A Day of Brookie Fishing

[PSUFishMenace]

Last weekend I ended up with almost a whole day free and decided to hit a couple of native brookie streams near my house. I can't remember if it was saturday or Sunday but it was forecast to be extremely hot and sunny- not exactly good weather for trout fishing. I figured with brookies it wouldn't matter that much.

I got to the first stream around 9 a.m. The first pool is one of my favorites, the entire stream flows under a huge overhanging rock and there is always a nice trout hanging in the shade underneath. My fifth cast got my royal wulff right under the rock and it was immediately smacked by a fat 8.5" native brookie. Not a bad way to start the day! A few pools later I caught another 8.5" fish. I was starting to think it would be a great day, but although I was in a very shady forest the fish seemed put off by the sun and I could not buy a strike after 10 a.m. I even switched to a whooly bugger (usually deadly on this stream) and still nothing. I decided to check out a branch of the stream that I have never really explored and did not catch any more trout but got a cool shot of 5 or 6 brookies (including the largest one I've ever seen in the stream- about 10") resting on the bottom of a pool.

Stream 2 was just a few minutes away and I decided to explore it before going back for lunch. This is the stream that chstrcntyfish found a while ago and I had just found for myself a few days before this trip. I left the rod in the car because I didn't want to get caught up fishing for two hours when I already should've gone home for lunch. I walked the stream for about half an hour just looking for trout. There were some really nice pools but they all had sandy bottoms and nothing but small chubs. I did see a few small trout darting around in some small rocky pockets and shooting up through the riffles. The population did not seem worth fishing where I was but there is still a large portion of this stream that I have not explored.

After doing some yardwork for a few hours I made it to stream 3 around 4 o'clock. It was still really hot (about 90) when I left my house but down in this shady valley it was already much cooler. As I was approaching the stream I heard a big splash and out of the corner of my eye caught sight of a big trout in the pool below me. The trout looked at least 11" and was cruising around eating bugs in the slack water of a pool. I tried to get closer and make a cast what the heck I can't scroll down to see what I'm typing

 

[PSUFishMenace]

So I tried to sneak up and make a cast but the big guy saw me and flinched, didn't get spooked enough to take off into the undercut but I knew I wasn't gonna catch it then. I went off downstream and planned to hit the pool again on my way back up. While downstream I caught two really nice natives, a 9" in a small pool where a logjam used to be and an 8" below a bridge crossing. I headed back upstream and approaching the big guy's pool from below I was able to bounce my fly off the undercut into the water right on top of the fish. It rose and looked but didn't take. I couldn't get any more looks from that fish and continued upstream. I spooked a lot of nice fish and lost one that was surely over 9". Before I left I hit that pool with the big one one last time. I managed to take the smaller trout in the pool before I left. That one was almost 9".

I didn't catch many trout this day, but the ones I did were extremely nice fish for the tiny creeks they came from. I caught all fish on a size 12 royal wulff and it was nice to catch trout with something other than a bugger. After fishing stocked streams most of the time this year it was refreshing to fish these beautiful healthy streams so close to home. This streams are all within about 10 miles of each other and for me it's great to have these little gems so close to home.

 

[Maurice]

very nice Rookie......

 

[NoMoreCornChuckin]

Beautiful fish, Beautiful Stream!

 

[Alpabuck]

Nice fish!

 

[tracker12]

Nice fish but you forgot to post the gps Coordinates

 

[Atlas]

Nice fish! Looks like a great day!

 

[Acristickid]

That a way to beat the heat.

 

[PSUFishMenace]

tracker12 wrote:
Nice fish but you forgot to post the gps Coordinates

Oops my bad, here you go:

402309545737 708210478.

LOL JK pretty sure I made those up and they don't even make sense. I just felt like typing numbers.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I haven't gotten out nearly as much as last year but when I have I've done pretty well. I think I've already passed last year's fly rod trout total. Progress!

 

[salmo]

Nice report and even better pictures. Did you submit the video to Youtube?

 

[PSUFishMenace]

Can you post quicktime videos to youtube? I've never tried to put anything on youtube but that's the file format of all of my videos.

 

[mute]

Yes, you can,

 

[PSUFishMenace]

Thanks Mute, awesome! I'm not on the computer with my videos right now, I'll try to do that either later tonight or tomorrow. I'll post the link if I do.

 

[PSUFishMenace]

Ok I uploaded it, oddly though when I searched for it it wouldn't show up but this should work

native brookie big hit- youtube

 

[troutwilleatflies]

I take it from the way you handled that fish you kept it for the frying pan?If not it'll need need alot of luck to survive.

 

[JackM]

troutwilleatflies wrote:
I take it from the way you handled that fish you kept it for the frying pan?If not it'll need need alot of luck to survive.

This comment sorta smacks of jealousy. The fish aren't that enviable.

 

[albatross]

PSU, nice video, thanks for sharing. Pay no attention to the zealot throwing cold water on your parade, I think that fish will be just fine.

 

[ryguyfi]

troutwilleatflies wrote:
I take it from the way you handled that fish you kept it for the frying pan?If not it'll need need alot of luck to survive.

What do you think that fish is made of glass? It'll be just fine. We take pride in this board and don't put up comments like that unless it is very blatant. I think that fish is doing just find and can probably be caught again today.

Good fish PSU. I wish I had streams like that within 15 minutes of my house. I have to travel over an hour to even come close to one. Enjoy it and keep posting the events of your trips, pictures and videos. We're all enjoying seeing you succeed!

 

[Lance]

Very cool, I really enjoyed the post/pics!

 

[PSUFishMenace]

I take it from the way you handled that fish you kept it for the frying pan?If not it'll need need alot of luck to survive.

It's great that you are concerned about handling fish properly but that fish was absolutely fine.