Mother's Day

My wife was committed all day (church, then work), so we celebrated Saturday... flowers and husband-cooked dinner with a nice bottle of wine.  So Sunday, Mother's Day, I was free to fish.

Arrived at the "local" brook trout stream around 12:30.  The weather certainly didn't seem auspicious.  Barely 50 degrees, and windy.

Hoped that the fish would still rise to a dry fly.  Tied on the same #18 adams parachute I'd had success with a couple of weeks earlier.

The first structure was a nice deep pool... large for this stream.  No joy.  Decided to try one more structure before abandoning hope for the adams.

Next structure was not so deep... mid-calf instead of over-the-knee.  And a nice fish took my fly on the second drift. 

This established the pattern for the next two hours.  It was challenging in that the structure and presentation had to be just right:  large enough, but not too shallow, not too deep, with a slow current.  You needed pretty much a perfect, dead drift through the feeding lane.  Get all the ingredients right, however, and a nice fish would rise.  Typically 8-9", which is a more than decent size for this stream.

Fish of the day came from an overhanging boulder.  My first drift flashed a big fish, but microdrag caused him to miss the take.  While I had little confidence that he'd rise again, I waited a minute or so, then shortlined a few "prefect" drifts over the spot where he'd risen.  It was satisfying when he slammed the third drift.  Seemed to do a 180 degree spin as he shot out from underneath his boulder, flew a couple of inches into the air, and splashed onto his back before diving back to the depths.  Nice strong pull on my line.  A fat 12" fish!

Altogether, about a dozen fish in two hours.  Actually the take rate seemed to increase over time, as the sun sneaked out and the warming water encouraged the fish to be even more active. 

I'd had to change flies because a fish had chewed the hackle off my original fly.  My knot on my new fly gave way when I pulled the nose of a fat 10" brookie out of the water.  I took this as a sign, and reeled up.  Once I feel I've "figured it out", I don't need to keep catching.

I changed into hiking shoes, and went for a delightful walk for the next 90 minutes, with nice steep trails, and lovely views of the S Branch valley.

Home by 5 PM.  A perfect "Mother's Day."