There are days, as any fly fisherman can attest to, where everything just goes wrong. You forget your wading belt, you take a spill on the way to the stream, you miss a 20+ brown that couldn’t have given you a better opportunity, whatever. Then there are those days where everything goes right. Well, this was one of those days where everything goes right.
My buddy Ryan hits me up early in the week saying he has off work on Friday and is trying to take a little trip to his old stomping grounds…a freestoner that I had always wanted to fish. My finals were done, I took off Friday and we packed the car at 4am. Running on 2 hours of sleep we rolled into the lot overlooking a stunning trout stream that looked fishy as hell. Everyone has a type of water they enjoy fishing, and this was mine to a T; fast, deep, dark green pocket water in the middle of nowhere. At this point I’m jonesin'. It’s been over a month since I’ve been trout fishing (thanks to the Musky) and I’m ready to catch some fish. I start chuckin’ some streamers and Ryan is nymphing. We move some nice fish, land a dink, and put down a healthy amount of whiskey. After lunch, it gets real cold and everything seems to shut down. We pack it in around 3 and head to camp to setup the hammies, cook up some deer burgers and drink more whiskey.
With 13 hours of sleep now, coffee, chipped beef, and some more beer, we’re ready to rock. This time we’re both chuckin’ streamers; 3-4” sculpins with a medium sized helmet. This seemed to do the trick because they got down quick and made some noise when they hit the water. Right off the bat I stick a nice brookie, only to lose it at my feet. This thing was on fire! Easily the coolest brookie I’ve ever seen…so that one hurt. From here on out, we worked upstream on either side of the river just hammering dozens of trout; one after another, from every nook and cranny. Nothing huge, but plenty of 14-16” fish with tons of aggression. It was a streamer fisherman's dream.
Here’s why it was one of those days where everything went right… The streamer I was fishing was the only olive sculpin with a helmet that I had. THREE times it snapped off in the river and I managed to dig my arm around in the freezing water and find it. The first two times were from structure, but the coolest one was a 16+ brown that ate right in front of me and snapped me off. I watched this fish shake my fly off his face, then saw the fly sink down to the bottom of a 3’ hole. Sure enough, I inch my way over, dig around, and manage to find my streamer. I still can’t believe I watched that whole thing go down. Talk about another reason to fish barbless.
Overall, it was an awesome trip and I can’t wait to go back! If it’s even half the action we had on Saturday, I will be more than happy. Here’s a little video I put together from the two days. Enjoy
Streamer Dreamin from Keystone Fly Fishing on Vimeo.
Streamer Dreamin from Keystone Fly Fishing on Vimeo.
Ty
