Just as planned, I got to the water right at 1. Couldn't resist my old gorge section, so started right off at the Rangers house. Immediately into trout. It was a beautiful day, no other sign of life (non aquatic that is) and plenty of trout in every run. I think this guy here was the first one, hence the picture, if not, he was about the average size of the fish, which I did measure this time with my little tape thing, and they were mostly about 13", some a little larger, some smaller.
Hey Pablo, don't you wish you had this nice water to prospect! No pocket water here, long deep runs and big pools- which have their own challenges, but when they are on, there isn't anything better.. I was also surprised how much difference two weeks had made in the foliage. Everything was green and it gave the stream a whole different feel.
At the big pool, I caught several nice fish, one of which broke off my poorly tied tippet and had this huge salmon fly hanging out of it's mouth- it was funny, you could spot him anywhere in the pool. I was heck bent on getting that fly back, so I tied on another big fly and drifted into the pool, several fish struck at it and I lost track of what was happening, but I had hooked a fish so I started to land it and as it came in, I saw the first fly hanging out of his mouth- HE HAD TAKEN THE SECOND FLY WHILE THE FIRST FLY HUNG FROM HIS JAW! I was cracking up and elated that I was getting my fly back... this had to be documented, so as the trout settled down, I set my rod down and got the camera in place, as I went back to retrieve the trout- he was gone, he'd gotten off! I just died laughing, no one would believe this tale, but I swear it is true, and I never did get that fly back, in fact I didn't see that fish again, or maybe he rubbed the first fly out and I couldn't distinguish him any more.
Any way, there was a monster brookie in the pool and I spent too long getting into position to cast to him and finally, after multiple casts and patiently waiting for him to come back from his runs to the head of the pool, he took my big salmon fly and ran me up to the top of the pool, chasing him through a bog of leaves on the edge of the pool and then back to the middle of the pool and then under a rock which somehow I navigated around until I finally brought him into submission at the tail of the pool by some grass. Big, big trout!
After landing the monster it was closing in on 4pm so I went back to the pool where I had caught a number of brookies on top (see the upper video) and I tied on a little red humpy and took two more from that pool and decided it was enough for another great spring day! I hadn't covered hardly any water and I wished I could go back to the dry fly water I had visited two week ago, but I'd promised my wife I'd be home in time for dinner so I bushwhacked out of the gorge and up to the road, possibly wallering through some poison oak (heaven help me if I did).
That I'd better add this pic just so you could get a really good look at how nice this trout is!Delayed harvest on the south fork on a weekday is the place to be in May. It'll all end in a few weeks and I'll try my luck back on the wild waters, but for now, I'm feeling like a champion piscator on this beautiful little creek.
2 comments:
Like shooting fish in a barrel. Can't believe it! and I told you the Gov'na tells fish stories.. 16, thats about the biggest he's caught. dang.. I'm sick..
I should have elaborated more on all the action out of the pool where I filmed myself casting, I thought I said it on the clip, but basically the first cast a nice trout rose and took my rwulf, then on the second cast another obliged, then they'd seen enough of that so I switched up to an adams and took two more, that was the routine, two trout, then switch flys and two more, what fun! And the refusals from the really big boy that I didn't catch would leave me whimpering (as I did in the clip). And what lovely water, slow current but they felt secure because you couldn't get to them and they had lots of cover, so they would just sit there and let you cast to them. I was casting across and down stream but the slow current didn't bother the drift! Never had that experience before on J Fork- fun, fun!
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