In Town Wild Trout

A friend was celebrating his birthday yesterday... The one that gives him free fishing licenses for life here in AK... and we simply hopped over to a very local stream within the city limits of Anchorage.

The creek is tiny and a bit tea-stained. As a kid I lived on the creek and fished it quite a bit, but had not fished it in many years. The stretch we fished is small enough to make it difficult to wet a knee while standing.

I spotted a trio of fish, but diid it the hard way when they boiled out from directly under me. I waited a short while and watched them return to their positions under all sorts of overhanging stuff. I figured out what I would have to do to present a fly and it was icky! Casting from downstream or across were out of the question. It looked like a wooly bugger was designed for the spot, though, on a downstream presentation.

So I went fishing upstream for an hour or so to let the fish settle down. The sun had swung quite a bit and I had foolishly used the shadowlines to calculate where the fish were, so I was not sure how exact I was on my presentation... So I decided to just ease it in a little slower and hope I was close. I used a size 10 black bugger with a 5/32 bright orange bead head.

Immediately felt a tapping on the first presentation and struggled with the need to drop the tip and point it at the fish before setting the hook... But I managed to do it and when I lifted the rod the creek exploded! The two smaller fish that had been in the hole shot past me heading upstream and the hooked fish headed downstream. I had to follow, stumbling through the brush and overhangs. At the next hole I worked the fish up to the bank and got to lay my rod alongside for a rough measurement.

It was not quite 24" with the typical wild AK rainbow spots; Very fine black spots and tons of them. The fish was a bit dark and very red across the gill plpates and down onto the body. While it would have been legal to keep the fish I have not killed a wild rainbow in many years, and won't. I left the fish hooked and let it run downstream to try to find my buddy to get a picture. There was a logjam that prevented me from going down to him, but I could see him and got him headed my way for the picture.

While I was holding him into the current and waiting to get the picture I slipped and the fish took off without a picture... Did not bother me a bit! It was a great fish I honestly believe was nudging the 5# mark.

I caught one other of about 9-10" and the weather was gorgeous. Very hard to complain about it... Except my buddy did not catch a fish...
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