Memorial Weekend on a Few Creeks

The long Memorial day weekend was kicked off for me on Friday at noon, as I was dispatched
on a mission to a handful of cemeteries to adorn gravesites of fallen 29^th Infantry Division soldiers with the flag of remembrance by the division association.  On my assignment was not only some of the soldiers who perished during the D-day Invasion, but also WWI in France. 

A poignant reminder of the purpose of the long holiday weekend under my belt, I was nearby a mountain trout stream that had some leftover stocked fish I hoped to encounter.  I had not fished this particular stream in about a decade, but I soon found a couple deep holes under and upstream of a bridge and pull-off. 

 

The water condition was still higher than normal flow with a little murkiness / off-color.  I was fishing a heavier 3.0 bead headed #14 soft hackle with a orange hotspot collar along  with a size #16 and much lighter bead on the dropper tag with a more subdued waltz worm type pattern I tied.  The first take I was able to hook solidly was a decent sized brownie that gave me a bit of a fight with some troublesome overhead sycamore branches.  The slight turbidity allowed me use of heavier 4x tippet which helped and I soon had the fish in the net.  He was a chunky fat brown around 15 inches and I was off to a great start.

Shortly after, I was swinging downstream and I hit what felt like a take but came away with both of my flies missing.  I was not sure if it was a fish that I hot too hard or a snag.  I quickly rerigged and stepped a little more upstream when I hooked into another decent brown and had him in the net.

This guy was even more of a football and similarly took the size 14 soft hackle on the point.

I ended that hole with another good-sized rainbow that got off.  I am still getting used to the soft tip of this 3wt rod along with what a take looks like on my indicator, so the poor hook was likely my issue.  At least I know there are more in there to catch at another time.

 

Making my way upstream I was hitting each decent hole in the fast rapids and had on a smaller rainbow that I bet many had passed over without trying to cast to.  I added him to my stringer and headed for another upstream deep hole.  Already a super successful day.

This deep hole looked really good and I started casting upstream working into the best areas.  About the third drift and in the circulating counter current I gave the rod tip a slight twitch before the next cast and a small rainbow was hooked.

I decided to release this little guy due to his size and 3 fish already in the creel.

Fishing up into the deeper part I was greeted with another brown trout that I added to the stringer.  I was surprised at the number of “leftovers” from the put and take area I was coaxing into the net with nymphs.  I had on another decent rainbow but lost him due to a poor hook set again.  The short fight was exciting nonetheless. 

I worked upstream after a few hours, but there were no additional deep holes though I did get a small take in a shallow riffle area that I missed.  Dropping back down I hooked one final brown for my limit, as well as another rainbow that was released. 

Another limit of trout for the larder.

Back at the truck I realized somewhere I had lost the sole of my homemade wading shoe.  I guess the glue let go on these old work boots. Oh well.

Back at home I cleaned the fish and fried up two in the cast iron for a late supper.

Stomach content analysis revealed two hellgrammites, a green caterpillar, a bee, and various smaller nymphs.  One larger brown was stuffed with yellow needles of some kind.  Like short pine needles.

 

The following day I had a noon parade at Sharpsburg, so I decided to check on nearby Antietam creek.  The river was still very turbid and high.  After a few casts I decided to try a smaller nearby mountain stream on the way home.

This stream had also not been stocked in some time, and I had no action until I got up to a very deep popular hole.  I wasn’t having any luck initially until I let my fly swing down and gave the soft hackle a little jiggle at the end of a drift in the slack water.  I was greeted by a small rainbow. 

A little later I had another god sized rainbow after a bit of work, but he again pulled loose from my apparent pool hooking job.  There were a few more fish in there but they were not biting.  I saw a few rises and one small rainbow cleared the water by a few inches.  I tried a CDC dry fly with a small dropper.  It was a good learning curve as this was my first attempt at fishing the dry dropper.  I was having a bit of trouble casting very far, but the mayfly pattern I tied floated well, despite the bead headed nymph below.  I had no takers with the exception of several small chubs.  Apparently, the hatch was smaller midges and not the larger mayflies.  

After a while I moved on and fished that stream for another 3 hours without any further action and headed home with my one fish.

Wrapping up a good fishing weekend I have caught 53 trout this season on the flyrod and really enjoying the success.  The spinning gear collects dust.

I tied up a few more nymphs on Saturday evening.