Woodshound
Member
Got out Saturday morning to a headwaters-ish creek full of wild trout that I visit every year. Its not the best, quietest, most remote, trophy water out there but its where The Fly Fishing Magic happened for the first time, where I got a creek right and was able to make the casts and choose the setups and catch trout - and every time I go back I feel that joy again. It's a funny creek that throws almost everything a mountain creek has at you - deceptively shallow runs that make it look tiny and non-viable, followed shortly by deep pools and potholes, logs and deadfall, fast and slow currents around old rock; it twists like a ribbon through a gorge that's sometimes flat and wide, sometimes towering around you, and sometimes deceptively clear. Feels like the sun is hunting you as you head upstream and trying to cast your shadow everywhere you don't want it.
I also like that there's always something for me to learn here every time I come... and when you get this creek right, it's electric. Almost every stretch holds a couple of fish, and they pop like cherry bombs - until they don't! And suddenly the whole creek shuts down.
I couldn't make the evening so picked the morning instead; fished a brown and white adams up to the first big falls and then a larger yellow elk hair back down. Caught 8-10 ish wild rainbows, mostly little guys, although a couple of 8-10in sized fellas. That's a good sized trout on this stream although the deeper pools hold some bigger fish.
The gorge was boiling with insects about an hour in - not sure which varieties but the adams and the caddis got plenty of strikes on the water. I got more hits from smaller fish on the adams, fewer and larger fish on the caddis (could also have been timing).
Couple of pics. The one in hand was fightin' mad and was a real effort to get off the hook; I try not to hold them like that but didn't leave me with good options.
Get out there!
I also like that there's always something for me to learn here every time I come... and when you get this creek right, it's electric. Almost every stretch holds a couple of fish, and they pop like cherry bombs - until they don't! And suddenly the whole creek shuts down.
I couldn't make the evening so picked the morning instead; fished a brown and white adams up to the first big falls and then a larger yellow elk hair back down. Caught 8-10 ish wild rainbows, mostly little guys, although a couple of 8-10in sized fellas. That's a good sized trout on this stream although the deeper pools hold some bigger fish.
The gorge was boiling with insects about an hour in - not sure which varieties but the adams and the caddis got plenty of strikes on the water. I got more hits from smaller fish on the adams, fewer and larger fish on the caddis (could also have been timing).
Couple of pics. The one in hand was fightin' mad and was a real effort to get off the hook; I try not to hold them like that but didn't leave me with good options.
Get out there!
