March 22, 2019

Worm Season

Winter is trying to hang on (in fact, as I write this it's snowing again), but the northerly march of the sun is breaking winter's icy grip. It couldn't come too soon, IMO! With the sun shining down, I recently visited a creek that runs through the valley about one mile from my house. It works its way through a small ranch owned by some of my friends. They give me trespassing rights to fish the creek. I generally only fish it in the spring when water levels are good. My go to "fly" on this creek is the pink rubber worm. It works real well when the water is just a little off colored and slightly hazy.



It's a tough creek to fish. The waterway is so overgrown with brush and trees that casting is a real challenge. Also, if you hook a fish you've got only a few feet in which to fight it. Case in point: I slowly worked my way to this point in the creek (see picture below) and then used the sling shot cast to get the fly near the fallen snags. A second after hitting the water, a nice brown (I bet he'd come in at 14 inches) shot out from under the snags on the right and nailed the worm fly. I set the hook and he blasted towards the trees on the left. I was able to horse him away from eminent entanglement, only to pull the hook out of his mouth. Bummer! What a nice fish!



I did take a smaller trout a minute later so there was some consolation.



I took a few more fish as I worked my way upstream a few yards. The sly was blue, the air was warm (54 degrees F), the water was perfect (46 degrees F), and the breeze was light. What a beautiful day!







I fished for an hour then drove back home very content!







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