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| Do I make you horny? Randy? |
Funny how a little rain and cool weather make me horny… for trout. I had a little taste on Saturday night, but I did not get to hit half of the water I wanted to fish on one crick let alone have time to check out a second or third one. I took the wet boots and wading socks out of the ‘Ru last night to “dry,” but I left the other stuff in there with plans to get up early and fish another creek. I was up at 3:45 AM and fishing before 6 AM at a freestoner that has some limestone influence in one small stretch below where I was but mostly benefits from a good canopy of trees and a rather high gradient for a valley stream. I took a water temperature reading when I considered quitting at 9 AM, and it was pushing 66 degrees, so the rain may have even spiked the temperature, and my decision to call it was made. It was cool enough to start, with the air temperature below 60 degrees, making me rethink my wet wading plans, especially while sliding on already-wet boots and neoprene booties before official sunrise. There was no plan B with the waders 90 minutes away in the garage, so I took the plunge and kept the boys out of the equation for the morning.
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| A few cooperated just before sunrise. |
The benefit of this plan was that my phone could stay in my back pocket, especially on such a small stream, so I could take a bunch of pictures, which I did. I took several fish pics of representative sizes and even some of the lairs from which they were captured. I had a blast, catching a dozen or more trouts in about 3 hours of fishing and walking. And I never even fished the honey holes upstream after I saw that 66 F mark at 9 and decided a dozen was enough. I found only one rainbow among the wild boys and girls, but she looked pretty healthy. She should be, having been lucky enough or smart enough to find herself in one of the best holes on this stretch of crick. I still have not landed a small stream pig out of a couple of these holes that just look big-fishy—see the log jam, the root ball, and even the live tree perpendicular to the current with a deep hole underneath and washout behind as evidence. I tried a bugger a couple of times, but I eventually found that fish had no problem finding very natural-colored prey in the slight remaining stain. To that end, an olive perdigon I put on to maximize quick depth penetration in pocket water and log jams—especially when I had to fish a particular log jam from upstream—was the most eaten bug, with a blue perdigon in midge size a close second. Like Saturday night, the temps and flows had them eating, but the water was not cool enough to really get them fired up. I had many nudges and quick pecks that did not connect, which could be YOY or could be dickish fish that simply opened up and let the bug pass over their jaws without bothering to move an inch from their lies.
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| Some sexy spots, even in the side channels. Very grrr, baby.... |
Still, I could not complain about catching over a dozen wild
fish and a pretty holdover in such fun and challenging spots. The flooding rains urged a couple decent fish
to migrate into little side channels that I would not have even tried had a
couple early attempts in these spots not been rewarded with fish. Wild fish do get around, and I feel like they
sometimes spread out not congregate when the going gets tough. Why ride out the heat and low water in a deep
hole with a lot of competition when you might find one little plunge in a dark
recess with no one else around? I know
big fish do that, and I tried these spots hoping for a real surprise, but just
the presence of a fish in a few of these deeper cut spots was rewarding
enough. The dry dropper rod was in the
car, but I felt like small bugs that dropped quickly into the sweet spots on a
micro-mono rig served me better today. I
always have regrets about a potential terrestrial dry fly bonanza in summertime,
but I am not sure this morning would have been that.
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| A honey hole but no cooperative piggy in there (yet). |
I was hoping to stretch this trip to 10 AM, and I probably
could have, but I was just grateful for a couple more chances at trout in
August after the summer we’ve had. Eric
called me at 6 AM on his way to take care of some work when he saw my car
missing from the driveway, lamenting that we should have gone to our secret
spot this morning. I know Josh was
getting just as excited about the rain, perhaps even more, so that makes me
feel more normal. Heck, he and a couple
of dudes on the forum that he may have shamed into taking a look were out there
assessing cricks on Friday before most were truly fishable. I was packed up for Friday, as I may have
shared in my last post, but I am glad I had the patience to take the old bull approach
and hit a couple cricks when they were just about right, even if I did not hit
them all…. They were not perfect at 65
degrees, but they were not 73 degrees either.
Fish responded accordingly. I am
hopeful that that a week of 60s overnight and another shot of rain towards the
end of this week keeps this party going.
I know there is summer weather left, but I feel like we’ve turned the
corner.
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| More trouts, including that smart or lucky rainbow. |
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