Feast or Famine

Wednesday, Sept. 29th: FEAST

I've had my eye on the gauge of a favorite stream of mine. With the rains last week the water was on the rise, and the weather was cooling off. I decided to make a day of it. Started fishing around 10. I fished the usual fishy places with no action. I missed the first bite, but it was a little feller. My fly was much bigger than his mouth... Came to another usually fishy place and missed two bites right on a row. I was getting pretty bummed and frustrated. I had my video camera with me, hoping to get some footage of a big brown being landed. I wasn't going to set my camera up until I caught a fish. Man do I wish I'd had it rolling at the very next spot.....This beast came out to play with the Terresticator


It was like a switch had been flipped!!! Just upstream I nailed this guy...



I caught a couple dinks, then had this guy nail the Terresticator. What a crazy looking fly to catch a trout on!



Sunday, Oct. 3rd: FAMINE

With the recent success on my "home waters", all I could think about was getting back on it. The only thing I could think about was getting that pig brown on video. This was not to be. I woke up early and got to fishing a little after 8. It was a chilly 46 degrees. I flogged the water to no avail. It was definitely one of the most frustrating days of fishing I've had in a while. I nymphed, threw streamers, dry flies, nothing was getting any attention.


I don't know if I ever posted my run-in with a gold panner back in the Spring, but I ran into the guy again Sunday. We both recognized each other and got to talking as I passed him fishing up. He said he hadn't seen a single fish come by, and he usually did when someone was fishing downstream of him. When he said that, I didn't feel so bad. Something was up with these fish. Wading back downstream to the trail, I passed the guy again. This time we got to talking about his gold panning. He told me about how he and two friends had gone a couple weekends back and came home with a little over an ounce between them. They split $1300 for the weekend. I told him I had the wrong hobby. We laughed and he showed me what he had found in the couple hours he was there. Not much, but gold none the less! I asked if I could take a picture and he obliged. My "gold mine" is literally that, a gold mine!




WHEW!!! Got this guy right upstream of the panner in the last 45 mins I fished. I caught fish when I was around him last time... I don't care where it was, it broke my skunk for the day right as I was losing hope! And a nice fish to boot!


Regardless of the fishing, it was a great day on the water. There were alot of bugs out. Saw some brown caddis, BWOs, a big black mayfly (don't know what, and couldn't get a pic), and all kinds of midges. I really think that with the water rising and the weather cooling down, these big brownies are spawning.

My mission is to film a big brown being landed.

Peace