# I found the rainbow and the pot of gold!



## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

Well today I headed east to fish two different bodies of water. The first stream I would fish I have not fished this stream in 15 years. I get and understand that all bodies of water change all the time. I understand that rivers, streams, and all other bodies of water face challenges from mother nature. Mother nature still wows me with her power and strength. As you can see in the satellite photos the main river channel has changed and I know the beavers who used to live there are not happy!



















Lol The first photo is from 2006 and the second is from 2019. I have been using aerial photos to find fishing locations since good ole Terraserver.com came out in 1997. Its an amazing tool. You can use Google Earth Pro and here is a hint you can use the archived photos in the sliding bar to see the same ground in the winter “when the leaves are mostly gone and that's unless they are conifers and your gonna struggle”.

I use a Garmin 64sx and the Campsite (Garmin program). I use Google Earth Pro to plot out points and them upload them to my Garmin. This way I know how far I have gone and when I have to do any type of mountaineering (minus the glaciers lol) I have the ability to do so.









I want to talk about staying hydrated while one is out there. I walk between 3-7 miles a trip and I cant stress enough about drinking water while one is out there humping around on their fave bodies of water.

If your urine is not clear my friend your not drinking enough water period. If your not urinating to the point its annoying your not drinking enough water. My back pack which is an Osprey Atmos 35 has a compartment for a 70 oz water bladder.











This also allows me to chase fish all day without a hydration issue, No matter if its stripers in Maine, Smallmouth in NY, carp in Ohio, or Steelhead around the Great Lakes its always with me.

The first stream I fished was teaming with life. For an example all the rocks had cased caddis all over them. The stream also had a massive population of minnows and darters this would stand to reason why historically a number 6 to 8 olive WoIly bugger works so darn well (ironically these are the same buggers I steelhead fish with).

I choose to fish a number 16 swinging/dead drift nymph I developed for fishing broken water. What I mean by broken water is its not flat and feature less there are topographical features in the body of water bed that make the top of the water ungulate. I have attached a photo so you can see what I am talking about.


















Below you can see a photo of said nymph. I would see a catch rising from atop of the riffle and the small cloud was about 2 to 4 feet in the air. The other thing I noticed and they are a pleasure to watch are the cedar wax wings picking these bugs off mid air.

These birds are so beautiful. I used to light and cigar up and sit on the river bank and just watch them have their very own bug buffet. I would return to my car later and find these what I believe to be Cinnamon Caddis. They were all over my car and I took a photo of one.










Back to watching the Cedar waxwings and I rigged up my rod. I was going to use my steelhead tactics which means an ice fishing float, some split shot, and the gilled nymph I spoke about earlier.

I used a 9 foot leader set up comprised of 4 foot of 12 pound test mono, then 3 feet of 8 pound test mono, and followed by 2 feet of 4 pound test mono all fluorocarbon. The lead I placed 12” above the fly.

I would fan cast the first pool. I worked into the meat of the pool allowing the lead and fly to pull the fly through the pool. This is the same way I fish the Great Lakes and I have done it for decades with great success.

Since the volume of water coming through this small pool would have any fish on the bottom and not suspended. I guess it was about 20 minutes into covering the pool with no success then “WHAMMO” the scrappy fish would be a 12'' bow ( a nice hold over).









She was surprisingly not dark in color, but her colors where in fact light. She took that in the corner of her mouth. I corralled her into my catch and release net. I thanked her and sent her on her way.

Still all the bugs where buzzing and the I left the Cedar Waxwings having their fun.

I finished this first stretch of water and walked back to the car. I drove about 3 miles down stream to the next section. I saw a few folks hanging out at the bridge and humped down stream about a mile before I would begin to fish.

I came across the same scene prolific mayflies in the air and Cedar Waxwings getting their bug buffet on. This time I looked down stream and saw small 6-9” trout clearing 12-18” out of the air eating bugs! I laughed out loud cause they where jumping and colliding with one another. They acted like the Disney movie Finding Nemo characters say “mine, mine, mine, mine”! 




I fished all through the ledge pool and all the rock structure I could find. I fished these pool on the river right side, but saw it would be better fished on river left.

I scampered to the other side of the river and swung my gilled nymph in the same manner I would steelhead fishing. I was still about 20-30 feet from the spastic trout and they stopped. The hatch was still there. I said to myself that's odd and proceeded to swing my flies. I saw some thing, but I discounted it as slabs of limestone.

Well my bobber when under with a loud ker-plunk. Then all my line from my feet when out my rod tip. I thought O shoot that's not a trout! Then it bull dogged me for a few minutes perhaps then it came to hand! Yes how beautiful some type of redhorse sucker. She was about 16” long and released unharmed once I got the gilled nymph out of her mouth.


















I would hook up with three more of these and land two of them. I did not realize I was fishing at the head of a pod of them as you can see from the photo. They are silver in color but due to the color of water they looked yellow in the water.

I did hook a trout, but quickly lost it because of the sloppy hook set. I picked up out of the river and found the road back my car.

I would take yet another drive and I saw two vehicles parked at the bridge. I thought no two cars is to many for me in this stretch, but lets take a look. I saw two fellow bug rodders. I said hello to them and asked them how they where doing. They said they had had not luck. I told them about the spot I hooked a fish at.

I rolled onto the new smallmouth waters. Now I knew better, but did I listen to myself “no”. Should of brought my egg beater, but instead I took only my TiCr 6wt.

I found off the satellite photos the first riffle and this is where I said I would hump up to and turn around. This is a tributary to the Allegheny river and it looked incredible when I took my bike ride from what I saw. This was my first recon of the creek its self. Above the first riffle I saw it teaming with smallmouth spawn.

The first 100 yards was like this about the riffle, but after that it was void of life. I was a little shocked I cant lie, but after I saw all the blackened stones from being out of the water for long periods of time. I came to realize just like the Vermilion River back west its does the same thing. The river has sections of river that are a bare and dry all summer and they as heavily discolored.

I continued up the stream and met some folks at camp. They asked me a lot of fly fishing questions and things. I am not a pro and tried to help them as much as I could. After petting the doggo and answering their questions I pressed on. The creek in this area above the swimming hole was all exposed sandstone bottom with grooves in it and featureless! I saw no bait nothing it was void of life in this section.

I hiked out of the creek valley about 1000 elevation to 1200 elevation onto a old railroad grade now bike path. I humped back top the car and by this time I was more than tired. I was well hydrated, but still beats you down. I always wear long sleeves and pair of NorthFace convertible pants Men's Paramount Trail Convertible Pants (Sale) | The North Face

and an old Patagonia long sleeve wicking t shirt.

Well beaten down I headed home with a smile on my face from the spoils of the day.


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## meisjedog (Oct 4, 2010)

Yes, google does amazing things with photos including the ability to reverse lookup - find similar/ or the same photos along with coordinates I believe ...just saying.

That is a golden redhorse sucker "trout" to me anyway - a dandy!


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

meisjedog said:


> Yes, google does amazing things with photos including the ability to reverse lookup - find similar/ or the same photos along with coordinates I believe ...just saying.
> 
> That is a golden redhorse sucker "trout" to me anyway - a dandy!


 for sure no worries the sat photos im sharing i am not worried about ppl finding lol cause the places i want to protect are not gonna show up by my sharing the sat photo and all coordinate data is stripped from my photos on here when i up load them. I learned this back in the 90's lol and im a land surveyor so im smarter than the avg bear when it comes to coordinate data and things alike.

be well,

Sonder


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## Nauti cat (Nov 30, 2009)

Sonder you made my day can't do it anymore but in my day I use to fly fish. My Dad only fly fished I learned by watching him and trial and tangles.


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

Nauti cat said:


> Sonder you made my day can't do it anymore but in my day I use to fly fish. My Dad only fly fished I learned by watching him and trial and tangles.


Thank you my friend check your messages


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## EnonEye (Apr 13, 2011)

Thank you, I can taste that cigar on the riverside


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

EnonEye said:


> Thank you, I can taste that cigar on the riverside


I used to smoke La Flor Domicana with a good dark leaf dam I miss it lol


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Strong work brother.


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

fallen513 said:


> Strong work brother.


Thank you ole friend!


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