Too Long?

With the weather starting to turn more towards winter the need to get out seemed more pressing than usual. I decided to make the long drive to hit a stream that I hadn't been to in a couple of years, hoping to find some decent sized fish. The time of the year has plenty of distractions with hunting, football, and school in full swing which often means that I get to have the water all to myself. It was early enough that I hoped to find some pre-spawn browns and maybe even a good hatch. 

What I didn't expect was to find several other like-minded people on a stream where I usually fish alone. Not a big deal, but I did have to put in a little more effort to try and find some lonely water. I struggled at first, finding only one little Cutthroat that wanted to play, but once I got about a mile away from the parking area fishing picked up considerably, with a nice cutty slamming my wooly bugger on the swing and a few others willing to play. 

I abandoned the nymph rig and started covering water with the streamer. I didn't see any fish on the reds (did someone already fish this water and harass the spawners?) but made sure to watch my step to avoid the gravel beds. Swinging flies isn't really my specialty, but I found a few places that looked prime and worked my fly across and down to get a good swing. When I was working the top side of a particularly nice looking hole, I was shocked that my first few casts didn't get some attention; but I got a good cast close to the cut bank a brown chased my fly almost all the way to my feet before taking. 

As I worked upstream, the bite seemed to completely stop until I started hitting some heavier water that held a couple of beautiful tiger trout that wanted to play. Most days I can't stop fishing, but sometimes you catch a couple of incredible fish that just seem like a perfect way to end the day. As I walked back downstream towards the truck I passed several people fishing the spots that might've tempted me into stopping and ruining my perfect ending, but I'm glad I didn't ruin a good day by staying too long.  

Hope you're as lucky,

Kidder