East Hickory Creek, Forest Co, 4-24-23

[Prospector]

Time Fished: 945am - 1115am
Weather Conditions: 41 degrees, Cloudy, Rain, Hail
Water Conditions: 39 degrees, Clear, lower flow than normal
Insects: None

I knew conditions were very poor but I had a little time to kill so no better way to do that than to go fishing. I started at a hole I had never fished and it looked promising. I started with a small woolly bugger and later switched to streamer. During my second pass of the hole, a hailstorm cut loose. I don’t ever recall being pelted with hail while fly fishing. Luckily it only lasted 5-7 minutes. After my second pass was unsuccessful, I relocated.

The hole I wanted to fish was occupied by another flyfisher but there were 2 other good holes. Each of those 2 holes had fisherman of the “wing and web foot variety”. One hole had a single male common merganser and the second hole had 3 male common mergansers. I had no idea how long they had been patrolling the water but I imagine their presence caused any trout to seek refuge under the bank. I worked both holes and locations nearby and I had no strikes. I’m still glad I went despite the deck being stacked against me. East Hickory tends to be a tough cookie in April.

 

[JimNovo]

You paid your dues…. The trout gods will reward you soon.

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

Sounds like a tough day. May it have been graupel and not hail?

 

[Prospector]

Sounds like a tough day. May it have been graupel and not hail?

I think you are correct after looking at graupel photos. I never heard of it. I thought rain, snow and hail were the only things that fell from the sky.

 

[Prospector]

This is what I saw when I snuck up over the bank. The third one was out of the picture to the left.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Birds can be most annoying. I'm half tempted to toss rocks at the Canadian geese that just so happen to occupy my favorite holes. I think birds KNOW exactly where you want to fish and are more than happy to ruin the hole for you. I've had instances where I'd work upstream and geese would continuously high hole me up the creek.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Your experience reminds me a lot of my Erie expeditions, just replace the birds with other anglers.

 

[jifigz]

Birds can be most annoying. I'm half tempted to toss rocks at the Canadian geese that just so happen to occupy my favorite holes. I think birds KNOW exactly where you want to fish and are more than happy to ruin the hole for you. I've had instances where I'd work upstream and geese would continuously high hole me up the creek.

I don't think spooking geese and ducks further upstream as you fish bothers the trout. I have no problems catching fish on small streams when a couple of mallards keep doing this to me.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I disagree, more so in sunlight and with these low flows, ESPECIALLY if the bird lands in one's desired fishing hole and starts playing about. Fish are wary (well, some are, not the ones I catch!) and increased bird activity can que them in to your presence. Though birds do paddle about in most pools so I guess the fish get used to it overtime, though again, given the large volume of fish-hunting birds (a fish's number one predator) I suspect a fish wouldn't be too happy with a large bird-like shadow over its head, even if the bird didn't eat fish.

To provide an example. I fished a particular creek with a friend where I was teaching him how to indicator fish. We fished a hole and killed it, pulled out 6 trout between the two of us, along with my favorite, a few large 12 inch fallfish! I know you like those too. We came back and fished the hole 3 days later. When we got to the hole we had two geese in front of us that flipped out and went up to the hole we were about to fish. We had to wait until the geese cleared the hole, which mama goose was taken her jolly good time to do, before we fished. I doubt we even pulled a trout out and then hypothetically we discussed bombarding the geese with enough rocks to bury them but obviously didn't go through with it as that is illegal. I will say I have had instances in this particular hole where I wouldn't do so well going back to fish it later in the week so I can't say for sure it was the geese that dunnit so to speak, but I could see how it was and personally believe that as I am confident in my angling abilities, at least with this stocked fish.

So... I can't say 100% that birds can ruin fishing by their mere presence, but it is a good theory.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Also, the body language of said bird is important too. With geese, there's a big difference in them quietly paddling about verses crash landing into the water and strutting about. Fish understand that when these geese get riled up an unwanted visitor is about and that may turn off the bite. I still think Canadian geese go to the creeks for no other purpose than to f*** with anglers. It's kind of funny. I swear they even look back once they high-hole you to let you know that they are messing with you for no other reason than because they can. My urge to toss a rock has never been stronger!

I swear geese are sentient, give them opposable thumbs and they'd be the most advanced species on the planet!

 

[CRB]

"I swear geese are sentient, give them opposable thumbs and they'd be the most advanced species on the planet!"

Agree had a bunch of goslings (over 30) wander in a garage what a fiasco chase them out. Feet were clapping like and end of a play. The parents out side were chasing me for some time afterwards.