December 16, 2024 – A Couple Stolen Hours After the Rain – SEPA Limestoner

Another decent rain.

I thought the rain was going to end sooner than it did this morning.  When I was ready to make a move, I checked the gauges and was shocked to see that I would have to wait a little longer.  I guess with the ground being frozen earlier this week, even a .75 inch of rain had more effect than I was counting on.  I was hoping to toss a streamer for a while.  With the holidays approaching, I got involved in some other things around the house and an errand or two, and it was after 1 PM before I checked the local gauges again.  It was go time, but now it was nymphing time not streamer time.  The sun sets around 4:30 PM as we approach the solstice and the shortest days of the year, so I was probably going to have a two-hour window.  I chose a little, self-contained section that I like to check out a couple times per year when I know a lot of fishermen are not going to be out there (or see me back there).  This one was once a bit of a nursery for a better-known crick, but storms and development have done some ravaging.  Still, the fish are there.   They are small, but they are small wild brown trout.  

A lot of little trouts cooperated.  A couple better ones swiped and missed.

I tried jigging a bugger, then swinging that jigged bugger, which elicited swipes but not hookups, before I tried the sj worm and then a few other bugs.  The worm accounted for the best trout, maybe an 8 incher, and a couple big chubs.  When I hung a size 18 CDC tag fly off the bend of that wormy hook, I got at least 5 more small trout.  I did not try the egg, but I assume that would have caught some more small fish.  It got dark quickly, as expected, so I did not cover much water.  I swung a small thin mint bugger back to the ‘Ru and moved two more small trouts, so I may have done better just sticking with plan A and covering water with a bugger.  The clouds and mild temps persisted all afternoon, so it might have been more effective or at least moved better fish.  Today, I was just happy to get out and see that wild fish are hanging on in this tiny suburban crick.

A couple of the chubs may have been bigger!