Verdigre Creek Trout (Jan. 3) - A Nebraska Gem

This trip has been in the making for a couple years. Chad and I finally nailed down a time to get out on the stream and see what we could make of it.

Chad has spent a lot of time building bamboo rods and we just had to see how it performed on the Creek. To see what went into the rod, look here. Thanks to Bo (Chad's younger brother) for allowing Shadow to make the trip.

The weather was excellent for January. The temps ranged from 10ish to 30 degrees. NO WIND and partly cloudy. This made for very pleasant conditions.

We both nymphed tandem indy-rigs all day. The hot flies were size 14 or 16 Brassies, Copper Johns and PTNs in red. Dropped off of our attractors were size 18 to 20 Mercury Black Beauty's, Garcia's Rojo Midge or Mercury Blood Midges.

Scud activity was minimal from what we could observe. Fish were on the move but extremely skittish. The water was extremely clear and water looked to be higher than previous winter excursions. Some of my old favorite holes have been silted in but we found new places where the trout hide, feed and lazily chill out.

The best part of the day was watching Chad learn how to fish the Creek, and extremely fast at that. He is amazingly ready and willing to learn. We got him into fish fairly quickly, too. The "bestest" part of the day was Chad landing the best fish of the day - a solid chunky 14" brown out of some intense structure.

Here's our day on the precious gem Verdigre Creek:

Chad's first Verdigre trout:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...Jan2011002.jpg

Quick pic with "Shadow":
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...Jan2011003.jpg

Same hole a brown came to my hand:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...Jan2011007.jpg

Fish of the day - Chad's brown with "Shadow"
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...Jan2011014.jpg

The man and the fish - I think he is still wearing that grin:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...Jan2011016.jpg

Another brown - the Salmo are what make Verdigre so precious:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...Jan2011018.jpg

A random rainbow - we both lost count of the rainbows we landed:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...Jan2011023.jpg

What a day on the Creek! We had a blast. We learned. We landed more fish than we could count. We managed to fool a few special fish that are forever locked into our memories.

The company was unremarkable. The day was outstanding. Thanks for the trip, Chad!

Get on the Creek and leave it better than how you found it!

Scott

That does look like a Gem! Nice pictures and thanks for sharing your outing.

Very nice! Have not been there for years. Appreciate the photos and pattern info.

Wow, fantastic report Scott (and Chad)!
Rumor has it that Nebraska is the new Argentina for trout! ;o)

Nicely done, Scott. Adding that it never would have occured to me that you would be trout fishing in your neck of the woods in early January.

John

Very nice! The orange on the tail of that brown makes for a very interesting fish! Thanks.

- Jeff

Very nice. Didn't realize there was trout fishing in Nebraska. Looks like a great place to fish. Thanks for the report.

Beaver

I did a little research on Verdigre Creek and discovered it is only about 100 miles from me. I think it would be a ton of fun to go there and fish it Tenkara style. It looks like a place made to order for that kind of fishing & what's more my wife says she'd like to go too even though she doesn't fish. A big thank you to SKershaw for this report pointing out this neat little trout stream so close to me!

Really nice looking Browns there! The colors are off the charts.

Looks like a great day on the water! Nice report. Enjoyed the chance to share your day.