Today I got up early to hike down a ridge to chase trout. I arrived at the parking are around 9am and hiked for around 45 minutes before reaching the stream. Unfortunately I took a wrong turn. The well manicured atv path that I intended to take would have made a much safer decent into the valley but I lived to fish another day!
I hoped to find fish rising but only noticed sporadic rises throughout the day. Two fish ate the Griffiths Gnat including this averaged sized brownie. I nymphed upstream and tossed a streamer on the way down. Fish ate the pink squirrel of prey and orange scud but didn't turn for the streamer.
The stream was crystal clear. I didn't check water temps throughout the day but fish ate consistently from approximately 9am to 3pm. The sun cut through a thin layer of clouds making the fish easily spooked so most fish came out of deeper or faster water. Fish scattered in fear whenever I approached long, slick flats.
After a death march back to the car I headed to a nearby stream in search of brookies. I exchanged the 7' 9" three weight for the 9' six weight and I'm glad I did. In a stream small enough to hop across in most areas I landed my two big fish of the day.
This trout measured against my fly rod was approximately 14" long. He ate a drowned size 20 Matt's Midge fished behind an orange scud. This stream had a good stain going and although few fish appeared to notice midges fluttered all around.
This guy was approximately 16" and holds the distinction of big fish of the day! He also took the Matt's Midge. Notice the variation in colors between these two fish. They came from the same spot but vary greatly in color. Air temps hovered around the mid 30's all day. I expected the fishing to shut down as snow melt impacted stream temps but experienced consistent fishing all day.
Stay tuned: I plan on fishing for holdover stocker bows and brownies tomorrow.
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