Fall fishing on The Creek

[SashaT]

The morning was cold and snowing when I left my house. This day I decided to forget steelhead and go to a location that I want to learn. While driving down the freeway, the snowfall increased; I thought to myself “I hope the pass is ok. While stopping off for gas, I asked the attendant how the pass was. She replied that she was not from here and she didn’t know. I made my way up the pass, the snow was falling but the road seemed good. When I crested the ridge, the clouds broke to a nice blue and windy fall day. Awesome, I thought, no snow up here while I’ll be fishing.

After a while I had reached the turn to my destination. With daylight savings ending, I wondered if this place would be crowded. To my surprise and joy, when I reached the sign in area, there was only one other car. I got out and boy was it a chilly and windy day; wind makes for fun times dry fly fishing. No matter, I was here to enjoy the day regardless of what Mother Nature had in mind.

Once I was geared up, I headed down the trail to the creek. Along the way I took the time to enjoy being out there with nobody in sight.

Standing at the water’s edge, I saw numerous fish. Looking more closely, I did not see any bug activity on the water, nor did it appear that the fish were actively feeding. Ok time to hang back and observe what is going on, I thought to myself. Despite the heavy winds I happened to see some small bugs flying around.

I decided to start the day with a size 22 BWO cripple. I tell you that this coupled with a 17 foot leader was a recipe for fun times. Several casts later, while watching my small fly float down the creek; I saw a splashy rise. The rainbow was brought to hand quickly and released. I took a quick head shot of her and let her go. This ended up being my only fish pic for the day. Mostly because I wanted to fish and not get caught up in trying to photograph them. I managed to get another to take my fly in this spot before deciding to move on.

The following run also held a good amount of fish. However, after a while of nothing, it was apparent that they did not like what I was throwing. So I decided to switch up and managed a few more fish before moving on.

Now the next spot I decided to stop at proved to be bitter sweet. The reason was that up until this point, I had only managed to land fish in the 10-14 inch range. While observing the water, I spotted a nice sized fish in the 20 inch range slowly sipping flies from the surface between wind gusts. It was later in the day and the flies were a bit larger around size 16. I tied on a #16 baetis and began to cast to him. After what must have been 45 minutes, he decided to take my offering. I set the hook and he took off; now using 6x as this place requires, I was not horsing this guy in like I could if using a heavier leader. After a little bit he was close enough for me to net. I decided to make an exception to no more fish pics for this guy so I pulled the camera out of my waders. As luck would have it as I was netting him, the hook came out before he was all the way in the net. As I lifted the net he gently rolled off the side and swam away.

I walked a little ways upstream to where I had observed some more fish rising. I managed to land a few more of the smaller guys when “oops” number two happened. I saw another nice sized fish feeding, this time he took the fly pretty much right away. During the fight while about twenty feet from me, he managed to spit the hook and swim off.

It was starting to get late and with a two hour drive back home I decided to head back. I took a few more photos as I walked back to the truck.
Hope you enjoyed this report.

 

[Ron Evers]

Nice series & commentary.

 

[Patrice]

Nice post, thanks. I picked up a flyrod for the first time this last summer. I am now hooked on the sport. My favourite so far is skipping dries on the Restigouche with a 13 foot 8 weight spey rod with a scandi compact line and a 15 foot floating poly leader. Took a while to get the hang of it but finally started getting some decent fish towards the end of the season. Spring is coming! Might also try the smaller streams for the smaller trouts with a nice 4 weight 8 foot rod I just got. I know squat about fly pattern names, I just try to see what the fish are rising to and dig around in the box for something that looks like it. The salmon are funny though, they'll strike big gaudy things that look like nothing I see in or on the water.

 

[SashaT]

Nice series & commentary.

Thank you sir, I quite enjoyed being out there yesterday. Although I did get camera envy when I saw an older couple, both with their D800s. They stopped to ask how I was doing and we chatted for a bit.

 

[SashaT]

Nice post, thanks. I picked up a flyrod for the first time this last summer. I am now hooked on the sport. My favourite so far is skipping dries on the Restigouche with a 13 foot 8 weight spey rod with a scandi compact line and a 15 foot floating poly leader. Took a while to get the hang of it but finally started getting some decent fish towards the end of the season. Spring is coming! Might also try the smaller streams for the smaller trouts with a nice 4 weight 8 foot rod I just got. I know squat about fly pattern names, I just try to see what the fish are rising to and dig around in the box for something that looks like it. The salmon are funny though, they'll strike big gaudy things that look like nothing I see in or on the water.

Fly fishing is very addictive...lol. Being out in the wilderness is part of it as well. I hear ya on the flies for salmon, big and bright is typically the order for them. I have been fly fishing for quite a while and really enjoy it. It is actually the reason I originally got into photography. I got tired of going to these beautiful places and ending up with crappy pics.

I fish everything from small streams to fishing for salmon and steelhead. So as far as rods go, I have several in the following line weights: 0wt, 3wt, 5wt, 7wt, 9wt and I have a 13' Meiser spey rod with a grain window of 450-750. It is all fun stuff, stick with it and enjoy! As far as the fly names etc. don't worry you will remember them soon enough.

 

[deeky]

Thanks for the story. Wasn't able to get out much this year, so it's nice to live vicariously through you.

Not sure what you use for a leader, but for those little guys on windy days (and others as it's all I use through the 5wt), look at a furled leader. I think they run something like $12-$15 per if you buy them. But a 1x6 board, a dowel, and a little reading and you can furl them any way you want for less than a dollar a piece in materials. Unlike any other leader, you can actually turn over a full leader with just a wave of your hand.

 

[SashaT]

Thanks for the story. Wasn't able to get out much this year, so it's nice to live vicariously through you.

Not sure what you use for a leader, but for those little guys on windy days (and others as it's all I use through the 5wt), look at a furled leader. I think they run something like $12-$15 per if you buy them. But a 1x6 board, a dowel, and a little reading and you can furl them any way you want for less than a dollar a piece in materials. Unlike any other leader, you can actually turn over a full leader with just a wave of your hand.

Your Welcome,

I hear ya on not getting out, personally it drives me crazy when I can't. As far as the leader goes, for that place the fish will spook if your fly line travels over them. So for there furled leaders are not the best option. When there I use a 14' tapered leader usually in 5x with 3' of 6x tippet. Down stream presentation to feeding fish is in order there as well. It is a challenging place to fish compared to other places. However, that for me is part of what makes it fun.

 

[Ron Evers]

Nice post, thanks. I picked up a flyrod for the first time this last summer. I am now hooked on the sport. My favourite so far is skipping dries on the Restigouche with a 13 foot 8 weight spey rod with a scandi compact line and a 15 foot floating poly leader. Took a while to get the hang of it but finally started getting some decent fish towards the end of the season. Spring is coming! Might also try the smaller streams for the smaller trouts with a nice 4 weight 8 foot rod I just got. I know squat about fly pattern names, I just try to see what the fish are rising to and dig around in the box for something that looks like it. The salmon are funny though, they'll strike big gaudy things that look like nothing I see in or on the water.

Cross the river to Broadlands up the "mountain" to Nicoll's lake & use a "silver doctor" fly. Nice pink fleshed trout.

Sasha, I was expecting a pic like this when I first opened the thread.

 

[Patrice]

Cross the river to Broadlands up the "mountain" to Nicoll's lake & use a "silver doctor" fly. Nice pink fleshed trout.

Not boundary water so I'd have to get a non resident Quebec license. If anything like the New Brunswick non resident requirements I won't bother.

 

[SashaT]

Sasha, I was expecting a pic like this when I first opened the thread.


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Yea, it is a bit hard to get a photo of a fly fishermen when you are the one fishing and taking pics The place I was at Silver creek; I parked at the nature conservancy. Pretty cool place, I am lucky to live where I do as I have access to such great waters with not too much driving. Although I have been known to pull a six hour drive one way on day trips before