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| Insurance shot of piggy #1 |
I committed to the thing this morning. The summer grind. I was suited up at 5:30 AM and wet wading balls’ deep into a spot on a SEPA limestoner that tends to stay cold. A couple days of clouds and a little rain this week helped the cause. We did not get as much as forecasted, not nearly as much as we need, but a little color helps. It wasn’t American Flag blue or anything, but there was a stain. I don’t often over-plan my trips, but I went as far as to track precip totals in the region last night, and I found a little pocket that got half an inch. That definitely helped narrow down stream selection. Near my house, we got half of that until the evening, when we got a short deluge. Wet wading in 60 F creek water when you have to go over the waist to get into a spot, well, that is an adventure. Sadly, I was reminded early why I don’t visit here as often as I would like to, as often as I used to. Even though I was here before anyone else, not a half hour and a few rainbows on a streamer into my morning, I smelled tobacco smoke pass behind me. That smoke must have belonged to the guy who high holed me about 6:15 AM. As I shared, I had already done some work to get into this spot, while dude decided to skip the hard but sometimes most fishy spots and jump ahead of me. Maybe he didn’t see me? Pretty sure he did. Maybe he was new to this thing? Likely, based on how he was fishing. He was nymphing in a very unnatural posture and often standing where the fish are—too much wading, especially marching right into the crick without fishing the seams close to you, is a dead give away that you are not a sharpy. Wild fish, especially with water at 60 F, can be anywhere on a Class A creek. Front-platter? Well, honestly, it was hard to tell from 25 yards away on a somewhat-foggy morning 😉
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| The reason I take insurance shots in the net and Piggy #2. |
My typical mode is this: if I see a car or two at a spot and I know it’s a one-man beat, I move on. You may have noticed that I’ve got spots, and I work to get more as fast as I abandon or temporarily abandon others. If someone jumps ahead of me, I ask “Which way are you fishing?” as an opener. If they say upstream, then I say, “Well, I have been here a while and am heading that way too. I am going to move upstream past you and give you some space….” HINT HINT. If dude is an a-hole and jumps me again, I throw rocks in the pools above him. Kidding. I say a little something along the lines of watching a stream etiquette video on the same platform you learned to cast, and then I go to another spot or go home if I have already had my fill for the morning. Most of the time, I just move to another spot on the creek or another creek because the conflict can ruin a day and for what? Today, I was not backtracking through deep water to abandon this spot, especially since fish were biting early. I had a few rainbows on a streamer already and was hoping to find active browns along the way based on conditions. I watched dude fish for a minute while I rigged to nymph, and I liked my odds of catching fish behind him.
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| Other wild fish in the riffles, but nothing of size. |
And catch fish behind him, I did. I landed two high teens browns, and I broke off a brown in the 20s. That one got to me more than the high holing. It was a heartbreaker, enough to make me dry heave as the adrenaline from my focused fight left my body. I did everything right besides not using heavier tippet, basically. When I decided it was time to end this fight, I broke him off trying to turn him away from the bank and towards my waiting net. Apparently, he was not done despite jumping twice, ranging all over this deep hole, and at least twice allowing me to get his head to break the surface and come my way. He had one more lunge that just broke the tippet at the fly. I was so close to ending this thing, so close! Had I not landed the other two beasts, I may have been sick to my stomach. In retrospect, it was a series of (un)fortunate events that even allowed me to a shot at this fish, so I was not mad about at him.
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| Some stockers to round out the morning's catch. |
I landed the first good fish, and because it was so big, I dropped my thermometer to make sure I was not going to exhaust the next one. Not a chance. The water was 60 F, and the fish went back spry as heck. The second one did too, not two casts later! I sure hope high hole dude from Jersey saw all the commotion down here in the honey hole he skipped or fished poorly! Anway, I moved on after the two piggies since conventional wisdom would say that two big fish fighting all over the hole would probably put down any others for a while. Two things happened after that, and I ended up standing in the same hole again messing with the king of the hole. First, while walking up the creek to approach the riffles above this hole, I saw a bumblebee struggling in the water. I did not rescue him, no! The kid in me tossed him out into the current to see who would eat him. Well, a massive fish rose and at the bee where I had already caught two big fish. If that was not enough, a text from Eric asking about water temps reminded me that my thermometer was still down there. What’s a guy to do while he’s back retrieving his stream thermometer at the hole where a bumble bee got got ? Make a cast, of course. You know the rest of the story already. I don’t know if there was a lesson to learn, or it was just luck. I am sure there a larger lessons about high-holers and front-platers and all those distractions and disruptions. Another time.
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