Decided to go and explore a new stream before the end of the season. When I arrived I must admit I was alittle discouraged by the size, often it was no more than three feet across. I decided rather than going for the safety of a stream I knew I would try this instead. I enjoyed the sun, I got on the water a 3:25 and walked around for a bit. I saw one surface strike on the very edge of the stream almost in weeds. I looked around and found hoppers. I thought to myself its not even 70 degrees is this really going to work? I tied it on with a 6X tippet and got to work. This stream took every ounce of cast accuracy I had. I tried a few spots trying to sink it closest to the weeds on the banks without tangling it up in them. And then it happened….

This fish struck so hard he scared the crap out of me. I didn’t know what to do at first. The stream being only three-five feet wide he took off downstream. I gave chase and after about what seemed like 10 minutes I managed to net this fish. For me this is the biggest, most beautiful fish I have seen all season. I felt accomplished. I took my pictures and smiled, and promptly released the fish. Noticed as the sun fell behind more and more clouds that the chance of taking another fish on a hopper had passed and that I should feel like the stars aligned. This could be my last fish of the season. However, I’m thinking about heading back tomorrow afternoon with Liz, if anything just to show her where I pulled it out. Thanks to all those who’s advice made this possible for me. 

Cloudy day on the water today, I think the temp was only 68 at the high point in the morning. I chose to head south of 90 to see if I could find trout in a new spot before the season ends. I drove and enjoyed the morning drinking my coffee. Got to the stream and strung up a tato-scud and immediately hooked a small silverish looking fish. I thought about what to do, kill it? Was it eating the trout resources? I didn’t know if that was the case and so I let it go. I continued to fish and every time I got a strike it was a small silverish looking fish. I kept going and after a while and not seeing even one trout I decided to move to another stream. I headed north across 90 and caught a few brown with the zugbug even when fish weren’t rising. My casting is getting better and I was able to drop the terrestrial very very close to a bank of weeds and got an excellent fighting brown for my efforts. I continued fishing the zug for a while. Had a good time but wanted some more sun. I decided to take off at 2 after catching a half dozen.

Arrived at water edge at 7:15. The sun had yet to crest over the bluff behind me. I watched as no wind created a very slow moving pond at one of my favorite spots. Fish were rising. I started with a larger terrestrial which in hindsight was a mistake thinking now that most need the sun to activate and move. Rather the fish were feeding on either small winged ants which I sifted a bunch of or these longer bodied flying insects. They were not mayflies or caddis. They had long legs and I saw them in the weeds that were on the surface. I think they were eating the flying ants. I took a two minute video which has 19 strikes on the surface in the spot I had the camera focused on. Seven of those leapt out of the water. It was fun to watch but I moved on for an opportunity to catch one. 

Turned to the tato-scud and got a few brown. This particular spot for me holds significance because of its location to my home and being so instrumental in helping my cast. I used this one section of stream for quite a few day trips just to learn how to get my fly in the water. When I would be feeling good walking away catching one or two now I usually pull six or so out and I think I’m starting to see ones I’ve caught before which is cool. Last cast downstream rather than up over a very slow moving pool produced a nice trout who struck hard. He put up quite a fight and buried himself in the weeds. We danced, I won. He was pleased to be released.

All in all I had a great morning and got off the water at 10:30am. I spent the rest of the day with my two nieces and my sister. Later I played a gig at the Draught Haus with my band Brass Lamp. It went well and was a good time.

I was looking through quite a few of my pictures today and found a few I hadn’t posted. The bigger ones were nice and frankly probably some of the largest I managed to net this season. The small ones, I was always surprised I didn’t rip there face off or something. Must have a gentle touch.

No Pictures, No Fish. I went out, to the same spot as the last two times just to continue the experiment. I tried the same tato-scud/indicator rig for five casts and moved on. Had some problems with getting snagged a few times. I didn’t have the time I wanted and felt rushed. I need to relax a bit more and take my time. I took no pictures and caught no fish. Maybe I violated some secret trout rule about hitting the same place three times in five days. Tried all kinds of flies a few times and moved on. Felt off. Wait for the next time for now. Hopefully friday. Peace.

So being fairly new, i.e. this is my first summer seriously fishing for trout, I didn’t fully understand what a friend of mine at work meant when he said he couldn’t wait for “hopper” season. Honestly, hindsight makes me think how could I not have known what he meant but I didn’t at first. Liz’s dad also mentioned “hopper” season and I asked more and found out that Grasshoppers begin showing up late July and early August and if one is in the right spot at the right time in the right sunny climate hoppers can be your best friend! 

Liz and I went fishing south of 90 one day early in Sept. and I had a hopper moment! I walked into four to five foot tall grass and found myself surrounded by an army of grasshoppers an inch long. I caught a few and picked the correct color. Its one of those moments where the fish will strike almost helplessly, with the proper presentation they can’t help it. Big strikes where the fish leap out of the water.

It was a good thing Liz was there to help me, I ended up needing her help to land quite a few good sized Rainbows. She netted and I slowly moved up the pool until finally at the end after 2hrs of good fishing one very large Rainbow hit my hopper for the last time, took it and promptly wrapped it around a log near my feet and gave me the fin as it took the hopper that I had caught over a dozen of his friends on. A fitting end to the night I thought. I had a blast with Liz and we got a few good pictures.

Went out for a few more hours of hunting. I wanted to do an experiment to see what affect a few changes have so I went back to the exact same spot I tried last night at the same time. The weather conditions were almost exactly the same. The trout were rising just as last night so I set up the same rig. A high float caterpillar (see W.F.F. Flies) with a tato scud trailing more than two feet behind. I had several serious strikes last night and was looking for more of the same. Tonight however, things were very different. After getting nothing on the rig from last night I added a larger prince nymph as a dropper before the tato scud and I changed how deep to set the dropper a few times. Still nothing. So I tried a Pink Patrick, A flash caddis. Nothing. I put on a Zug Bug and got a nice sized brown but it has almost no markings. I promptly released it and tried again. Nothing again on the zug bug, lots of looks no takes and I was very careful to let it drift naturally and float high. Nothing. I swapped to a caddis stimulator then to a cricket. Nothing. One fish. Still had fun just didnt understand why I wasn’t catching them like last night. 

I fished one stream north of 90 today working my way from spot to spot stopping at four places along the stream. I had little to no luck for the first three hours I was out. I caught something on my fire fly streamer that looked like a large shiner minnow about 5in in length. I kept trying streamers failing to give up probably cost me quite a few fish, I was really wanting to get one on a streamer but alas nothing. I tried dead drifting, stripping, and twitching my streamers and nothing. Finally I switched to a tato scud and picked up 5 pretty quickly, most small less than 10in but towards the end I picked up this bigger guy probably 15-16in. All in all I found a few new places to hit up the fish and that was cool but I need to learn how to fish streamers more effectively. 

I tied a new fly tonight while Liz was in a class meeting. I’ve seen other streamer patterns that use a large amount of yellow feathers. I was given some old feather boa’s from our roommate hannah and decided to try and make something new. I’ve never worked with the rubber legs before and I think I did fairly well. I call this the fire fly and its got a tungsten bead as well as a few wraps of .20 lead to avoid using a sinker. I have yet to catch a trout on a streamer. This is frustrating and I’m hoping to change that, I just need to choose to use them rather than going the safer route and using something I know works. 

Lily has started to recover from her surgery. She has a new shiney orthopedic plate under her skin on her back right leg. She has a mean looking 27 staples holding the skin togather until next week. We are taking slow walks once or twice a day right now, keeping her from walking up stairs or running. We have a new gental leader collar which is amazing and allows a dog that would always pull so hard on a leash to walk slowly to make her use her leg and muscles. We have quite a way to go yet, 8 weeks like this and then up to two years with the plate in which could hamper her in cold weather causing her leg pain due to the freezing plate. If her leg does not heal properly in the two years then she may never get the plate out. This is a hard blow, I was really looking forward to bringing her with me trout hunting in January.