Always Learning

You know, it's easy to get in a rut and fish the same areas all of the time. Especially if you have home waters nearby. I know where the fishing tends to be good on each stream up on Rainy Mountain, as learned through trial and error through the years. But, sometimes I get lucky and find a new section of stream that holds nice trout.

Last year I was driving up a stream side road and I kept finding vehicles parked in the usual pullouts with fishing access. I almost gave up when I found a little pullout that I always discounted as not being a place I could actually fish. The thick canopy surrounding the stream caused me to not consider this spot. From the road it looked like a bushwhacker's nightmare. But this day, there wasn't many options if I wanted to drift a fly and fool some trout. So, what the heck.

I parked in the slim pullout and found a faint trail going into foliage. The stream sounded nice as I worked my way toward it, but I couldn't see the running water. I found to my surprise as I worked my way down the main trail there were several trails breaking off from my path as I was nearing the water. There were quite a number of them winding through the willows. I didn't know if they were game trails or fisherman that created them, but it was fascinating. Yup, almost all of those trails led to the stream. And, I discovered there was more space for casting than I thought there would be when I was looking from the road's view into here.

I've never been in this section in all the time I've been fishing up on Rainy Mountain and it was much fun to be in a new place...mostly because I was catching pretty little wild brown trout. I thought there would be stocked rainbows in here considering the location. But no, there were brown trout. I thought to myself that I was lucky there were fisherman in those usual places or I wouldn't have discovered this new spot with nice runs and pockets holding a good population of wild browns. I should change it up more often it seems.

After a nice afternoon of fishing, I departed for home, and was driving down the mountain thinking about why I had never pulled into that little pullout. For years I have noticed it and drove right on by in route to my planned destination. Yup, I was kind of kicking myself for not being more curious and missing out on fishing a nice little section of stream.