Thrillbilly
New member
The morning was cold and snowing when I left my house. This day I decided to forget steelhead and go to a location that I want to learn. While driving down the freeway, the snowfall increased; I thought to myself “I hope the pass is ok. While stopping off for gas, I asked the attendant how the pass was. She replied that she was not from here and she didn’t know. I made my way up the pass, the snow was falling but the road seemed good. When I crested the ridge, the clouds broke to a nice blue and windy fall day. Awesome, I thought, no snow up here while I’ll be fishing.
After a while I had reached the turn to my destination. With daylight savings ending, I wondered if this place would be crowded. To my surprise and joy, when I reached the sign in area, there was only one other car. I got out and boy was it a chilly and windy day; wind makes for fun times dry fly fishing. No matter, I was here to enjoy the day regardless of what Mother Nature had in mind.
Once I was geared up, I headed down the trail to the creek. Along the way I took the time to enjoy being out there with nobody in sight.
Standing at the water’s edge, I saw numerous fish. Looking more closely, I did not see any bug activity on the water, nor did it appear that the fish were actively feeding. Ok time to hang back and observe what is going on, I thought to myself. Despite the heavy winds I happened to see some small bugs flying around.
I decided to start the day with a size 22 BWO cripple. I tell you that this coupled with a 17 foot was a recipe for fun times. Several casts later, while watching my small fly float down the creek; I saw a splashy rise. The rainbow was brought to hand quickly and released. I took a quick head shot of her and let her go. This ended up being my only fish pic for the day. Mostly because I wanted to fish and not get caught up in trying to photograph them. I managed to get another to take my fly in this spot before deciding to move on.
The following run also held a good amount of fish. However, after a while of nothing, it was apparent that they did not like what I was throwing. So I decided to switch up and managed a few more fish before moving on.
Now the next spot I decided to stop at proved to be bitter sweet. The reason was that up until this point, I had only managed to land fish in the 10-14 inch range. While observing the water, I spotted a nice sized fish in the 20 inch range slowly sipping flies from the surface between wind gusts. It was later in the day and the flies were a bit larger around size 16. I tied on a #16 baetis and began t cast to him. After what must have been 45 minutes, he decided to take my offering. I set the hook and he took off; now using 6x as this place requires, I was not horsing this guy in like I could if using a heavier leader. After a little bit he was close enough for me to net. I decided to make an exception to no more fish pics for this guy so I pulled the camera out of my waders. As luck would have it as I was netting him, the hook came out before he was all the way in the net. As I lifted the net he gently rolled off the side and swam away.
I walked a little ways upstream to where I had observed some more fish rising. I managed to land a few more of the smaller guys when “oops” number two happened. I saw another nice sized fish feeding, this time he took the fly pretty much right away. During the fight while about twenty feet from me, he managed to spit the hook and swim off.
It was starting to get late and with a two hour drive back home I decided to head back. I took a few more photos as I walked back to the truck.
Hope you enjoyed this report.
After a while I had reached the turn to my destination. With daylight savings ending, I wondered if this place would be crowded. To my surprise and joy, when I reached the sign in area, there was only one other car. I got out and boy was it a chilly and windy day; wind makes for fun times dry fly fishing. No matter, I was here to enjoy the day regardless of what Mother Nature had in mind.
Once I was geared up, I headed down the trail to the creek. Along the way I took the time to enjoy being out there with nobody in sight.
Standing at the water’s edge, I saw numerous fish. Looking more closely, I did not see any bug activity on the water, nor did it appear that the fish were actively feeding. Ok time to hang back and observe what is going on, I thought to myself. Despite the heavy winds I happened to see some small bugs flying around.
I decided to start the day with a size 22 BWO cripple. I tell you that this coupled with a 17 foot was a recipe for fun times. Several casts later, while watching my small fly float down the creek; I saw a splashy rise. The rainbow was brought to hand quickly and released. I took a quick head shot of her and let her go. This ended up being my only fish pic for the day. Mostly because I wanted to fish and not get caught up in trying to photograph them. I managed to get another to take my fly in this spot before deciding to move on.
The following run also held a good amount of fish. However, after a while of nothing, it was apparent that they did not like what I was throwing. So I decided to switch up and managed a few more fish before moving on.
Now the next spot I decided to stop at proved to be bitter sweet. The reason was that up until this point, I had only managed to land fish in the 10-14 inch range. While observing the water, I spotted a nice sized fish in the 20 inch range slowly sipping flies from the surface between wind gusts. It was later in the day and the flies were a bit larger around size 16. I tied on a #16 baetis and began t cast to him. After what must have been 45 minutes, he decided to take my offering. I set the hook and he took off; now using 6x as this place requires, I was not horsing this guy in like I could if using a heavier leader. After a little bit he was close enough for me to net. I decided to make an exception to no more fish pics for this guy so I pulled the camera out of my waders. As luck would have it as I was netting him, the hook came out before he was all the way in the net. As I lifted the net he gently rolled off the side and swam away.
I walked a little ways upstream to where I had observed some more fish rising. I managed to land a few more of the smaller guys when “oops” number two happened. I saw another nice sized fish feeding, this time he took the fly pretty much right away. During the fight while about twenty feet from me, he managed to spit the hook and swim off.
It was starting to get late and with a two hour drive back home I decided to head back. I took a few more photos as I walked back to the truck.
Hope you enjoyed this report.
-Seth