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| A warm day in late December. |
With my family’s winter break winding down, I decided to spend
a little time alone outdoors today. The
togetherness is fun, and we even built a Lego pyramid of some 1400+ pieces and
had some other moments of throwback fun with our growing teen, but I needed to
fish with those temperatures inching up for the last few days. I only had a few hours midday, so I checked
off a second winter stockie experience that had been on my list. I guess the last one will be the Tully at
some point, maybe next week. Before
that, Eric and I are going to poke around our little spot on Saturday morning
before the rain arrives. Despite air
temperatures close to 60 degrees today, fishing was not on fire, and I had little
patience to sit in a hole and midge once I landed a couple fish under a bobber
on an SJ worm. I took a walk and got a
couple more floating the sighter with a single frenchie. A few other bait fishermen were out, but no
fish on stringers, and I saw a lot more fish than I landed, so there are plenty
left. Sadly, they were bunched up in a
couple places, just like the fishermen. For
the last hour or more, I walked deeper into the park to some old favorite holes
where I had taken my dad in the past. I
even took Eric and Chris H. up here on separate occasions. I am pretty good at spotting fish, and it’s
not that challenging in clear, winter freestone water, but I did not see a single
trout in these old favorite holes. There
was plenty of water in them, but I had a feeling by the amount of bushwhacking I
had to do to get into them (and out again) that no one carried buckets back
here this fall. While looking for some
barn cats that I used to track with the boy when he was little, I pushed two
good-sized bucks out into the field for a long-distance photoshoot. I figured that was a good way to end the
afternoon, so I took a walk in the woods back to my parking spot instead of
backtracking for another fish. Compared
to the club stocked fish earlier this month, the four mutant bows I landed earlier
were looking pretty rough, anyway. Hopefully, we find some pretty wild browns tomorrow.
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| Rough looking stockies and tough looking bucks. |
" I am pretty good at spotting fish, and it’s not that challenging in clear, winter freestone water, but I did not see a single trout in these old favorite holes."
ReplyDeleteGlad you mentioned that because it bugs me about the mid-day feed you seem to try for in the winter. With leaves down, clear water bright sun those fish are really risking death from above to gain a few degrees of water temp in winter. Not doubting your mid-day results, but just musing about the risk management courses that trout attend.
RR
I think rear view mirrors on the trouts would ruin fly fishing! Stealthy approach from behind and from a distance gets harder as I age, but it is reason stay limber ;) Happy New Year, and thanks for all the questions and comments over the years! One more piggy coming from 12/31. Eric and I finally found "the one" at our secret spot!
DeleteHappy New Year, Dave! Thanks for all the questions and comments over the years, too. I want to see pics from Patagonia!
ReplyDelete