He had to go 24" bow to stearn, rivaling the dude I caught the prior week. As you can see from the video, I had no approach. It was all I could do to get a picture from the underbrush.
Ok, it's not that easy to shoot yourself at arms length, nothing like the "talking nose". Anyway, I bushwacked above the big brookie and thought I'd do my patented downstream drift approach. Unfortunately, no sooner had cleared all the trees and eased into the water, I spooked a smaller fish which darted downstream and spooked the big guy- I never did see him again.
I caught a small brookie in a smaller run and then eventually made my way to the big pool where I had caught the big boy last week. One problem with sight fishing is you tend to walk past some nice water because you don't see anything. Later in the day I was just messing around on top and caught a brookie where I hadn't seen anything- so I sort of repented for my previous "retail" fishing. Anyway, in the big hole, they were all stacked in there just like before, but they had been educated. I switched fly's six times, changed approaches three times and all I got was a couple of "nosings" and a bunch of "look and leaves", very frustrating. Finally out of sheer desperation I tied on a monster egg leach thing Pablo had sent me for the Alaska trip and I wagged that harpoon right in the face of the biggest fish in the pool and finally, out of frustration and aggression he hit it. I landed the big boy and set my camera up on a rock. Got in position to shoot my movie and knocked the camera off the rock into the stream, scrambling to save it. Meantime I'd already unhooked the fish and left him sitting in some shallow water and while I was cursing and blowing on the camera, he decided "the instution no longer offered him anything and he'd release himself on his own recognizance". I dropped the camera on the bank and scrambled to scoop him up out of the shallow water before he fought back up current into the pool. So with a squirming 20" trout in one hand I got the camera and turned it on, only to find that the batteries where dead!
The peace and tranquility of the trout habitat was shattered by a primeval scream of the champion piscator who had no way of capturing his trophy for display to his doubting thomas comrades... What would Traver do? I did think long and hard about slipping that boy down my waders (see "delayed harvest brown, 1998"), but I thought myself a better man than that, so I turned him loose.
That was pretty much it. I fished up stream a ways but only caught the one small brookie. I walked back to the car and drove further upstream to the trail head for the backcountry area of the park. There were 5or 6 vehicles parked there, and as all suspicious disciples will admit- I just knew they were all fishermen working their way up stream ahead of me. I walked out on a bridge and surveyed the beautiful dry fly water that lay above me, and area, probably the only area of this stream I've never fished, but decided not to follow in anyones waders. As I turned to leave I spied a 20" bewildered looking rainbo hanging in shallow water behind a boulder and thought of stretching a line, but decided to head down stream to the park entrance and check out that water.
I drove back down to the main park station and jumped in at the bridge. For the next 1/4 mile I found only shallow water with few runs and no fish, so I jumped out and headed back- it was closing on 7:30pm with the sky turning purple and I know from experience they lock that dang gate at 8 bells on the nose whether you need out or not, and I didn't feel like sleepin streamside so I headed home... Not exactly the experience I had hoped for, but as always, an adventure. I've already found the time slot to go back next week and try those upper reaches. I let you know how it goes!
4 comments:
who'd have thunk? A big Appy brookie on an Alaskan fly? Only the Gov would have thought-- thats who! Desperate times call for.. well you know.
I would have LOVED to have had a video showing the Camera episode, that would have been priceless, or at least 500 clams for the cost of the camera. How many camera's have you no dropped in the water? 5?
always an adventure.
Not sure how many camera's I've drowned. Fortunately the camera survived the fall.. You know one of the very first times I went fly fishing out in Utah with you- I think you and me and David went to a little creek somewhere back when you lived in the duplex in Orem- don't remember the name of the creek but we went there because Diamond Fork (this was before Brown Sugar) was muddy- remember that trip (of course, you remember every trip, every stream, every hole, every cast, every fish- seems like).. any who, that was the first camera I drowned. It was in my (actually your borrowed neoprenes) top wader pocket and I decided to wade through this deep hole right at a bridge where the road crossed the stream and I went in up to my guzzle and soaked the camera! heheheheee somethings never changes, you can take the head out of the knuckle, but you can't take the knuckle out of the head!
how could I forget that trip. It was to Currant Creek. Dang bushy creek, (I've toyed with going back there someday) I also remember either you or David getting charged by a moose. And it was a FILM camera, that'll tell you how long ago that was. And we were wearing neoprenes (terrible joke that is)-- wow, those were the days. Bonehead is right.
Yep, currant creek... was a little muddy and we didn't do that well, but we weren't that good iether (at least I wasn't). I didn't get charged by a moose, I came up on a big huge cow with a calf, browsing in the willows about 15 yards in front of me. I could see her huge head above the willows, so I charged out of the stream and gave her a wide berth.
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