Fishing Forum

I've been on a mission to find some new streams and sections of streams to fish this year as I'm getting bored with the crowds on The Blacksmith and traffic noise on The Logan. Well, I did some searching on Google Earth last night, and some investigating on the DWR's stream access site as well, and hatched a plan for the sunny day with no work that I was determined to enjoy.

I arrived at my stream of interest around 2:30, but was a little put off by the old beat up No Trespassing sign and fences that I found. Luckily I spotted somebody on the property and chatted for a while. He said I was good to go as long as I stayed in the river. I asked him about fish species and he told me it was predominantly a brown trout fishery.

Well I got suited up in layers of wool, fleece and the new Redington Sonic Pro waders I just received last night, and was on my way. Right off I could see that the water was moderately off color, but not terribly high. I decided to go ahead and start fishing with the rubber legged Stimmy and Pheasant Tail Prince dropper that I had left on from The Blacksmith last week. The first couple of inviting pockets brought absolutely no results. I was a little put off by this, but pushed upstream. I spooked a couple of fish in an overgrown run that I wasn't able to fish too well, so that gave me hope. Up ahead I saw a beautiful stretch with a deep run on either side of the river. I started with the left side which stretched a little further downstream. After a few drifts, something took my dropper. It felt nice and solid and doubled my 3/4 wt when I set the hook. It bulldogged in the current, and I figured it was nice brown. Much to my surprise, it was this ugly fatty. [inline "whitie small.JPG"]
I didn't get any more hits from this pocket, so I moved into position to fish the other side. First cast I had a smaller rainbow roll on the surface and come off. The next cast I hooked this pregnant female bow.[inline "bow small.JPG"]
The next cast I got an even better rainbow. [inline "bow 2 small.JPG"]
I was beginning to wonder if there were any browns in this stream after all. Cast number four brought another surprise, this pretty little cutthroat. [inline "cutt small.JPG"]
Finally cast number five got me my brown. [inline "brown 2 small.JPG"]
He was absolutely insane. He leaped and tail-walked all over the run. He seriously jumped at least 12 times. The next cast brought another acrobatic brown.[inline "brown 3 small.JPG"]
I ended up getting a hit the first 8 casts in a row. I picked off a couple more, and then I hooked into a very nice cutt right on the fast part of the seam. It headed downstream, but my foot was stuck in silt. As I stumbled, the line slipped out of my hand and he was off. Things quieted down, so I switched to a Neon Black Prince. I tied it with peacock black ice dub for the abdomen with fluorescent green ribbing and a UV black ice dub thorax. That did the trick and I was able to catch a few more browns[inline "brown 4 small.JPG"]
and bows[inline "bow face small.JPG"][inline "bow 3 small.JPG"]
on that fly before I decided I had exhausted the run. I ended up getting around 16 hits and landed 12 fish from about an 8 foot stretch of stream. That had me pretty excited for the rest of the day, but unfortunately there was a lot of shallow, channelized blah water up ahead. I had one small brown come up and nail the Stimmy from a little riffle, which was cool for February. Up ahead was a long shallow run, but at the head of it the water dropped down to about 18" deep. I wasn't expecting much, but then this chunky brown clobbered the Stimulator. [inline "brown 5 small.JPG"]
Soon after another brown, followed by a couple of nice male bows.[inline "bow face 2 small.JPG"][inline "bow 5 small.JPG"][inline "bow 4 small.JPG"]
They all came up for the dry. The water was cleaner here, so I switched my dropper to a brown Copper John and pulled another brown out of the riffle on it. I ended up with six fish from that riffle. Things really quieted down after that. I caught a long skinny bow out of a deep run on the dropper, but that was all from there. There was some good water that brought nothing. I was beginning to wonder if it was time to head home as the sun had gotten behind the cliffs and maybe the fish were done being active. I managed a couple more small browns on the dropper, and that was it. I decided to give my old honey hole another visit before I left, just to make sure I hadn't missed any the first time around. Since it was murkier in this stretch, and getting dark, I went back to the neon dropper. A few drifts later I nabbed this pretty rainbow. [inline "bow 6 small.JPG"]
I caught a smaller one, and lost another. It was getting pretty cold now, but I decided to make one more cast. I placed it tight to the fast water again, and this time a pretty cuttbow mauled it. [inline "net cuttbow small.JPG"][inline "cuttbow small.JPG"]

I ended up with 24 fish landed, which I was pretty happy with considering it's February. Half were browns, and I caught 1 cutt, 1 cuttbow, 1 whitefish, and the rest were bows. I ended up hooking around 20 fish out of that one little pocket of water. I need to go back when I have more time and try to find another spot like that on this stretch. I'm glad I took the time to talk to the property owner and add a new stretch of water to my area trout streams. I'll have to start doing more of that.
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Great fish! Looks like a nice healthy stream. You are lucky to have found some water that isn't all blown out. We've been doing a lot of flooding and road washing out up here in Idaho.
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Nice report. Congrats on discovering a little gem! Makes you wonder how long those fish have gone without seeing a hair bug.
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Exploring always pays off as well bushwacking. It looks like you had a stellar day. That cutthroat is my favorite. I love catching Bonneville cutties.

I'm just curious did the access map show this piece of water as public and then when you arrived it was fenced? Did it show it as private but with access secured? I'm just curious because I rely on that map a lot and now question its accuracy.

Cheers and Tight Lines!
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Thanks guys. It was a fun afternoon that was sorely needed. So far so good on the high water here. It was a good level, and just enough color to make the fish a little less spooky. I'm sure that if the water had been clear I wouldn't have been able to hit fish after fish from that hole.

I know the fish see flies from at least one other person as the owner fishes it. He told me to use Girdle Bugs, but I didn't have anything like that on me. I figured if that's what he throws, I should throw something they haven't seen anyway. Still, I think I'll tie some up and give them a try next time. I'm going to tie up some gummy egg patterns too as those female bows were fat and lumpy with eggs.

It did say that access was secured on private land, but with their little disclaimer on their page of how that doesn't guarantee you won't get in trouble, I was feeling cautious. It was fenced, and did have a no trespassing sign, though it looked really old and was kind of overgrown with vegetation. I'm glad I asked so I wouldn't be looking over my shoulder the whole time wondering if I'm going to get arrested. Hopefully I will have more time to explore it. I only made it through about 1/3 of the secured stretch.
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Sometimes, I really do hate you.

I sat on my thumb all day dreaming of small streams and caddis flies while you caught fish.

I hope you get a hole in your new waders.

Ha! Well, I'd had a pretty awful week, I really needed it or I might have ended up in a clock tower with a rifle [crazy] If it makes you feel better I spent the majority of my weekend and today writing an argumentative essay in APA format. I think I actually enjoyed going to work tonight compared to writing the paper. That's a scary thing.
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