Encouraged by my Falling Springs outing the week before, I decided to have another go at a tough spring creek. This time it was Big Spring, where I'd fished several times before without success.
The previous times I had fished Big Spring had been in the late fall and winter, so I thought I'd check the place out in a more hospitable season- especially since most of the other options were still blown out from rain.
When I got there I saw something I'd never seen before- evening mist on the water.
It was 94 degrees out.
(a bit after 7pm)
I started fishing downstream from the Ditch with a dry and a dropper, a little bit below the bridge. I got a take in a riffle- the fish quickly came unbuttoned, but at last I had hooked my first fish ever out of Big Spring.
But the mist was unreal. It eventually got so thick where I was fishing that I couldn't even see my leader or the last few feet of my line.
I had gotten there late, and had been fishing less than an hour, with only about an hour of daylight left. So I decided to walk back upstream to try the Ditch, with it's air-clear water and spooky fish.
(from earlier in the day- see if you can find the wake in the water, and the swimming muskrat who made it)
Right off, I hooked a couple...
of grass stalks, on my back cast. There's a swath that's mowed a few feet back from the stream, but the unmown meadow grass on each side is grown up three feet high. If you aren't paying attention, it will make you pay attention.
Anyway, I stuck with it, managed to not dump any casts on that glass-calm water surface surface too terribly...and after about fifteen minutes a fish hit the little peacock & partridge soft hackle I had trailing off of my yellow elk hair caddis dropper fly.
And I caught my first trout out of Big Spring- a nicely colored wild brookie.
Yes!
There was only about fifteen minutes of daylight left, which I managed to use productively by getting my fly tangled around a grass stalk again, twisting my point fly over my leader, etc.
But I had caught a wild brook trout from Big Spring. I'm easily satisfied.
One of these days I'll actually get a few hours to fish the place, instead of always getting there with only about two hours left before dark.
The previous times I had fished Big Spring had been in the late fall and winter, so I thought I'd check the place out in a more hospitable season- especially since most of the other options were still blown out from rain.
When I got there I saw something I'd never seen before- evening mist on the water.
It was 94 degrees out.
(a bit after 7pm)
I started fishing downstream from the Ditch with a dry and a dropper, a little bit below the bridge. I got a take in a riffle- the fish quickly came unbuttoned, but at last I had hooked my first fish ever out of Big Spring.
But the mist was unreal. It eventually got so thick where I was fishing that I couldn't even see my leader or the last few feet of my line.
I had gotten there late, and had been fishing less than an hour, with only about an hour of daylight left. So I decided to walk back upstream to try the Ditch, with it's air-clear water and spooky fish.
(from earlier in the day- see if you can find the wake in the water, and the swimming muskrat who made it)
Right off, I hooked a couple...
of grass stalks, on my back cast. There's a swath that's mowed a few feet back from the stream, but the unmown meadow grass on each side is grown up three feet high. If you aren't paying attention, it will make you pay attention.
Anyway, I stuck with it, managed to not dump any casts on that glass-calm water surface surface too terribly...and after about fifteen minutes a fish hit the little peacock & partridge soft hackle I had trailing off of my yellow elk hair caddis dropper fly.
And I caught my first trout out of Big Spring- a nicely colored wild brookie.
Yes!
There was only about fifteen minutes of daylight left, which I managed to use productively by getting my fly tangled around a grass stalk again, twisting my point fly over my leader, etc.
But I had caught a wild brook trout from Big Spring. I'm easily satisfied.
One of these days I'll actually get a few hours to fish the place, instead of always getting there with only about two hours left before dark.
