Browns Dominate

I'm thinking the brown trout are taking over many of the mountain streams up on Rainy Mountain. I'm not complaining, just an observation from the last three days. Yeah, the four of us on this first of a three day fishing trip caught the expected brown trout on top of the mountain. However, this stream has always been a brown trout stream, unlike some other streams that run throughout this range of mountains. Steve was visiting here from Arizona and brought a very large brown trout into his net. I'm happy to say, all of mine were the usual little guys in the 8 to 10 inch range. I'm good with that and enjoyed the tight lines with them. And, it was good fishing in spite of the stiff winds on this first day...a good start.

On the second day, Steve and I fished a stream that would normally give up rainbow trout. Well, Steve netted four small bows, but the rest of his were all brown trout. A lot of browns. I've never seen so many brown trout in this area through all my years of fishing there. The trout were very active and hard fighters too. So fiesty, some would leave the water and try to shake the dry fly while going vertical. Isn't that a rainbow thing? These were fat, healthy, brown trout. Dang, it was fun fishing this little Rio...nope, we never left this stream. I caught more browns here than in all my years fishing this stream...combined. Yup, this was the best of the three days on this mountain. FUN!

The next day we were back on top of the mountain and caught several trout. Steve and I talked about how we each adjusted to the wind in order to get a dry fly to land on the streams's surface. We managed the wind just fine, but the biggest challenge was working the stream without spooking the trout. They were very vigilant to any movement and we found it absolutely necessary to approach the bank on our knees to avoid being detected...that is if we wanted to catch one. Yeah, we did what was necessary to fool those paranoid wild things and the extra effort paid off with some beauties in the bottom of our nets. Once the wind got so strong and prevented any bugs taking flight, we left the top of the mountain.

Yup, I always enjoy fishing time with Steve during his visits to New Mexico...we've had some good ones!

My Gear: Winston TMF 8'4wt, Winston 7'6" 4wt, Scott GS 7'7" 3wt fly rods; Hardy LRH and Ross Colorado fly reels; Rio LightLine and Winston Energy fly lines; Simms pack; Brodin net.

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