Healthy Waters

It's been to long.  Lots of good things, but things that kept me off the water and slowed bench time at the vice.  Last night, I took some time to tie and today I took a couple hours after lunch to fish a stream about 7-8 miles from home which slides off the eastern side of a local ski hill.  

Last night though I had that vice time.  There were a few things I needed to restock - some sparkle pupa's and a few dry's... But yesterday I saw a fly come through my email feed from the intheriffle folks - they make great video's!  I forget the name of it, though they called it a caddis.  I really liked it, so I started there and whipped up a few for my small stream box and a few for my big stream/river box...

From there I did a few sparkle pupa's.  I like to do these with fire orange thread, so the "guts" sort of shine through when the fly is wet.  I tried this one with a gray head, but didnt really like it, so went over the gray dubbing with my normal choice of dark brown.  Oddly, the two tone look is really cool and may signal something for me to try in the future "intentionally :)!

Got some good things done this morning, and then hit the stream.  Due to my normal access point, this is the first spot I typically fish... The base of that hemlock which is sort of in the water is always a good spot.  I was surprised not to get a tap here today.

A few runs and pools up and nothing.  Not even a fish moved from what I could see.  Weird.  Finally on a nice bend pool, near a rock about a third through the pool, a fish took the picket pin variant I was using.  Nice little fish about 5-6" long.

He took about at the far right side of the pic below.  the water was so clear, I was amazed that I couldnt see fish.  A few others came up to hit the fly and missed... You would see them dart up and try, then they would literally vanish.  Amazing how well these little creatures blend in!

One thing that amazed me, after working up stream to a big pool that is just before where the stream splits momentarily into two smaller halves, was catching what may be the smallest wild trout I've ever caught - it's close for sure.  This thing was maybe 3" long.  it took the soft hackle I'd swapped to with fire, almost pulling the rod from my hands and testing the drag on my reel... ;) FYI, that's a size 16 partridge soft hackle hook... It looks like a 4/0 in a bass's mouth!

All kidding aside, it was great to see that little guy.  I generally catch brookies in the 5-9" range here.  So seeing one this small makes me feel positive about the coming years on this water.  Very nice to see that!

As I was leaving I had to take a pic of this, someone's old tree stand barely attached to a down tree that's been in the stream for a number of years and has carved out a heck of a hole in the stream bed (maybe 3-4 feet of water!).  It's pretty close to the road, so not sure it was ever legal, but it's always intriguing to me to see these ancient sign's of hunters past.  Certainly lots of deer sign in the area, so it would not surprise me if some one had fed their family well from this structure prior to it's demise...

Good to get out, and I'm really hopeful that I can get out again next weekend!  I've been really itching to fish a bit of water between a huge swamp and swimming hole of my adolescence and teen years... Hopefully this weekend I can get that in!

Enjoy your time afield -
Will