As the season moved from spring into summer and the flows in the mountains started to level out, the desire for another adventure set in. It was time to make my way up the hill once again to fish those high altitude streams, and this time my wife was up to accompanying me to do some sight seeing and a bit of fishing!
Early in the morning, we set out into the mountains to explore a bit and to fish a creek we hadn’t before. Arriving at the trailhead, we got our gear together, had a morning snack, and set out along the trail in search of trout.
The creek was wide and mostly calm with a few sections of riffles few and far between. Maybe we weren’t there at the right time of year? Regardless, we tied our lines to the lillian and extended out the sections to start casting on the water.
The fishing wasn’t great. On occasion we would see a fish pop out of the water, but there didn’t seem to be much activity happening. Maybe it was in our approach or presentation as the water was very clear and still. Hard to get the fly to anchor in place, let alone get a drift.
We worked our way along the trail, fishing in spots where we could, but as the day started warming up we decided to head back to the car and figure out our next move.
the way back towards town we decided to stop off at the meadow that I’ve written about in "A Morning In the Mountains," and "The Fish That Started It all." A short walk in brought us to a wide pool where a few brook trout were holding. Elizabeth made her first few casts without a fish taking notice of the fly, but after a few she was caught up in a tree and decided she wasn’t going to tie on a new fly.
I crept up to the bank and made my first cast just slightly upstream of the holding brookies. My futsu landed gently in the seam and I saw one turn to look at it just before returning to its spot. I immediately switched to a different fly that always seems to work in this stream and placed another cast in the same spot. No takers on the second cast, but adjusting a bit, I placed my third more in the current and almost immediately hooked into a brook trout! I worked to keep the fish from darting upstream and disturbing the pool, and brought it into the net near the tail out.
After releasing it back into the water I noticed the shadow of another one holding just a bit further upstream, unphased by the scuffle that had just occurred. I slowly crept back into my shaded spot next to the tree and made a similar cast, placing my kebari near the inlet of the flow. A slight drift with a subtle sasoi led to my intended result. Again, I pulled the fish downstream to the tail out where I netted my personal best brook trout! I removed the hook, held it up for a quick picture, and set it back in the water. After that it was time for some we got lunch, and coffee for the wife as well. I collapsed my rod and we walked back to the car, ending our day in the mountains.
