or something. If
not, I will take another pretty decent day and try to be more grateful?
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| Pretty, small. |
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