Brookies and a surprise...
Hadn't fished my favorite mountain stream in about two years due to a mysterious kill off or disappearance of any fish in the stream. Electro shocking by the Dept. Game & Inland Fisheries folks a couple of years ago turned up no fish...nothing...nada! They usually shock the same two 300 meter sample areas and to everyone's surprise they got nothing after healthy samplings the previous six months. Later investigation didn't turn up a singular culprit that they could put a finger on and there were multiple possible choices. However, if the below views show up okay you can see the current health of the stream now. Was very pleasantly surprised and especially delighted to find several of the bigger pictured fishies also still in the stream. In two trips turned up five of the big ones from 12" to 16" and beautifully colored. An Elk Hair Caddis in size 12 is a killer on this stream but also decided to try one other which is pictured in one of the below photos. Those big 'un's were a pretty good load on a three weight and 6X tippet. Water temp was 57 and 58 degrees both trips. Stream was slightly colored after a good rain the day before and very clear on the second trip. Thankfully the old adage "One and done" didn't seem to always apply when flailing each small run or pool. Haven't seen any rattlers yet but folks tell me that at the very upper limits of the stream there's a healthy population of them. My wife's mantra is "the only good snake is a dead snake" but she doesn't practice that in actuality. Now, if the left knee will hold out a mite longer I'll be back ASAP.
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More adventures with the brookies and more surprises...
Believe the snake is a black snake but didn't get close enough to make it's acquaintance. Loved that photo of the trout suspended in air! What clear water. Yesterdays visit didn't produce any snakes but it did provide a few more surprises to go along with the brookies. The small pool pictured below contained another 3wt., 6X line busting rainbow that nailed the Elk Hair Caddis, took off for the stone ledge at the head of the foam and just kept going. This was the pool below where the 16" rainbow came to hand on the previous trip so the natural assumption was it had moved down about five yards to this smaller water - NOT! Upon retying another caddis the third run through the long pool above produced another huge rainbow, probably the 16 incher from the previous outing again, and it too managed to get under a ledge and break off. Drats - 0 for 2. Re-tied with 5x tippet and moved up about fifty yards and tossed another Elk Hair into a small pool with a narrow run and WHAM! Believe this one to be a huge brookie but was only able to see about 3" to 4" of it's tail end when it broke water. It was trying to get under another ledge but I was able to work it out into some faster current and led it down into the next smaller pool. It too then went under a big rock and broke me off. ME - 0 fish - 3! Looks like the move to a larger tippet is in order or else the hunt is on for rock proof tippet. Was another beautiful day with water at 58 and temp in the high 70's. Sat on a nice cold rock in the shade with a breeze wafting some cool air by and ate my lunch. Bought a new fanny pack with two bottles and two compartments that hold lunch and snacks and my fly boxes. Have to load one bottle with orange juice to combat any diabetic low sugar spikes while climbing upstream cause it gets a little rugged for my 72 year old knees after a while. Folks have asked what happens if I get in trouble while out alone and I tell them my wife and son and a couple of others know where I'm going and not to worry. And, believe it or not most of the time my cellphone can reach out from the bottom of the gorge too. Besides, I tell them if it's time to "go" I'll go happy doing what I love. Can't get no better'n that!
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