It's been way too long since my last fishing post. I've been fishing here and there I haven't been motivated to write anything. It's been a year or so since I fished for trout and to be honest, I started to wonder if I could even remember how to catch one anymore. I ran out of excuses and checked out a delayed harvest stream to try my luck.
I couldn't have asked for better weather. I wasn't surprised to see people fishing the usual spots. It was encouraging to see fish swimming around from the bank. I saw a school that was in a peculiar spot and worked my way to them. It didn't take long to catch my first trout of 2024.
I started to feel more confident after that and the fish kept coming. It's easy to get full of yourself fishing stocked delayed harvest water. If you can get on a school of fish, it's not uncommon to catch 20 fish in 30 minutes. You catch one on almost every cast. I'm not saying it doesn't take skill. You need to know when to set the hook and how to fight the fish, but the fishing is artificial in a way. The longer the fish are in the water after being stocked the more their behavior will change.
I hit them when they were still in the discovery stage checking things out. There were a few that would act natural and hit the flies on a good drift or when the flies were falling. Then you had the fish for a lack of better words are dumb. They hit the fly after you twitch it or made erratic movements. These types of things would normally scare a fish or turn them off when a fish has been in the stream for a while.
Even understanding the fishing was easy and that was the main reason for my success I enjoyed myself and even managed to hook an absolute pig. This fish didn't put up an extraordinary fight but it sure was something to look at.
I didn't bring my net so I worked the fish into shallow water where I could get a hold of it. The fish was so tall I couldn't get my hand around it.
It's nice to hook one of these monsters once in a while. I'm hoping this trip will motivate me to get out on the water more. The drive and thoughts of a bad fishing day usually make me look for other things to do but this trip reminded me of how much I love being on the water.
Kevin
ReplyDeleteTo say I am jealous is an understatement! Anytime you can get in on an early stocking of trout in a stream or tailrace, it’s a bonus. I rarely get the chance to connect with early-stocked trout on the Sipsey due to heavy generation. The last trip I took to the tailrace in the first week of November might have been similar to your experience if it weren't for the unexpected generators turning on.
I found a pocket of trout that were eager to bite on just about anything you cast their way. After getting into position, I landed my first trout on my first cast. Unfortunately, shortly after that, the generators started running, forcing me and another angler down below to retreat to the upper banks of the gorge.
So, congratulations on finding some willing trout to take your offering. Thanks for sharing your experience, and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
Thank you for the comment, Bill. It was an amazing day. I'm lucky my trout waters aren't all tailraces. I'd be annoyed with having to check generation schedules all th e time. I have to admit those tailwaters have better populations of fish and bug hatches.
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