"In moments such as these, heart, mind, body, and spirit become complete
Within the arms of nature my grounded soul can release my wings.''
Unknown
Finding time to get away for full/multiday trips has proven to be rather challenging this year so shorter trips of a few hours have had to suffice and it's been a fun challenge to find decent water close to home. This trip is to the same little Local as last week but I went several miles higher than before, not headwaters high but about halfway up to an area I'd fished several years ago.
A buddy and I went to fish a lake in the area but we got chased off by thunderstorms that weren't supposed to happen, the lightning cracking over our heads convinced us that standing next to a lake with 13' Tenkara rods wouldn't be all that smart so we descended into a canyon where we were sheltered from the storm, deciding that scouting the stream out was better than sitting under a tree.
We'd gone about as far up the canyon as we could, rain slickened cliffs blocked any forward progress and this beautiful little pool was literally under our feet, the stream actually running under the boulders we were standing on and I could see a brook trout swimming inside the cave the stream ran through, he was holding in a little sunlit opening and stood out against the lighter streambed floor. This was one of the most tricky spots I've ever fished, several different channels created crosscurrents that made drifting the fly over his head impossible and the only way to get the fly in there was a bow & arrow cast, the only problem was the window to get the fly in was 6" wide, a shot to low dropped it into the water to soon and any higher the fly hit the boulder. Finally after 20 minutes of trying different things I was able to put the Parachute Adams perfectly over his head and the take was near instantaneous.
Here my buddy is fishing the downstream side of the rocks where I caught the above fish but there was nothing happening so we headed back downstream.
For such a small stream there was a remarkable mayfly hatch, they were everywhere which was good to see. Hard to see it in the picture, but they were there.
This was a pretty typical approach for this stream, kneel in the water and slingshot the fly upstream because the cover was just to thick to cast.
The last fish of the day and also the largest, it came from that little plunge above my right hand, a gentle bow & arrow cast put the fly on top of his nose and the hit was picture perfect.
On the way out we were greeted with a beautiful sunset, it's moments like these that I live for, that my heart aches to see and experience and I'm thankful for every moment I get to spend in the hills, regardless if I'm fishing, hunting, going on a picnic with my family, I cherish them all.
Within the arms of nature my grounded soul can release my wings.''
Unknown
Finding time to get away for full/multiday trips has proven to be rather challenging this year so shorter trips of a few hours have had to suffice and it's been a fun challenge to find decent water close to home. This trip is to the same little Local as last week but I went several miles higher than before, not headwaters high but about halfway up to an area I'd fished several years ago.
A buddy and I went to fish a lake in the area but we got chased off by thunderstorms that weren't supposed to happen, the lightning cracking over our heads convinced us that standing next to a lake with 13' Tenkara rods wouldn't be all that smart so we descended into a canyon where we were sheltered from the storm, deciding that scouting the stream out was better than sitting under a tree.
We'd gone about as far up the canyon as we could, rain slickened cliffs blocked any forward progress and this beautiful little pool was literally under our feet, the stream actually running under the boulders we were standing on and I could see a brook trout swimming inside the cave the stream ran through, he was holding in a little sunlit opening and stood out against the lighter streambed floor. This was one of the most tricky spots I've ever fished, several different channels created crosscurrents that made drifting the fly over his head impossible and the only way to get the fly in there was a bow & arrow cast, the only problem was the window to get the fly in was 6" wide, a shot to low dropped it into the water to soon and any higher the fly hit the boulder. Finally after 20 minutes of trying different things I was able to put the Parachute Adams perfectly over his head and the take was near instantaneous.
Here my buddy is fishing the downstream side of the rocks where I caught the above fish but there was nothing happening so we headed back downstream.
As we headed down I snapped this picture of where we were at, boulder hopping and tight quarters was the name of the game.
For such a small stream there was a remarkable mayfly hatch, they were everywhere which was good to see. Hard to see it in the picture, but they were there.
This was a pretty typical approach for this stream, kneel in the water and slingshot the fly upstream because the cover was just to thick to cast.
The last fish of the day and also the largest, it came from that little plunge above my right hand, a gentle bow & arrow cast put the fly on top of his nose and the hit was picture perfect.
On the way out we were greeted with a beautiful sunset, it's moments like these that I live for, that my heart aches to see and experience and I'm thankful for every moment I get to spend in the hills, regardless if I'm fishing, hunting, going on a picnic with my family, I cherish them all.
No comments:
Post a Comment