May 25, 2025 – A Couple Stolen Hours and a Couple Surprises – SEPA

A nice surprise or two.

I have written about this place a few times over the years.  I rarely visit in prime time, like May, but I typically do catch fish—sometimes fish, singular—even when I visit on a winter afternoon.  It is a unicorn for where it’s located, and I am always amazed that natural reproduction continues through warm, dry summers and flooding rains and polluted run-off and so much dog waste and wet dog-destroyed riparian buffer.  I know a couple others who fish it, but they too tend to treat it like the fragile little gift it is.  I had a couple hours this evening, and I would rather catch one wild trout here than 30 at Valley, so I made the rare spring visit to see what was up.  I caught 7 trout, including a few nicer fish, a couple YOY, and a couple that are probably two years old.  All good signs.  All it takes is one fertile pair of adults and no more real estate development to keep this thing going.  It may never become a fishery, per se, but this is good enough for a Sunday evening or Tuesday afternoon in early March.

A really pretty trout from the old reliable hole.

It took a little bushwhacking through knotweed, vines, and deadfall to get to a deeper run that usually produces a fish for me.  I headed there first in case this was going to be a one fish night.  I was hoping for higher flows, but I did see a lot of midges and even a handful of caddis, both tan and dark brown.  Sure enough, the honey hole held a fish, and it was a fat, small stream fish that was all colored up and par marked.  I would have been happy to quit then, but I had just gotten here, so I pushed on.  After nymphing a couple pockets that I knew had to hold a fish and coming up empty, I remembered the caddis, however sparsely present, and let the single nymph swing the next couple of presentations.  I got a YOY to eat, and then a toddler, so we had three fish for the effort.  Water was low and clear, so I covered marginal holding water quickly, aiming to reach a few deeper holes before I ran out of daylight.

Some crick pics, bonus shots, and the future.

I left a couple primes holes to another time, probably another time not in prime time if my history with this crick continues, but I had a blast at my last stops of the evening.  I got clobbered on the first cast, and then I dropped two decent fish who took the single caddis larva on the fall.  One may have been a creek chub, but I had evidence that this bug would do the trick and these fish were hungry.  I stealthily crossed the creek below the tailout of this hole, so I did not create any further disturbance.  In this better position, I landed a nice 11–12 inch wild brown and a couple 8-inchers that I did not photograph.  They were feisty too!  I was so determined to get a picture of this leaping 12-incher that I almost rushed the fish to the net.  He was not having it!  With water temperatures around 60 degrees, they are in prime condition, so I just let things play out the way they needed to play out.  Despite the low light, I think I got a good shot of the better fish.  I tried one other deep hole and spooked a similar sized fish before I decided that I had a longer walk back to the ‘Run than anticipated.  I was texting Josh and Brian to see if either was fishing on Monday and shared some pics.  I think it was Brian who replied that he would be happy to catch fish that size all day.  Indeed.  It was well worth getting my butt off the couch after a day of lawn work for this one.  The alarm is set for 4 AM tomorrow in anticipation of a full day adventure.

A better shot.  Peep the two eye spots.  Pretty rare markings