salvelinusfontinalis
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2006
- Messages
- 7,267
Big Spring Creek as been the center of a lot of talk on this site in past months. "Restoration" of spawning habitat, talk on a few threads on PAFF, "a major poaching event", "increased pressure" and "angry locals". It has been since Christmas when I last fished Big Spring. I had to see how it was doing. We arrived at the stream around 2 pm and fished till about 4:20pm.
The "Restoration Area" of the stream IMO is looking better and better. In years past, I never felt the was enough holding water, cover and gravel in Big Spring, I always thought in time, it would suffer. There are many fish using the new habitat now, and while these fish were always in the stream, the are now actively feeding and feeling a bit more comfortable. I want you to picture a stream less than knee deep with no cover, crystal clear water and silted. This was the old Big Spring. Now it has pocket water, riffles, cover and freshly clean gravel. Did this change the complexity of fishing the stream, how to approach it and how the fish react? Yes. It is clear the stream is different. It is also too early to tell if Rainbows will favor the new restoration over Brookies but I believe the Rainbows will take this stream over in time. Is this a bad thing? I dunno and I dunno if we could stop it without poisoning the stream anyways. We don't want to do that. What I did observe was many fish using the new habitat and feeding fairly freely. In fact, pods and pods of small (4-12 inch) bows seemed abundant. Personally, I like the new restoration as it is cleaning the gravel. I would like to see similar work further downstream. I'm sure the debate will rage on for years to come over this stream and opinions may change over time.
As for the increased pressure and poaching, I'm sure this did happen. I have much respect of all voices involved in the matter, but here is what I witnessed today:
1)Every parking lot empty except for one guy sleeping in his car.
2)Multiple large fish and many small fish.
So you tell me? This is a Saturday afternoon and while Hurricane Irene lingers in the background, it only rained for a few minutes and stopped. It was overcast out and even coupled with a light rain, means perfect conditions.
Eric threw scuds and beetles.
I threw beetles, scuds, crickets, caddis, ants and.........
We caught a bunch of fish almost all of them small.
Small bow
Signs
Bow
Bow2
An interesting story about this last pic. Eric was downstream of me and I was throwing an Elk Hair Beetle into a riffle and had a small fish take. I pulled up and promptly got the tip of my 9' rod caught in a vine above me. I pulled the little fish in and released him, snapped my line and attached to the end of my rod was a pink san juan worm and a cressbug (Squaretail????;-)) . Even looked like a Dan type cressbug I saw before. Anyways I sat on a big log of wood and started tying a new blood knot and tippet. Eric moved up into my hole and was fishing and spooked a large bow under a log. We both saw the fish but Eric was now upstream of me and the fish never came out the other side of the log. I joked, "Almost makes you want to throw a large sculpin." Eric moved upstream and I think the fish saw him move on. I never stood up and was downstream so the fish had not seen me yet. After tying on new tippet I thought, "What the heck, you never know. The fish is spooked and probably wont bite, Ill just tie back on a beetle after I fail." Tossed the big heavy size 4 Sculpin to the other side of the stream. I let it drift to the bottom and lightly drug it on the bottom to the log. When it got about 12 inches away, the fish slowly came out and inhaled it. A short fight later.........
This is the biggest bow Ive landed in Big Spring but not the largest fish Ive seen or landed. I was shaking so bad with buck fever and what just happened, I'm surprised the pic came out. It is amazing how this sport can still do that to me.
At the ditch it was the usual, hard spooky fish and none landed. Had a few takes but not a hook up. We left again with smiles on our faces. Eric never caught so many fish in one day on these streams. Glad you had fun bro!
Good Luck Guys!
The "Restoration Area" of the stream IMO is looking better and better. In years past, I never felt the was enough holding water, cover and gravel in Big Spring, I always thought in time, it would suffer. There are many fish using the new habitat now, and while these fish were always in the stream, the are now actively feeding and feeling a bit more comfortable. I want you to picture a stream less than knee deep with no cover, crystal clear water and silted. This was the old Big Spring. Now it has pocket water, riffles, cover and freshly clean gravel. Did this change the complexity of fishing the stream, how to approach it and how the fish react? Yes. It is clear the stream is different. It is also too early to tell if Rainbows will favor the new restoration over Brookies but I believe the Rainbows will take this stream over in time. Is this a bad thing? I dunno and I dunno if we could stop it without poisoning the stream anyways. We don't want to do that. What I did observe was many fish using the new habitat and feeding fairly freely. In fact, pods and pods of small (4-12 inch) bows seemed abundant. Personally, I like the new restoration as it is cleaning the gravel. I would like to see similar work further downstream. I'm sure the debate will rage on for years to come over this stream and opinions may change over time.
As for the increased pressure and poaching, I'm sure this did happen. I have much respect of all voices involved in the matter, but here is what I witnessed today:
1)Every parking lot empty except for one guy sleeping in his car.
2)Multiple large fish and many small fish.
So you tell me? This is a Saturday afternoon and while Hurricane Irene lingers in the background, it only rained for a few minutes and stopped. It was overcast out and even coupled with a light rain, means perfect conditions.
Eric threw scuds and beetles.
I threw beetles, scuds, crickets, caddis, ants and.........
We caught a bunch of fish almost all of them small.
Small bow
Signs
Bow
Bow2
An interesting story about this last pic. Eric was downstream of me and I was throwing an Elk Hair Beetle into a riffle and had a small fish take. I pulled up and promptly got the tip of my 9' rod caught in a vine above me. I pulled the little fish in and released him, snapped my line and attached to the end of my rod was a pink san juan worm and a cressbug (Squaretail????;-)) . Even looked like a Dan type cressbug I saw before. Anyways I sat on a big log of wood and started tying a new blood knot and tippet. Eric moved up into my hole and was fishing and spooked a large bow under a log. We both saw the fish but Eric was now upstream of me and the fish never came out the other side of the log. I joked, "Almost makes you want to throw a large sculpin." Eric moved upstream and I think the fish saw him move on. I never stood up and was downstream so the fish had not seen me yet. After tying on new tippet I thought, "What the heck, you never know. The fish is spooked and probably wont bite, Ill just tie back on a beetle after I fail." Tossed the big heavy size 4 Sculpin to the other side of the stream. I let it drift to the bottom and lightly drug it on the bottom to the log. When it got about 12 inches away, the fish slowly came out and inhaled it. A short fight later.........
This is the biggest bow Ive landed in Big Spring but not the largest fish Ive seen or landed. I was shaking so bad with buck fever and what just happened, I'm surprised the pic came out. It is amazing how this sport can still do that to me.
At the ditch it was the usual, hard spooky fish and none landed. Had a few takes but not a hook up. We left again with smiles on our faces. Eric never caught so many fish in one day on these streams. Glad you had fun bro!
Good Luck Guys!
