Another Creek Story

[Phil Synhorst]

Ok, so for the last 8 weeks I've been stuck at home reading the board, not able to get out and fish. Oh, and going crazy reading all the posts about the great Shad fishing that's 5 minutes from my front door. Actually I think those guys have kept my spirits up.

Then along comes this trio, roostersgt, Scott V, and jburge, putting up posts about fishing the kind of water that I love. Great posts by the way guys!! With that kind of inspiration, I give the "old curmudgeon" Ed a call, see if he's up for doing some creekin'....panzy style of course since I can't do any climbing yet, but what the heck.

So yesterday morning we head out to hit some favorite spots. We get to the first stream, take a nice easy hike in, and take a look at the water...looks GOOD. We both hook up right away, Ed on the first cast, me on the second.
A few more casts, a few more fish. All small to this point, and we both wondered if it was going to stay like that since the last couple of seasons, that's all we could get. Well we got a lot of small fish, but we also got quite a few good sized ones as well. Including my personal biggest Wild Trout landed. It was a hog, not super long, but fat as heck. I had a hard time getting the fly out of it's mouth, there were 6 large caddis cases in there as well. I'm not sure if they were all regurgitated, or just some, and I've never heard of trout doing that.

On to the second creek, all Brownies. This one is VERY small water, the trout can really feel you walking up. We take a look and immediately spook a few...good sign. Moved up a bit from there and went into stealth mode(sort of), Ed nailed one right away, beautiful bright little guy. I went back downstream, crossed over, and tried just up from him. I was not able to be as sneaky, and spooked the rest of the run. So we moved upstream where there is more pocket water, and it was on from there. Every pocket had at least one nice fish, sometimes a few small ones as well. Very nice to see good numbers here, in the past there have been a few seasons of somewhat heavy catch and keep by other anglers. Not that I mind keeping trout, but this place can easily be fished out.

Third and final stop. Kindergarten, as Ed likes to call this one. Not a heck of a lot of time left, he has to work the next day, and my shoulder is aching pretty good. It didn't even take 10 minutes walking in before we started fishing....we fished for the better part of an hour, maybe a little more, back up to truck. Every spot that looked like it should hold a fish, held 2 or 3. Every spot that we would normally pass, slow side water, shallow riffle, etc., put a fly on it and at least get a small one to strike.

This was by far one of the best days I've had up there in a long time, and overall definitely in my top 5 best fishing adventures ever. The only downside...we both forgot bug dope, I think I came out of there a gallon short. Oh well, I'll pay that price any day to be out there with a good friend.

p.s. Bill, I'll be back in to the shop soon. Those damn fish ran me out of dry shake.

[Scott V]

Glad to hear you were able to get that much fishing in after all your shoulder problems. No pictures? I would have liked to see that trout with a full mouth of cases.

[Phil Synhorst]

Sorry about not having any pics to post, I don't have a waterproof yet, and I forgot to buy a disposable at the store. I was hoping to get this thread up, then Ed could supply the pics...."missed it by that much".

Unbelievably, as long winded as I was, I forgot some key info. Most of my fish were caught on 1 size 12 yellow stimulator. At the second creek I had to change to a size 14. Both flys are now toast. Ed started out with an orange stimulator(I think a 12), and then cycled through a variety of dries, and nymphs. I don't remember him getting a refusal on anything.