This Monday dawned bright and early for me. I was meeting my friend Dave at hangman’s bridge for a quick outing at 7am. That means I am out of the house by 6:15 so that I can get some gas and a cup of coffee…you have to be crazy to be a fisherman.
Our plan is to hit the trail at Hangman’s, hightail it to the Creek hole, fish for an hour or so, and hike back out. Dave and I both have work, but I know that the boss is out of the office, so I figure that if I check in around 9:45-10:00, no worries. Anyone that has done this hike knows that it is an easy hike after the first hill, and a great time to catch up so that you do not waste time chatting while actually in the water.
We arrive at the Creek hole and I notice rising fish in the big pool below the hole. Question is – what are they taking. Not being able to identify the bug that is hatching, I take the safe route and tie on a #20 Parachute Adams to try to match what I see. No takers.
Since it is still pretty early in the morning, I decide to sit on the bank and try to figure out what the fish are eating. Dave decides to tie on a Wooly Bugger and go for the quick kill. A good long look, and I notice that all the hatching bugs seem dark and have sparkly wings….could this be a Trico hatch? Only one way to find out. I tie on a #22 Trico and was into a fish on the first drift. I landed an nice 12″ Rainbow, shook the fly dry, and casted to the same lie. Another take, this one from a smaller fish. OK. Seems to be that I have this figured out. That is when I hear this P-L-O-P from the next indentation in the drift below me. I quickly look and see a nice huge Brown. What he smacked, I have no clue, but I quickly peeled off some line and tossed the fly into the water and hoped for a good drift. The fish took the fly, ran downstream, and popped my 6x tippet like it was butter. Nice Fish!
Bad news though – that was my last #22 Trico. In fact, that was my last Trico in the box. Note to self: Load box with more Tricos from the fly tying bench and TIE more Tricos so I do not run out during the hatches still to come this fall.
Not wanting to tie on a small fly that I know will get refused, I revert back to my ever-popular Stimulator. Meanwhile, Dave is still dredging a bugger through any likely holes, with no real luck. I head downstream toward some nice holes and some promising riffle water that does well with terrestials. I get to the first big, deep hole and not expecting anything, I drop the Stimulator into the seam between the current along the back wall and the deep hole. What I see next stops my heart cold. I could not believe the size of the trout that came up to look at my fly. And look is all he did. The fish came up three more times and them just was not interested any more.
I moved downstream a few more holes and threw my bug hard into a bank and was rewarded with a nice 12″ Rainbow. I hit the banks a few more times and then noticed that it was about time to start our hike out. I went in search of Dave, and wonders never cease, but he is NYMPHING. Dave mentioned that he had a pretty large trout on that ran him around the hole for awhile before shaking loose. Tough one Dave!