A New Stream

With stream flows getting skinny in this drainage, Neal and I decided we better fish on the top of the mountain while there is still water flowing. Yeah, we're not betting on monsoons keeping the flows fishable. And as a result, we're not taking a chance on missing an opportunity to float a fly on this stream before summer heat arrives. As it turned out, the only drawback was the wind. A chilly wind at that.

We rolled over some narrow forestry roads and floated a fly on two different creeks. The second creek we fished was a surprise discovery after exploring a single lane rocky road up to over 8500 feet. Yup, first time we've been to this area, and we find a meandering creek flowing swiftly down the mountain side. One of the tightest brush-filled creeks I've fished. No trout were caught in this creek, but we gave it a lot of time to explore the conditions. Lots of trout, spooky as can be, with some surprisingly, large, healthy trout for a tiny creek like this one.

I have to say, if we knew we would be fishing this creek, there would be different tackle in the truck. Add to that, I forgot my fly reel and had to borrow one of Neal's extra reels. LOL! I had a 6'6" 2wt fly rod and the reel I borrowed had a 5wt fly line. You know what? My Winston WT 2wt worked quite nicely with that 5wt line. I was pleasantly surprised. Of course, with these two tight narrow creeks we fished, I'm lucky to get two feet of line (plus a leader) out of the tip. Where I could get a twenty plus cast, the rod performed notably well with it being over lined by three line weights. Surprising, huh.

We didn't catch a bucket load of fish, but we did net a few. It was an enjoyable day on top of the mountain, and I'm excited to go through a learning curve with the new creek we discovered. Fish story. I had two trout slide out, side by side, from the undercut of the bank where I was standing. they were fat, and 12" and 15" in size to change hiding places from me. This is a three foot wide stream! True story.

My first thought with these two trout swimming as a pair, the way they did...seemed to look in love with each other. A little later a Tacoma truck pulled up to me with the window rolled down as I was walking back to my truck. Two very nice native gentlemen. One about my age. They pulled over to me to talk, but I could hardly get any words out of them. I understand the culture. I did get out of one them that this tiny creek holds native cutthroats and brookies. I thought they might be messing with me, but the way that pair of trout looked...hmmm.