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Originally Posted by
Kerry Stratton
.................................................. .................................................. ...perhaps I am to used to NWWa fish which are larger and fewer. I don't see many fish that can be landed one after another in 3.6 minutes.
Kerry -
Neither do I. Out of seven hundred plus days fishing in the past five and a half years, this is the only time I caught that many in one day. From my logs, which include a rough tally, on the low side of the estimate if I didn't keep a pretty close count, I average just over 20 fish per day.
When I fished this creek, it was the only moving water available to fish, before the general season opened, except for the South Fork and the Henry's Fork, and I do like some variety. So I fished it. It is a beautiful mountain spring creek far enough away from home that when I go there I make it a point to stay five or six hours. ( It is the first creek shown in my Fishing Reports on the Central Mountains of Idaho. )
I know the creek well, and I fished somewhere around a mile of water that day. There were lots of places where I would catch four, five, six trout in a matter of minutes and then move on. When you think of all the little holes, and pockets, and runs and riffles on a small creek over the course of a mile, it can add up pretty quickly if the fish are really eager.
For what it is worth, the brookies are definitely wild - it has been a self sustaining population for years. They do stock bows, but to the best of my knowledge, only in a stretch ten to fifteen miles downstream of where I was fishing. I believe all the bows in the water I was fishing are wild, another self sustaining population.
I guess I decided to even mention this experience in the first place because a number of people posting seemed quite skeptical that catching 100 trout in a day could be done.
I wouldn't say this experience was boring, or tedious, or like work. I would add that it is not an experience that I would "chase," but at the same time, if I am enjoying a day on a stream that I like in a place that is beautiful, I'm not going to stop fishing just because I'm doing a lot of catching.
Jerry -
I think the above answers most of your questions, except one. I started with a soft hackle pheasant tail. After 33 fish, it was beat up and I changed it for another s.h.p.t. After number 50, I decided to try a fly that I don't believe I had ever used on that creek - a CDC biot bodied caddis, better known as Harrop's Henry's Fork Caddis. After 35 fish on that fly, I changed it out to a fresh one. So between when I started and when I quit, I tied on two new flies. I generally don't take breaks, except for taking a drink or having a quick snack. Six hours on the water is more than I average, over the long pull, but it is not unusual.
John
The fish are always right.