I drove over the mountain the other day to see how the waters were shaping up. Run-off is still on but some of the smaller streams, with water sheds which are at a lower elevation, are slowing down a little bit. I drove my Rokon and my son drove his Honda.
The roads and trails were pretty much dry, excepting where the shade was more persistent. In these few places there was still snow. The drive was nice as the day was warm, sunny and no significant breeze.
As we approached the stream I could see that the water levels were good and the turbidity was clear. My son didn't want to fish today, so as he took a nap I worked my way upstream.
The stream is about 4-5 feet across, has mountain flows and works its way through a valley dotted with beaver ponds. It is a classic mountain meadow stream without the usual run-plunge-pool configuration of most of the streams that I fish. I really like the stream because it is easy to find solitude and it's full of wild, native cutthroats.
As I fished I picked up a number of small to medium sized cutthroats. I did hook one rainbow as well, it coming up from the lower elevation reaches of the streams were they are planted for campers. Most of the fish I hooked were 8-10 inches, with one coming in at over 12 inches. I did see one very large cutthroat though, I bet he'd come in at near 20 inches, but I only scared him not hooking him!
I used the Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu 40; a nice rod for this type of water. I mainly used a 10 foot #4 line, but when a breeze kicked up I did change to a 3.3 m Masterline. I went with a Sunset woolbodied kebari.
It was a fun couple of hours. The mountains were beautiful. I'll be back as it appears the water is ready for more fishing!
Here is a video of the trip:
The roads and trails were pretty much dry, excepting where the shade was more persistent. In these few places there was still snow. The drive was nice as the day was warm, sunny and no significant breeze.
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| Still some snow in places. |
As we approached the stream I could see that the water levels were good and the turbidity was clear. My son didn't want to fish today, so as he took a nap I worked my way upstream.
The stream is about 4-5 feet across, has mountain flows and works its way through a valley dotted with beaver ponds. It is a classic mountain meadow stream without the usual run-plunge-pool configuration of most of the streams that I fish. I really like the stream because it is easy to find solitude and it's full of wild, native cutthroats.
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| A typical reach |
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| The bend pool near where we parked the bikes |
As I fished I picked up a number of small to medium sized cutthroats. I did hook one rainbow as well, it coming up from the lower elevation reaches of the streams were they are planted for campers. Most of the fish I hooked were 8-10 inches, with one coming in at over 12 inches. I did see one very large cutthroat though, I bet he'd come in at near 20 inches, but I only scared him not hooking him!
I used the Gamakatsu Multiflex Suimu 40; a nice rod for this type of water. I mainly used a 10 foot #4 line, but when a breeze kicked up I did change to a 3.3 m Masterline. I went with a Sunset woolbodied kebari.
It was a fun couple of hours. The mountains were beautiful. I'll be back as it appears the water is ready for more fishing!
Here is a video of the trip:
Very nice video as we have got accustomed to from your blog. This small stream seems to have a good population of trouts.
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