Sometimes, you just get in the mood for a certain style of fishing or a certain species. Well, I wanted to do some more small stream trout fishing, and since my summer vacation is coming to a close, I made the trek to a stream I was hoping would fish well. I assumed it would, and I was right. The flows were perfect. The springs, of which this stream has many, were pumping lots of cold, clean water into the stream, and the stream temp was 62. The fish were willing. On my very first cast, I cast a green weenie under a chartreuse x-small Oros, and a fish immediately smacked the Oros. I set the hook out of instinct, and foul hooked that fish on my nymph and brought it to hand. Since a fish went after an Oros, I put on an orange/yellow Grumpy Frumpy, a funny looking attractor bug I tied up for my CO trip a few years ago. What an evening! So many fish ate my dry, and while I didn't always land them all due to small fish, small stream, and barbless hooks, it was a perfect evening because a fish would pretty much eat the fly in every likely cast or at least swirl underneath it. Getting activity and responses from fish like that keeps me entertained, and I could fish all day. I love all types of fishing, but there is nothing I love more than small stream trout fishing. It feels like the stream is all yours. You're isolated. It's intimate. When it's on and the fish are willing, there is almost nothing I'd rather be doing.
Just as an aside: I sometimes think about people like Vince Marinaro, Charlie Fox, and Joe Humphreys while I'm out there fishing. Some of these streams mean so much to me, and they are top-notch trout creeks. They are the type of streams that I feel could compete with small wild trout streams anywhere in the country. I feel like these places are my own personal paradise, and they've soothed my soul so many times, but at the same time, I can slowly feel the squeeze of development and "progress" creeping in, and just like the Spring Creek watershed or the CV limestoners are being urbanized and are a shimmer of their former-selves, I can see that happening to these places, too, and God, that makes me depressed!
Just as an aside: I sometimes think about people like Vince Marinaro, Charlie Fox, and Joe Humphreys while I'm out there fishing. Some of these streams mean so much to me, and they are top-notch trout creeks. They are the type of streams that I feel could compete with small wild trout streams anywhere in the country. I feel like these places are my own personal paradise, and they've soothed my soul so many times, but at the same time, I can slowly feel the squeeze of development and "progress" creeping in, and just like the Spring Creek watershed or the CV limestoners are being urbanized and are a shimmer of their former-selves, I can see that happening to these places, too, and God, that makes me depressed!
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