Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Is it Winter?

This has been the warmest winter in memory. Christmas Eve I was fishing in my shorts for gills using poppers.

Over the weekend it was so warm I was able to wet wade a brookie stream. It felt strange to not have to break out my waders in late December.
The water was high but the fish were very active. 
I can't recall ever seeing rainbows with such pretty red stripes on them. All of the bows over 6inches had this. The coloring was beautiful and the picture doesn't do the color justice. The high water made the fish move to calmer pools. One pool in particular had a brookie hanging out in about 4inches of water. This wild brookie was the largest I had seen in quite some time. I thought maybe something was wrong with the fish because of how out in the open it was. I cast my nymph behind and to the right. I went to pull the flies up to make another cast and the fish turned and chased the flies almost hitting them as they came out of the water. I thought maybe I missed my chance, I cast near the fish again. I didn't see the take but I knew where my flies were and saw the fish make a slash. I set the hook and my line instantly wrapped around a downed limb. I was using 6x and tried to free the line without snapping it. I was able to untangle the line by taking the limb out of the water. 
The fish wasn't that colorful but it was really good size for this stream. These fish must be really confused usually the sides of this stream are lined with ice around now. 

8 comments:

  1. Kevin
    Unbelievable color on that rainbow, awesome stream you were fishing there. Get ready for more weird weather in future years, the climate change is upon us. Thanks for sharing

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    1. Thanks for the comment Bill. I wish I lived closer to this stream to fish it more.

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  2. The colors on that rainbow are amazing! I have never seen one prettier than that. I'm glad to see you getting out and taking advantage of the warm winter weather while it's here. Wish I could have done the same.

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    1. I'm trying to take advantage of the weather while I can. The big issue is rain. We are about 20inches above normal this year.

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  3. Weird weather for sure. It is warmer there in NC than it is here in Phoenix!

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    1. We were warmer than San Diego to. It has been pretty crazy. The amount of rain is insane. We have gotten 16inches since Oct 1st.

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  4. Wow, that rainbow is spectacular! I've never seen one colored quite like that. We've been in the deep freeze for quite awhile now. Happy New Year Kevin, I look forward to more in 2016.

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