Trip Report: Death March

Today I went on a death march through the woods in search of trout. My friend Jesse and I fished a nearby stream that endured a fish kill a couple years ago. We were curious to see how trout populations were recovering and what type of insect life we'd find. We arrived on stream around 9am with temps in the mid 70's, cloudless skies, and clear waters.

We planned to push deep into the woods so we very briefly fished through the pasture section. I worried that the stream may not have recovered too well after the first few sections of stream but was relieved to hook into two little brown trout which took the Quill Bodied Mayfly dry/emerger.

After catching these spunky little ones we pushed on.

This was our last glimpse back toward civilization. Jesse was rockin' the skunk until just upstream from this spot. He landed three or four around 13-14 inches.

 As the day went on Jesse's luck slowed and mine picked up. The size of the trout also improved!

This was my big fish of the day! He took a Pink Squirrel of Prey fished through a riffle to run transition. We found most of the fish holding in deeper, faster moving water. I stuck to the Pink Squirrel of Prey for most of the day. I spotted only one rising trout. No insect activity either.

We probably hiked around 4-5 miles total. A good amount of that was trudging through knee deep muck or thrashing through vegetation over our heads. I got home exhausted! I won't be able to get out fishing over the next week or so but that'll be ok...there is a lot of tying to be done.