# First trout outing 2015



## sbreech (Jun 6, 2010)

Well, as it may be, I haven't had much time this year to fish, so I decided to take a little drive (well, about an hour away) to fish for about an hour. The flow looked good online, the weather was perfect, and I just had a good feeling about the day. When I arrived at the stream, I swear the river was filled with folks fishing. I talked to a couple guys that said nothing was biting, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get in the water. I had spent a few minutes picking out the outfit I wanted to fish - it wasn't at all windy, so I decided on the H2 8'4" 3wt and the Super 4 on their maiden voyage. I drove further upstream than usual, and found a place to park. Looking at the water, I decided to tie on a #12 light tan and olive EHC on a 4x tippet, and 16 inches down off the hook bend on a 6x tippet was a #18 black tungsten bead PTN. I waded upstream about 400 yards or so before I spotted a nice deep rock-bottom run. I cast to the top of it, drifted through, and about 1/2 way through it, my line stopped - it was a bite. First trout of the season. YES! I fished this run for about 15 minutes and landed 2 more, and decided to walk upstream a ways. I came to a nice riffle and decided to work some of the larger rocks and ruts, and this produced another 4 fish. 


None of the fish were large for the day - the largest was ALMOST 13 inches - but it was beautiful, the sun was shining, it was warm, and I was on the water. I only had an hour to fish, so I started wading back downstream where I ran into another gentleman that was explaining how he had not seen a fish caught all day, and that he had zero luck, and the trout would chase his streamers all day long but wouldn't bite. I smiled, told him that trout can be tricky beasts, and handed him one of my PTNs. He told me wrong color, there was no hatch that day, and wished me good luck. I smiled and wished him the same.  Today was a good day.


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

Looks like you had a good day , Trout can be tuff in the bright sun . The bugs are active right now so at times they can be finicky. My Saturday didn't go as well as yours ....Ive got smallmouth fever pretty bad . So I over looked my gut instinct and headed to the Stillwater ...flow was just over 300 which is very high but fish able ...the water had been stable for a few days so I knew it wouldn't be muddy ... I arrive and the river looks good and I choose a 7wt with a fast sink tip line as casts where going to be long and the flow was high...I step into the river and check the temp ...60 degrees and proceeded kick myself for not fishing the Mad instead...But since I was there I proceeded to fish...with all the water in the river and the smalljaws in spawn mode I knew I needed water out of the main current...At one point I was casting clear across the river to the far bank as I couldn't get position wading and had backing half way up the rod....I fished hard for about 4hrs only to hook and loose 2 dink smallies ....Like I said I should have fished the Mad....But at least the Stillwater has had enough water pushed thru it lately to clean out the silt and provide good spawning bottom from what I can tell.....Brad and I have plans of floating that river as soon as where both able...and from what I can tell it should be a good yr for smallies if it ever stops raining . Any way you and I should hook up and float the Big D. sometime


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