With Rosemary and the kiddo's on the road home from DC, I took the opportunity to get in a spin on the mountain bike in the AM, drop off some clothes for a buddies kiddo's to use, and then hit a small stream or two on the way home.

I knew my favorite trails a little way's west, where I grew up, were still very snowy... but given the woods out back were clear, I gave the local state forest trail system a shot. There was a lot of snow. More than I thought there would be. It made for slippery riding, but, for fun riding none the less - it felt great to get outside, and deeply breathe the fresh air!

 

 

After the ride, I packed up, and drove to my home town to drop off the clothes, then hit a local stream.  It's a funny stream... the closer you get to it's confluence with a larger stream, the more likely you are to catch a native brookie... But I like this section.  There are small waterfalls up stream, and the brook is covered with hemlocks.  That said... Snow covered it's banks, and in spots, shelf ice still reached out, covering portions of the brook.  Rarely do you catch a fish in this section... but it's worth a shot regardless!  

 



 

After about 30' on this beauty of a stream working a streamer with no takes, I opted to pack up and hit one more stream before making dinner for the family...

 

The stream I fished is home to wild browns and native brookies in surprising numbers.  It can be tricky to fish in areas due to heavy brush or log jams... but some sections are just gorgeous.

 

I fished a section that is full of sharp bends that contain deeper holes - great spots for natives.

 

I started with a streamer and caught a couple... But seeing a few brookies dart up and eat the early stone flies that were dapping the surface to lay eggs... I had to try a dry.  I'd forgotten my floatant though... So on went the bomber - they seem to float through just about everything.  The bomber caught a few, and then started to sink as the oppossum dubbing body became to saturated to dry.

 

Bombers will work sunk... but I had about 1 fly change of tippet left (I'd forgotten that in the truck as well), so on went a deer hair winged/natural peacock quill bodied fly I'd created to mimic these stones... it really needed some floatant due to a dubbed head... But it floated enough to bring several more "risers" to hand.

 

The little pool below is deceptively deep, and the pic does not show the rate of flow real well... it was moving through pretty strongly.  That soft spot where water whirlpooled off the main current, basically 3/4 across dead center in the pic, resulted in many takes before I moved upstream and caught a few more.

 

The next two pic's are a couple I managed with the cell phone (this whole thread actually are cell pics).  Tough to do with that thing... but the pic's came out well, and show the bright colors of the fish from this stream.

Spring is slowly springing... and worth the wait!