I arrived around 09:00 and parked along 443 where the bridge crosses the creek. Air temps were 23 according to my car and it was definitely cold. Thankfully the winds from yesterday had subsided as I can handle the cold; just not wind and cold.

I worked my way upstream and initially started off tossing a tandem BHPT rig, but eventually switched over to the venerable wooly bugger. It became obvious as I made my way upstream how bad the flooding was this past September and what kind of damage it did. Numerous trees were fallen creating new structure and the bridge was partially washed away that crosses the creek to the house.

The fish weren't cooperating until I made it halfway up the "northern" stretch (above 443 to FIG). I didn't see any fish either and the water clarity was good and I had polarized glasses on. The harvest of fish (because it is DHALO) coupled with the flooding most likely put a dent in the fish population.

I was able to get into and land a brown. Had a few other hookups, but got they tossed the hook. Since I use barbless, I expect these things to happen. I was also able to get into a few streambread/wild rainbows. These were scrappy little guys who inhaled the fly. I wasn't aware that Manada had streambred rainbows, but evidently it does!



Streambred rainbow




Manada brown

Total fishing time was from about 09:30-14:30 with a half dozen or so fish landed, including a feisty fallfish. I like this stream and enjoy fishing it, but now more than ever it needs a caretaker. The floods have dumped plenty of debris along its banks and the roadside pollution is pretty bad as well. It's a neat stream and has so much potential; it's just needs some TLC.




"Bridge pool"








Show some love to the fallfish from the "Bridge pool"!


Water temp checked at 39F and there was no insect activity as can be imagined on a butt cold cold. When I left it was 27 and snowing, so it never did warm up to 40 like the forecasters said! Despite the water temps, the fish that I caught willingly chased down my white #10 wooly bugger.



Just some of the flooding debris

Good report and pics. That's a nice Brown and very interesting about the little Bows. I always appreciate some love for the Fallfish too.

Did the floods at least clean some of the silt out from the stretch above the bridge hole up towards FIG? I remember that stretch seeming to get very silty the last couple of years.

I didn't do a whole lot of wading, so I can't comment on all the areas that used to be silty. I figured the more I stayed out of the water, the warmer I'd stay. I saw alot of silt on the ground alongside the stream, so my guess would be that it did flush some of that stuff away. The floods were beneficial to the stream in that sense. The water must have come a hellin' down the mountain though!

I have caught a few stream bred bows outta manada. They are scrappy little fellows an there colors are awesome!