Sunday, February 11, 2018

Trip Report: Cold, Windy, Trouty

Today I chose to fish a spot that required a decent hike. I arrived streamside around 930am. Air temps started around 10 and rose until I left the water to 18. The wind picked up around 11am which caused guides to ice up frequently. At least it was sunny!
This spot fishes really well in spring, summer, and fall but I haven't had the greatest luck in winter. Today was no different, but I did catch some fish! I started out fishing an orange scud but after missing a few subtle takes I switched to the pink squirrel of prey.
 Fish took nymphs fished bounced along the bottom. I did spot one fish surface today and noticed a few midges fluttering about. I also spotted one really nice trout in the 16-18 inch range from a high bank but upon making my way to a fishable position he spooked. The stream was cold, low, and clear which added to the challenge.
Not huge but this was my big fish of the day, probably 13 or 14 inches long. He put a great bend in the 7' 9" three weight! Eventually I tied into a few brookies as well.
 They both took a gray zebra midge bounced along the bottom. I spent more time hiking than fishing and after 5 hours of freezing my ass off it was time to head home. It was nice to get out and find a little success on the stream on such a sunny, cold, windy day.
All of next week looks great for fishing. Shelf ice should be melting away on most streams over the next week so getting out before stream temps drop (from runoff and ice melt) will be crucial for success.

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