Another "Mystery" River Trip Report

Headed to the infamous "Mystery" River last week for a few days.

Arrived Tuesday afternoon and fished downstream from my camping spot. Last time I was here I caught most of my fish in the first two holes downstream. Not this time. The water was much clearer than it had been on previous trips, and the fish weren't holding in the same water. I did catch a short but fat brown pretty quickly though.

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Followed him up with a few more small browns, all caught on streamers (this one on a weighted PSC):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3635/...5586f06e_b.jpg

Unfortunately, I missed a huge rainbow. I was dead drifting a big streamer and wasn't really paying attention at the moment (something distracted me, who knows what). Anyway, I felt my line get tight, and I pulled on it a little bit, but it felt like I was just snagged on a rock or log or whatever. So I didn't set the hook. Next thing I knew, the head of a massive rainbow came straight through the surface and threw my fly. I could have put my fist in his mouth. Groan. Double groan. But all it is now is a fish story...

This river is fed by several small springs like this one all along its length:

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As I got closer to get a picture of it, something popped out:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3374/...fa73b076_b.jpg

This spring was also the home to at least three very curious otters. I was really surprised at how close they let me come to them. I easily got within 10 feet before they finally retreated for good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzebugR-XZM

The next day I decided to start at the next access upstream and wade the whole way down back to where I was camped. About 6 miles. Took all day.

The day started off slowly, with little more than a fish here and there.

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About two miles down, I hooked into what I thought was going to be a bigger trout. Turned out to be the first smallie I've caught on this river (and the first one this year). What a nice surprise!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3554/...b11dcf73_b.jpg

The fishing was pretty slow, but the scenery was pretty nice...

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I finally started to get into a few fish about 2/3 of the way down on Day 2.

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I have no idea what this little guy was, but he was sure pretty:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3638/...a8665f7b_b.jpg

This was actually the best 'bow I caught on the trip. He wasn't huge, but he fought much harder than he actually was. Definitely put a pull in the 3 wt, especially in the fast current.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3298/...2082863d_b.jpg

Then I got back to camp to find a butterfly infestation:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3405/...9e8fd087_b.jpg

Day 3, I started off downstream from camp and caught a fish on the very first cast. The picture didn't really turn out, but this shows you how far I had to go to catch him...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14300730@N05/3453323914/

It didn't turn out to be a good omen. Only caught a couple more small fish near camp. So I went well upstream to a different access where the terrain lends itself to better hatches. And there was a pretty good caddis hatch going on. Caught a pretty nice brown, but unfortunately, I forgot my camera in the truck on this stretch.

I did have something verrrrry interesting happen on this stretch though. I was going along catching lots of fish on a CDC & Elk Caddis, when all of a sudden I hear this sound like a bomb falling. And it was loud. Then I see a flash off to my left and BOOM! something big hits the water not 30' from where I was standing. My first thought was that a rock fell from a cliff, but I looked up and saw nothing but blue skies overhead... It was weird. So either a meteorite fell from the sky or an eagle was trying to kill me with a rock and missed... Either way it was very very strange and very very cool. Of course, a giant something falling from the sky kind of scared all the fishies out of that pool... So I called it a day. And a good day it was.

Poke 'Em -

Much enjoyed your report and pics. Great variety of subjects in the pics. Catching that smallie must have been a real treat.

John

Poke 'Em, I really enjoyed your trip, I like the way you have detail's about the whole trip with pics... Its all layed out really nice...:)

Was ya camping by your self or was someone else along, just wondering, I'v been thinking about camping solo but don't know if I would enjoy that, I do fish alone most times but don't know if I'd wanna stay over alone...

Great report - thanks. I had one of those rock falling incidents, and it turned out to be an Osprey - very cool, but quite a shock till I identified him.