Memorial Day Reflections

I always have mixed feelings about Memorial Day.  On the one hand, NJ wild trout fishing is usually close to peak (I think the early stone fly hatch in mid April is the only better time). On the other hand, you know that hot weather and diminished fishing is coming soon.  With the weather forecast for the high 80s tomorrow, and 90 degrees on Monday, I was anxious to get out today. 

I headed for T creek, my closest brook trout stream, leaving earlyish so I could be home for a real estate appointment at 3 PM.

Arriving at the stream a little before 11 AM, I tied on my "default" #16 adams, walked down to the stream, and cast into the first nice pocket I saw.  It was bowl-shaped, supported just enough flow to create some turbulence, and was mid-calf at the deepest point.  On my third cast, a truly lovely fish shot up to take my fly.  It was a fat, 11" brookie, one of the nicest fish you'll find on this stream.  Unfortunately, my camera didn't work (I hadn't seated the battery properly), so I didn't get a shot.  The picture below, taken after I'd sorted out the battery, is of a smaller fish, landed a few minutes later, a good inch or two shorter than the first one.

So while the first fish was perhaps the fish of the day (possibly equaled by a fish landed a couple of hours later), today was one of those magical NJ wild trout days when you're constantly catching fish.  Find the right structure (the very first was the archetype), cover it with a nice drift, and you were almost certainly going to raise a fish.  I don't remember a single refusal, except ones caused by drag in my presentation (and few of those).   One anxious 7" brookie swam off its line by about 3 feet to take my fly, slowly drifting in a foam line.

The largest fish turned out to be holding in the mid-sized pockets, like the first structure I had fished.  The bigger pockets would also hold fish - sometime five or six - but the biggest fish seemed to prefer a mid sized pocket all to themselves.  As it was, I must have landed 25 to 30 fish within 2 hours.  10 from two big pockets (roughly 5 each, mostly small), and then another 15 or 20 in 1's and 2's from other structures.

I stopped around 1, to head back for my appointment.  It had been enough.