July 10, 2022 – Two (Nearly) Lost Soles on a Fishless Country (G)amble – SEPA Blueline

Needed Shoe Goo?  Hey guys, it's Eric doing the "Wooly Bugged walk-off...."

Eric and I made plans based on iffy, overly optimistic weather forecasting for today.  It stayed cool and dry, as expected, but the rain on Saturday we were hoping might prime the creek hardly registered.  Nevertheless, we stuck with the plan and arrived around 5:15 AM to our little spot.  It was looking low and clear, but we assumed we could find something on a dry dropper.  I was even so bold as to begin by throwing a small conehead bunny leech before sunrise, and that actually netted the two biggest (non-game)fish to put a bend in the rod.  After those two 7-inch fallfish, which are not a great sign of water temps, it was downhill from there.  Actually, it was downhill before that.  I recently found an old pair of Orvis felt sole wading boots in my deceased father’s shed that I thought might fit the boy in a year (or less).  They also fit me really well as wet wading boots.  The minute they got wet this morning, however, the glue that held the sole to the boot—the entire sole, not just the felt—started coming off.  As we traipsed through the wet fields, I began hearing a sound like I was walking in flip flops, which was my first clue that something was amiss.  Eric had an extra boot lace in his pack, so I tied up my left boot, and then I had a brainstorm about using one of my gravel guards to hold even more surface in place.  Neoprene did not make for bad traction either, but then the right foot starting coming off!  I used the other gravel guard on that foot until we passed by the parking spot again and found some rope in Eric’s vehicle.  No duct tape or anything semi-permanent in there, but the rope actually allowed me to finish out the really unproductive following couple of hours on the water. 

Pretty, low, yo.

It was beautiful out, and the water seemed cool, but my thermometer was in my waders in the garage, so we quit before 10 AM in order to make sure we didn’t do any damage.  Honestly, there was little danger of stressing a trout today because I think we saw maybe seven of them!  We had at least three roll over and refuse a stimulator, maybe leader shy in the gin clarity, and two others were maybe too small to get the bug.  Not a one decided to take a dropper, which may indicate that bug life has fizzled for the season.  I did see a small swarm of tricos, however, but they were not in an area of the creek with any depth or holding water this time of year.  We had a bang-up day around this time in July of 2020, and we even snuck one in last August following a cool rainy period.  Good flows are as important as water temps on a small crick.  Today, it was #chublife, and even they were being spooky.  I snuck up on two decent trout in a deep, clear hole just before we quit and delivered what I thought was a good cast, but they both scattered at the sight of a size 16 dropper drifting by!  That said, it was just one of those mornings, and I had little confidence that even a 22 zebra midge would get eaten.  Instead, we would have been taking even more minnows and chubs off the hook.  We will be back in the fall, and it was good to get out with a mitch on a really great morning to be outside.  My old man had a laugh up there somewhere, too.  Man, that window I talked about on Friday closed right quick, yo!  Fluke this week, and smallmouth next (weather-permitting, of course).