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| Gorgeous start to the day. |
The creek was over 200 and slowly falling today, so a bit
too sporty to reach all the little pockets across the way, but I gave it a good
effort. I had the felt and the studs on
the feet, and I even had the staff on my belt.
I did not bust that out until deep into my trip when I was in need of
food and water and felt myself on the verge of stumbly. It probably would have felt good to get wet
today, honestly. It was bit warm for my
liking today, even in NEPA. Eric and I
are fishing Sunday in SEPA, and I know I will be wet wading even if I have to
piss every five minutes as a result of standing in 60 degree water at 6
AM. I put in a full day, fishing from
about 6:30 AM to 2:30 PM, which is when the skies were starting to look
ominous. I got caught in a sunshower
before making it back to where I parked, and I had a crappy and long commute
home because the rain arrived right around 3 PM when I was beginning my drive. The early start to Friday rush hour probably
did not help. Aside from that acutely annoying closing low, it was pretty much a day of highs.
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| Gorgeous fish too. |
With the flows up a bit and periods of cloud cover, I
started out tossing one of Eric’s big jigged buggers, but I only moved one
average brown and then stuck a holdover bow for the effort. I had another
average fish on the swing come off after a leap. It was a go for broke
situation for the first two hours, I bet, and the elusive piggy did not
eat. When I switched to nymphing around
9 AM, I had a very solid two hours of cooperative wild browns. Some were smalls that took the little caddis
dropper, but I also caught two good fish and a couple in that 11 to 12-inch
range as well. One better fish took a
bomb hare’s ear deep, and the other took a big golden stone. I see from the pics that I also had a smaller
golden stone on the dropper for a while, and that notched a decent rainbow
too. The caddis were maybe thick enough
to start something for an hour, but with the creek flows up, matching the hatch
and getting those small bugs deep, even on 5x, which on this section of the
creek means losing a lot of tungsten, was not easy to pull off. There was a lot of uncomfortably high
sticking for really short effective drifts with the smaller bugs, so I believe
that informed the choice to keep trying the stones.
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| More bouncy crick in spring. |
I lost at least one 12- or 13-incher that came off a size
18 caddis larva, and in the same run where I did land a good 16-inch fish, I
also had a pig come off. It happens in
these flows and while using such a heavy anchor fly to get the smaller bug down
to them. It has to be done sometimes,
but I know from experience that the heavy fly pulls the little one sometimes,
like when the anchor gets drawn in another direction in fast-moving pocket
water and changes the angle. It can even
hang on rocks or the bottom in pocket water when the fish digs for
freedom. The pig today had the small bug
and just took off downriver and the small fly pulled. Luckily, another decent fish was feeding
nearby, and I was able to land him. Only
maybe 16 inches and change, but he did the same thing, took off down river with
me chasing and trying not to swim. Of
course, this smaller fish had the anchor fly, a size 10 hare’s ear, so that
stayed in his mouth! The other nicer
fish I caught a little later took the big stonefly, which was also
fortunate. This fish was broader and a
closer to 17 inches, so I was happy he stayed on and posed for the full hand-with-fish photoshoot.
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| Bows contributed to the action. One even walloped the bugger early. |
Basically, fish would eat that little bug on the dropper,
but the conditions were just a bit too bouncy to keep some of them on for very
long. I eventually stuck with two larger
bugs because in addition to the caddis that did get the wild fish going
subsurface for a couple hours there were a few sulfurs in the air and even a
couple craneflies. I also saw three or
four slate drakes that are massive mayflies, probably size 8, early in their
seasonal hatch. Without the rain
tonight, they might have given a dry fly guy a night to remember if enough are
showing already. Without the new shot of
rain, the flows might have been near perfect by evening too. Had I been able to fish a single caddis
larva or small blowtorch in pocket water, it may have been an even stronger
showing today.
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| A beauty or two, a sunshower. |
I usually have a bang up day around this time in May each
year, but flows at 150 or below make that much more possible. I think with more cloud cover or barometer
not plunging, the fishing could have been magic. Could’ve should’ve would’ve. In the end, it was still a fun and productive
outing. I landed about 10 browns and
another 5 bows, and I did drop a few, so there was action. It was a good day, but it was not the
day. Maybe next week in cooler temps I
will get another shot. It looks like the
90’s are short lived, which is good. Not
only do I like to stalk the pocket water in late May and early June here, but I
also like to take a couple shots at the bigger water closer to the river before
it gets too warm. I landed a couple
really nice fish last year and the year before, but I also broke off and jumped
a couple well into the 20’s. I would
sure like to see one of them again before summer decides to stay for good.
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| More pics of cooperative wild browns. |
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