I stuck a few fish on tricos but couldn't seem to get them in hand. I was using a size 30 black trico pattern and I think the tiny fly was causing problems. I've caught nice fish on these before but it was not working for me on Sunday.
As we fished, we had some park dwellers mosey on down the river. I moved down stream in an attempt to block off more water for Stone and I (a standard trick when dealing with crowds), but this husband and wife team did not get it. They just popped right in between us and started casting. You gotta love trout park etiquette. J and I are about 20 yards apart and they don't even think twice about hopping in there. Anyway, it turned out to be a good thing. They were nailing fish on nymphs. The woman, who was decked out in a green Montauk hoody, stuck a good brown and Johnston netted him for her. Thank god she didn't keep it. Stone's kind gesture turned out to be well received and the woman returned the favor by telling us what fly she was using. She said the fish had been crushing scuds all weekend. She was right.
After our friendly encounter, we headed down below Baptist to get away from the crowd. It was a pretty cool day and we thought there wouldn't be too many canoers. I actually don't think we saw any canoes. I hope this means the season is done.
Stone and I started fishing right at the parking lot. There is a nice long riffle where we spotted several good browns. I struck first with this 17 inch male:
After releasing this guy, I went back to the truck to get out of my waders. I was going to wet wade for the afternoon. When I came back, Stone had slid down stream a bit and I started spotting fish from the higher vantage point on the road while he casted to them. At this point, Stone was throwing a tan scud under an indicator.
After a few casts, stone stuck the big fish I was looking at but, unfortunately, he spit the fly after a short run. There were four other fish in the same riffle that I could see from the road. Stone kept casting. I watched his fly hit the water. Actually, I could see his split shot shine in the sun. The indicator landed slightly upstream of the fly so his scud was actually leading the drift. It was right on line to pass by two browns. When I realized that the drift was in line, my eyes turned to the fish. The first brown turned his head and opened his mouth right at the time Stone's fly was in the kitchen. SET! I yelled before the indicator moved. Stone abided and stuck this good brown:
The teamwork was awesome. Stone had no idea the fish ate. He couldn't see the fish from his angle. The only reason he knew to set was because I had a bird's eye view and watched the take. It was very cool.
The day pretty much continued like that. We stalked the lower section of the river spotting fish, casting to them, and watching them eat. They ate hoppers, caddis, scuds, stone fly nymphs, and PMDs. The lower river is really serene when there are no canoes. In fact, Stone and I had a pretty large doe sneak up on us and cross the river right next to us:
At the end of the day, we found ourselves in a nice PMD hatch and were able to stick several fish off the surface. It was a great day. 12 hours on the water and, aside from the first fish of the day, I think we caught almost all browns.
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