On a stream I visited for the first time this summer I met a fish that I have since named George.  We met on a summer afternoon, if I remember correctly it was August and the fall run of BWO’s were on. This was the first time I had fished this stream so every turn was a new experience. I made my way through the jungle, thick in the summer, and came upon a series of run/holes that provided good opportunities to take trout. On the last hole I saw rising trout and I rigged a BWO dry. At the time I didn’t asses my position or the water, I just started swinging.  I eventually got the fly to the trout and when I did I saw George. He launched out of the water, scared the hell out of me causing me to lose the hook set. I just stopped, slack jawed, calmed down and was about to attempt another cast but as I was about to a random dog decided to run through the stream putting down George and his friends. I vividly remember walking up to see the fish and seeing a very large 24″+ trout. At the time I thought the red belly was a brook but now, after seeing him multiple times I know he is a brown. 

Since that first meeting I have seen him everytime I visit his stream. As of recently he has been a goal of mine but the task is difficult and here is why. He is obviously the dominant trout in his hole and he is accompanied by over a hundred other trout most of which are 10-14″ so making George the target is tough. After the last few times of visiting the stream I have taken several pictures of his home and studied his habits. I know he has three primary feeding stations, the first two put him in a very difficult presentation position and the third puts him smack in the middle of the competition.

Unless George is rising to flies he is going to be a challenge considering the tree that hangs less than two feet over the water and crosses the two feeding position he sits in the most. I know this because I sat with him for over two hours just observing. I put him down when I approached where I was planning to observe from but I was patient and waited…after twenty minutes he came out of his rock hidy hole which I’m sure has helped him survive to this point, that and the obstacles nature put in my way.

Like I said, he has three feeding stations. The primary two are on either side of the main flow as it rounds the rocks. Looking upstream he likes the position to the right of the seam more I think, this is the one I always see him leaving when I poke my head down to see him. The position to the left of the seam has him pinned next to the rock outcropping you see sticking out into the pool. The third position is located further back in the pool directly in the center, I think he only sits here when he is really relaxed or taking dry flies but I’m not an expert, I’m just observing.

With that said, the depth of this has to be between 4-5feet and the flow around the rocks is strong. Since he sits so far forward an approach from behind is tough for a few reasons. 1st, roll cast zone. 2nd, the log preventing your fly from hitting the water far enough infront of him to sink to him before it gets pushed behind him. 3rd, there are so many other trout in this hole that with the crystal clear water all the time you push the trout forward as you move forward, if you do this too much it makes the hole go twitchy because they become packed like sardeens, they know something is up.

An approach from either bank is difficult because of the trees/other foliage and the fact that by the time you get in position you’ve given away your location to all the other trout and they scatter, as they do that he saunders into his hidy hole to return only when things relax. So the best two ideas I have are the following: approach from in front and let a weighted leech pattern deep drift in the flow around the rock and hope he picks it up first. If he does then you have an issue because this trout isn’t going to lay down at your feet. He is going to tweek, running your line downstream and under the log. I’m not opposed to swiming for this fish, I’m just saying from this perspective it seems almost required.

The second approach involves sitting directly next to the log on the right side of the seam looking upstream. This is the position that I have observed him from. If you sit next to the log on the downstream side he is half under the log in feeding positions 1/2 and cannot see you, from here I basically tried jigging my leech infront of his nose getting no responce whatsoever. I tired for quite some time but to no avail so I let him be, knowing I would be returning for the photo that I want  soon.

p.s. I think we are going to try to get him this evening.

On this day I woke with a smile knowing after I took the dogs out for a long run I would have the rest of the day to fish. Sershen took me to a spot of his that he has been frequenting for quite a while I would imagine. South we travelled in my beat up rusty pickup. We arrived at the stream at about 1pm. Upon seeing rising trout I rigged up a #18 BWO dry flythat I tied recently, Sershen rigged a #18 Parachute Adams with a Zugbug trailer. We took turns casting dries to feeding trout and we both came up successful. After about thirty minutes the trout seemed to hold up and stopped rising. Taking an initial water temp of ~50 we waited and watching hoping that as the sun helped raise the water temp that we might catch a few BWO’s coming off.

While we waited for a water temp above 52 we picked rocks and strained the contents. Flipping two small rocks over exposed many Baetis nymphs ready to emerge. We waited and watched enjoying t-shirt weather the entire time. As time passed we stood in the water able to see the shucks from emerging flies floating past. We found a few BWO’s and Hennies as the afternoon progressed. At 3:30pm the water temp was 52.5 degrees making for ideal conditions for hatching BWO’s. Unfortunately we did not see rising trout and so we both decided to switch to streamer patterns. I chose my trusty Marabou Leech and moved from run to hole. After casting a #18 dry fly the streamer seemed clunky but it worked. I pulled a few more brown trout from the depths including a nice 16in trout that fought like a log. 

As we fished we were accompanied by an old beagle that was content just to sit and watch. He followed up the entire length of the stream we fished. As we returned to our original spot we noticed rising trout again, I quickly switched back to my BWO dry fly and on the second cast picked up another brown. I worked my way up the stream but in my haste I think I spooked the trout. I fished until I was confident I wasn’t going to pick up another trout. I really enjoyed studying the water anticipating a hatch. 

What a great day! I worked the first half of the day and then took the dogs out. Looking forward to wonderful weather and great company I knew I would have a good time today, oh yea, did I mention we were going trout fishing?

I met Sershen and one of my old friends Mikey Paul at noon to leave to hit Car Door Alley again. This time the plan was to chase the other feeder branch down and see what the valley and stream held. Rigged to run all three of us hit the water with lunch packed and time to kill. The plan was to fish as late as possible knowing we all had headlamps and flashlights for a potential late return. 

I fished a Pink Holo Scud I tie with a Sparkle Larva as a trailer. I love this stream because it offers so much in such a small space, you can spend hours fishing the first part of this stream if you want or you can bounce quickly from run to run, hole to hole and with a nice trail near by you can cover alot of ground quickly. I picked up a decent brown on the Sparkle Larva pattern I tie and felt vindicated knowing that my efforts to learn fly tying are paying off this season. 

We fished and hiked to the confluence that splits Car Door Alley in two, this time we chose to zig rather than zag. Sershen and I took a ph of 6.8 on each branch and water temp of ~46 and ~47. We do this for general observation sake, the main branch had a temp of 46.5 which would lead me to believe the flows are comparable between branches but I’m not an expert.

Moving forward we fished some difficult runs and holes. The flows are two low to have significant sized trout in the riffles at this point. Tree branches in front, behind, on top and in your face makes you love and rely on a good roll cast. I need to continue practicing, taking a trout here is something to smile about. 

We spied quite a few very colorful brookies in the clear water, their pink and white fins darting. I love seeing the changes in the stream as you progress towards the headwaters. We stopped to pick bugs as usual and this time my strainer (I love my strainer, Liz let me take it from the kitchen) came up with a most excellent golden stonefly. I want to read more about these things, I noticed this one was much larger but looked the same as its smaller friends. I’m curious to how long the gestation period is for this species. I found only the one large one but many smaller ones leading me to think this species takes several years to mature. 

We stopped to make lunch which when your with Sershen means some hotdogs and I dig it. He even goes so far as to pack in and out a full sized bottle of ketchup thats only 1/3 full. Making a fire without anything other than flame was slightly difficult due to the oncoming rain but that didn’t deter dinner. We cooked and it rained. After eating we decided that, although we hadn’t explored as far as we wanted, we were ready to head back. I will be returning to explore the rest another day. 

I love the hike, the decent, and the sound of the water just as much as the fish and the hunt. 

Having only a few hours to fish and knowing that I had yet to feel that wonderful tug from a trout in a while I decided to fish the creek that helped me start fly fishing. I know all the riffles, runs and pools on this stream. I know where the fish hold and I believe I know where the best feeding stations are at most places on the stretch I fish. 

I set out to see if I could find fish in my favorite run but alas like two days before there were no fish to be found. I find this to be quite puzzling, and I will be returning to monitor this spot for signs of trout. I continued on and decided that due to cooler water temps (~44) I would fish a Marabou leech thinking that unless I saw trout rising to midge that a Leech of significant size i.e. calories would entice a trout to strike. I remember approaching a wide open slow moving pool to watch a lone fly bounce across the water, too big to be a midge, so I chased it down. I somehow managed to capture what turned out to be a larger black stonefly. I had seen these crawling in the snow a few weeks earlier, the exact same color and everything just one third the size.

After seeing trout strike at the stonefly I decided to run my leech across the pool to see what I could come up with, I did this rather than turning to a dry fly imitation because a. there were no other flies around and b. I only saw one surface strike. This made me think the trout were active but with no other flies I didn’t think I would get anywhere with a dry imitation.

I managed to get several strikes, with the water so clear I could watch little trout follow the leech practically to my feet. Finally, after a few days of missing the tug I set the hook and had a nice 12in brown on the line. I ended up landing two more before moving on to another hole. I got one more on the marabou leech and then decided I needed to head in. A short but sweet moment in time, hunting trout.

Marabou Leech:

• Hook:6-8 Streamer
• Black Bead Head
• Tail/Body: 1 Black/Brown Marabou Feather

I have had great success with 1 or 2 strands of krystal flash in the tail as well as the addition of a partridge soft-hackle collar.

Day four found me deciding to bring my dog with me fishing. This means knowing that I’m probably not going to catch much but I did want to scout and hike down some trout water. We spent several hours travelling a section of stream that I’ve passed but never fished. I chucked a streamer into several holes with nothing to show for it. The dog made staying on a single spot difficult for more than five minutes. 

I was hoping that after a while she would tire and allow me to get a few casts in but that wasn’t the case. Even with her bad leg she kept me going the entire time we were out. I took only a few pictures this day but I had a good time regardless. The stream looked in good shape but it had some damage from the flood that occurred two years back. Interesting how the snow melt made the dirt erode from the banks that had been cut by the flood waters. 

Day three found me hitting two creeks with plans to meet up with Wendy B. at a pre-determined location around 2pm. Knowing this I decided to hit my home waters quick prior to meeting later in the day. Slightly frustrated at this point I had felt as if I was slipping, I hadn’t caught a fish in too long it seemed. I started fishing a run that I know like the back of my hand and I can almost always pull a fish from this spot. I fished, and fished some more and eventually decided to figure out what the deal was…well as it turns out there wernt any fish in the hole. I was stunned, this is my goto run when I need to see a fish I go here. I’m still formulating ideas regarding where the fish are but at this point I moved upstream and fished some more enjoying another beautiful morning on the water.

I picked quite a few bugs taking samples as I went. On this trip I found my first Cranefly larva, I was surprised to see the size of the larva, huge in comparison to most of the macro-invertebrates found in the trout streams around here. I can see trout taking this guy to the dinner table for sure. Despite the warmer temperatures I was finding little surface activity so I spent most of the morning fishing streamers trying to entice a lunker to take my Rabid Rabbit.

I moved and left with some time to scout out the second location prior to Wendy’s arrival. I found several other fishermen on the stream this day, signs that I haven’t fished this time of year before, normally I don’t see anyone else but spring seems to bring traffic to the streams. This fact has made me alter my opening weekend plans but more on that later.

Wendy and I met and had a short introduction before hiking upstream quite aways to avoid the other stream traffic. I’ve been wanting to meet this guy for a while, knowing that we have much in common I knew we would get along well and we did. I asked my questions and we fished. I spent more time getting my line untangled than fishing but I was happy just to be in the sun. Wendy caught his share of browns nymphing holes and runs and I unfortunately caught nothing continuing my losing streak but I knew it would end eventually. After a few hours in the sun we headed back downstream and fished streamers. I took a water temp of 43 degrees at ~2pm and 47 degrees at ~6:15pm.

Sershen and I hooked up for a trip to a stream I visited only once this summer. We set out down this stream and it was as if I had just hiked it. This stream is similar to Possum in that it stays gin clear almost all the time. I love how different streams have drastically different personalities. Car Door Alley is a beautiful, lively, difficult stream to fish. The woods are right on top of you, your odds of needing a roll cast; 90 percent and there seemed to be a natural obstacle, log or a tree branch, something blocking every decent run or hole, a great environment for trout to thrive and here they do.

We started off and ran the first few runs and pools down quick, I would say that within fourty minutes we had fished and explored the entirety that I had seen this summer. We continued on up stream with the goal of exploring one of the two headwater systems that feed Car Door Alley. After a certain point catching a fish became less important than studying the creek. With several feeder springs in the headwaters we were busy picking bugs and taking water temps. This stream, just like Possum has a very large number of the rock cased caddis and we noticed the bio mass change drastically from one type of caddis to another in between feeder springs. I would guess this is related to the change in water condition between them. 

We caught few fish but studied the creek and prepared for the return. As we went we enjoyed the sunshine on our backs, one very nice thing about this place is that after four plus hours of hiking in after you break your rods down you can make it out in less than thirty minutes. Sershen has some great underwater photos here.

To start the week of fishing I decided to return to Possum Creek which, up until this point skunked me and provided challenging fishing conditions. Gin clear water combined with close approaches made catching trout here tougher than some of the other streams I fish but all the more reason to go. I started before 11am and pulled out at around 3:30pm under sunny skies. I spent most the day casting dry midge flies to feeding trout but with no success. I think two reasons were undermining my ability to catch a trout with the Jujubee Midge fly. 1st, I believe that although the body size was spot on I had too much CDC forming the wing, and second that my casts into wind alerted the trout to my presence almost immediately even though I made the effort to sneak and crawl to my casting spots.

I spent over an hour sitting in the same spot not moving just watching trout take midge both surface and sub-surface flies. I eventually switched to a PT with a size 20 Zebra midge trailer and this produced many more strikes but I never landed a fish this way, they either bit too light and I couldn’t set the hook or they got off during the struggle. I made it a point to spend just as much time looking at insects and watching trout as I did fishing, this being my first spring I wanted to see all the changes first hand and record them for reference, there are many pictures of the naturals from this week that I will be posting.

After spending most the day fishing with midge imitations I switched to the Marabou Leech I have become very fond of and it produced several strikes of which I was able to land one smaller trout, and honestly, it wasn’t much of a fight.  The fish struck, in anticipation I set the hook and between the hook set and the leap out of the water the fish ended up almost in my lap. I had to laugh, flying trout beware! I explored further reaches of the stream and found a few spots I want to return to.

Time is of the essence and I must make this brief but I shall re-write this and re-post with images and details. Here is just the raw intel…

• Fished from 10:15am to 3:40pm
• Caught One Brown Trout, Had an Awesome Day.
• Air Temp: 26 Degrees at Arrival, 39 at Departure.
• Water Temp: 43 Degrees on Arrival, 45 at Departure.
• Flows are clean and clear.
• Prepare for the Baetis, they are coming.
• Mucho Midge Activity, started as early as 11am. 

This image was taken streamside and is slightly elongated due to the curve in the glass jar it is in. I collected this sample this morning, I know the image is small and blurry but trust me on this one, those are developed wingpads. I was really excited when I saw this proof they should be hatching soon. Liz is travelling to New Zeland and has taken the camera I usually use, thanks to Sershen for the loaner. I still have the live sample, I will try to get a better image.

This was my day. Peace.