I decided to get up early and go do a little exploring. While larger rivers might have more and bigger fish, there is something magical about small streams. There is usually some degree of solitude and the small fish often seem willing to sample your offering. I headed up to a small stream that I had been wanting to fish and found a likely hole at my first stop. The casts on small streams can be tricky, if you call it casting. More often than not you are just flipping your flies no further than your rod length and often just lowering the fly into a likely spot. There were plenty of logs and branches around but I managed to avoid them for the most part.
After a few casts I had a little fish come up and smack my little yellow stimulator. To my surprise it was a wild rainbow trout!
I thought there would be brook trout in this little stream but subsequent casts proved that it was filled with little wild rainbows, at least this section.
After I caught a few of the little guys a "trophy" sized fish slurped my fly off the top. Look at the gorgeous coloration...
Ok, maybe the fish would not be considered a "trophy" on a regular sized stream or river, but for a pint sized stream this was a nice fish!
I can't wait to head back up here and do some more exploring. I'm starting to get addicted to small streams. All I need now is a shorter rod!
For a change of pace David and I headed up to the high country for some feisty cutthroats. When we got to the reservoir fish were rising and we could not resist. We muddied our shoes but got within casting distance and soon I was hooked up with a nice little cutthroat.
Soon after David nailed a nice one which turned out to be the fish of the trip (size wise).
We then headed down to the stream and soon David hooked up with a beautiful cutthroat decorated in a beautiful regalia.
We worked our way down stream and noticed a lot of spooky fish in the calmer water. We resisted the temptation for the most part and headed down to "easier" water to fish. We spent the next several hours hiking downstream and casting to the likely spots which was often rewarded with gorgeous cutthroat trout smacking our flies with reckless abandon. I'll let some pictures tell the rest of the story for the most part.
After several hours we were beat and ready to head back toward the car. We managed a few more fish on the way back and when we got to the lake some fish were still rising. Again, we could not resist the temptation and David quickly hooked up but the fish ran him down into the weeds and got off. The scenery could not be beat nor the fishing, and the best part of all was that we did not see another fisherman on the stream the whole day. I can't wait to head back up to the high country with a fly rod in hand, heading to some small stream where hungry trout are willing to fight over my fly.
