Heading to Iceland tomorrow, and wanted to give my new-to-me Helios 2 a shot before leaving. Chances are I won’t be fishing again until the end of the month. Anyways, water had a bit of color to it, and was probably average to slightly below average for this time of year. Started out nymphing above the falls, and landed 4-5 stocked bows. I probably stung another 4. Overall, it was pretty crowded and either I sucked or the fish weren’t cooperating. I fished mostly size 16 nymphs, and eventually cycled to a size 18 olive green nymph that took the majority of the fish. Around 2:30 I decided to pack it in and go for a walk downstream a ways just to get away from
Everyone and take in the woods a bit. Between the lower parking lot near the mouth and the cascades, I stumbled across a pretty “fishy” looking pool. It started to rain, so I tried to tie on a black slump buster. I ended up dropping it while trying to tie it on, so I had to resort for a white and gray clouser. I assumed this would suck, because it was a size 1 or 2 with far too much deer hair for a trout to short strike. Either the clouser was the ticket, or the rain turned them on, because I connected with four solid browns in very short order. First was a decently colorful 14”er, that I assumed was the best of the hole. A few casts later a 16-18” football chased the clouser and smashed it about 5’ off my rod tip. It was one of those moments where I was running out of line and was convinced the fish would just give up and turn away. I gave it one last twitch/strip and he hammered it. Awesome and exhilerating fight, really glad I tied 3x on. I realize they are all stocked/holdover fish, but still a lot of fun. Fish looked decent too. This is maybe the first time I’ve had success with a streamer on this stream. I primarily was fishing it just to try out casting the rod.
All in all, really fun ending to the day, but meadow run is too crowded for my tastes. I really need to find another decent trout stream for early season fishing until the local smallmouth heat up.
Everyone and take in the woods a bit. Between the lower parking lot near the mouth and the cascades, I stumbled across a pretty “fishy” looking pool. It started to rain, so I tried to tie on a black slump buster. I ended up dropping it while trying to tie it on, so I had to resort for a white and gray clouser. I assumed this would suck, because it was a size 1 or 2 with far too much deer hair for a trout to short strike. Either the clouser was the ticket, or the rain turned them on, because I connected with four solid browns in very short order. First was a decently colorful 14”er, that I assumed was the best of the hole. A few casts later a 16-18” football chased the clouser and smashed it about 5’ off my rod tip. It was one of those moments where I was running out of line and was convinced the fish would just give up and turn away. I gave it one last twitch/strip and he hammered it. Awesome and exhilerating fight, really glad I tied 3x on. I realize they are all stocked/holdover fish, but still a lot of fun. Fish looked decent too. This is maybe the first time I’ve had success with a streamer on this stream. I primarily was fishing it just to try out casting the rod.
All in all, really fun ending to the day, but meadow run is too crowded for my tastes. I really need to find another decent trout stream for early season fishing until the local smallmouth heat up.
