Getting down to business.

I blasted down to the familiar creek alone this morning.  As much as I love fishing with my friends, I also completely appreciate some alone time fishing.  I get utilitarian when I fish alone, no shame in casting to every pool that looks good.  I skipped breakfast, wanting to keep myself hungry, like a cougar ready to pounce (or cast) at the first sight of any fishy looking water.  I passed by the KEEP OUT sign with ease... I basically bribed the keeper last time I was here.  I know that the bribe will last me till late fall, so no worries about the guy yelling behind my back as I make a fast dash upstream.  I arrived a little later than I wanted to, the sun was already up.  The fish here stop biting early during this summer season, I know I have a couple of hours of good fishing left.  I brought with me my 3wt 6ft ultra light White River rod.  It ain't nothing fancy but I consider this the best thing that White River (Bass Pro) ever made.  They call it a 3wt but it feels more like a 2wt or less.  It's the rod I bought many years ago, when I went fishing with Charles in the driftless area.  It's been a long while since I took this rod fishing, but I still like it a lot.

I made my way through the small creek, leader line short so I can 'machine gun' cast to each pocket as I climbed into the creek.  Not far from where I started a healthy cherry trout accepts my poorly tied fly.  I am happy.  I feel at ease.  I sat there and prayed a thank you prayer.  I am thankful that I am here, that a fish came to the end of my line, and thankful that there are many good looking pools ahead of me.  I love the feeling of wet wading in the summer, the cool water between my toes.  I keep a good pace, but I don't have anywhere specific I am headed to... just heading upstream.  There are sections of the creek that are populated with cherry trout and there are others with rainbows.  I don't know if it's my own imagination but they don't seem to mix.  It also seems like there are sections in between that seem to hold no fish.  Maybe it's the trout's keep out zone they have agreed to.  The cherry trout are smaller fish so I'm not sure how the hierarchy works here but there seems to some sort of order to it.

I caught plenty of fish...well maybe not plenty but enough.  A mixed bag of rainbows and cherry trout.  Believe it or not, I hooked the largest rainbow I have ever seen here today, even landed it in the net.  But while I was fumbling to get my phone out to take a photo, it slipped out of the net that was too small for it.  I tried to grab it with my hands but it slipped away and the trout was already in deep waters swimming away with ease.  And this was the trout I caught by making a long cast to a still pool.  My casting isn't great and so it's pretty rare I catch trout in calm pools (my excuse for liking fast pocket waters)  I didn't expect anything when I made the cast, but just as I was about the pick up the line, it took the fly.  It jumped in the pool at least three times and it was like I was watching someone else catch this fish.  I had that "damn it" face for a long time after it slipped away.  I didn't mind it slipping away, but I would have liked to seen the photo... so I can compare my impression of the fish to the actual size that it was.  Maybe it's better this way, now I can tell that story to my friends and say... "the fish was thiiiis big".  The fish wasn't steelhead size or nothing, but it was bigger than you would expect in a creek like this.  I guess these biggies do live here. 

I got back on the road to head home by 10:30am, and was stuck in traffic for 5 hours (double the normal time).  Traffic sucks but that encounter with the big trout made it better and worthwhile.  Man I love fishing.

healthy cherry trout

mix of rainbow

I could sit here for hours



the calm pool where I caught the bigger fish



the "dman it" face

driving in traffic sucks