Alnitak
Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2014
- Messages
- 314
Monday was a school holiday so my nephew was free to go fly fishing with me. After seeing the fish at Big Spring a month ago and getting skunked, we both wanted to head back. I also wanted to check out nearby Green Spring Creek. It was very cold, but given that they are spring creeks, the air temperature was not going to be too much of an issue--at least for the fish!
We arrived at Big Spring just before noon. The air temperature at that point was 26F, but the sun was out so it felt nice. We were the only ones on the stream when we arrived, but while we were getting into our waders at the PFBC lot near the Ditch, another two vehicles pulled up. One gentleman was photographing another, and they went to the area near the bridge over the creek. Maybe it was someone from the group here?
We both geared up with midges. My nephew used a dry fly as his indicator, but I'm still a novice so I started with an indicator. Given that, I started fishing the runs below the old hatchery dam. After no luck there, I joined him up on the ditch. After about 30 minutes he caught a tiny little brookie fingerling on a midge and another one not long after that. I fished a pool where the brookies were hitting some BWO's that were hatching out. Not many--just a few. My indicator didn't scare them there as it was similar to the occasional splash from a fish hitting the top. While I got a few looks at my midge, there were no takers.
I notice a large brookie take a run at my midge after I got it snagged in some algae--the algae made it look like a streamer. That led both of us to switch to woolly buggers. By that time we had moved up to near the springs at the top of the ditch. My nephew landed two larger brookies up there. The one was very odd looking--a big head and thin body. With a very dark smoky body and head it almost looked like some sort of deep sea creature; it was about 8" long. Then he landed a gorgeous 12" brookie. If anyone is interested I have a very nice high-resolution image of its side that makes a great background screen for a computer. I got lots of looks on my olive bugger, but no takers. Some came really close, turning away at the very last second. I switched to a black bugger and got the same response.
After about 2.5 hours working the Ditch, we took a break and headed over to Green Spring Creek. As many of you know, it looks pretty bad for most of its length. It really would benefit from some conservation work--get the pastures away from the edge, add some structure--but such is life. We stopped at the bridge on Bullshead road where the FFO stretch starts and decided to fish a little there. The water looked better for nymphing, so we switched out our rigs after a few casts. I went with a tan-olive scud pattern and bead head above it. On the first cast I had a stocked rainbow about 9-10" long. Nearly every cast after that in the same pool had a bite, and I landed a very nice little 6" rainbow that looked like a wild fish. It had more spots on it than I've ever seen on a rainbow trout and was very intense green color. My nephew caught a similar fish. Unfortunately I led the camera in the car. We both had several more rainbows, including two larger ones--I lost one that was about 13-14" long due to a bent hook. We also caught a lot of large stripe-sided shiners. Pretty little fish, but not trout. The biggest ones were in the 8-9" range and quite fat and healthy.
After about an hour hitting four holes on Green Spring we made the mistake of heading back over to Big Spring to check out the lower reaches. At that point the light was getting low and we couldn't see the water well enough to decide to fish it, so we drove back up to the first PFBC lot on the FFO stretch. The big bows were hanging out in the water, but they were not interested in anything thrown their way. Temperatures were dropping fast and our guides were icing up after 2-3 casts. With two cows running wild down the road and our hands freezing, we called it a day.
Jeff
We arrived at Big Spring just before noon. The air temperature at that point was 26F, but the sun was out so it felt nice. We were the only ones on the stream when we arrived, but while we were getting into our waders at the PFBC lot near the Ditch, another two vehicles pulled up. One gentleman was photographing another, and they went to the area near the bridge over the creek. Maybe it was someone from the group here?
We both geared up with midges. My nephew used a dry fly as his indicator, but I'm still a novice so I started with an indicator. Given that, I started fishing the runs below the old hatchery dam. After no luck there, I joined him up on the ditch. After about 30 minutes he caught a tiny little brookie fingerling on a midge and another one not long after that. I fished a pool where the brookies were hitting some BWO's that were hatching out. Not many--just a few. My indicator didn't scare them there as it was similar to the occasional splash from a fish hitting the top. While I got a few looks at my midge, there were no takers.
I notice a large brookie take a run at my midge after I got it snagged in some algae--the algae made it look like a streamer. That led both of us to switch to woolly buggers. By that time we had moved up to near the springs at the top of the ditch. My nephew landed two larger brookies up there. The one was very odd looking--a big head and thin body. With a very dark smoky body and head it almost looked like some sort of deep sea creature; it was about 8" long. Then he landed a gorgeous 12" brookie. If anyone is interested I have a very nice high-resolution image of its side that makes a great background screen for a computer. I got lots of looks on my olive bugger, but no takers. Some came really close, turning away at the very last second. I switched to a black bugger and got the same response.
After about 2.5 hours working the Ditch, we took a break and headed over to Green Spring Creek. As many of you know, it looks pretty bad for most of its length. It really would benefit from some conservation work--get the pastures away from the edge, add some structure--but such is life. We stopped at the bridge on Bullshead road where the FFO stretch starts and decided to fish a little there. The water looked better for nymphing, so we switched out our rigs after a few casts. I went with a tan-olive scud pattern and bead head above it. On the first cast I had a stocked rainbow about 9-10" long. Nearly every cast after that in the same pool had a bite, and I landed a very nice little 6" rainbow that looked like a wild fish. It had more spots on it than I've ever seen on a rainbow trout and was very intense green color. My nephew caught a similar fish. Unfortunately I led the camera in the car. We both had several more rainbows, including two larger ones--I lost one that was about 13-14" long due to a bent hook. We also caught a lot of large stripe-sided shiners. Pretty little fish, but not trout. The biggest ones were in the 8-9" range and quite fat and healthy.
After about an hour hitting four holes on Green Spring we made the mistake of heading back over to Big Spring to check out the lower reaches. At that point the light was getting low and we couldn't see the water well enough to decide to fish it, so we drove back up to the first PFBC lot on the FFO stretch. The big bows were hanging out in the water, but they were not interested in anything thrown their way. Temperatures were dropping fast and our guides were icing up after 2-3 casts. With two cows running wild down the road and our hands freezing, we called it a day.
Jeff
