Snake Guides: August Weekends

I killed a couple hours on my local trout stream last weekend and despite a few splashy noncommittal rises I never hooked or landed a fish. With all of the local lakes in full algal bloom it isn't a stretch to say that the wade through this clear cold spring creek was transformative.

This weekend I decided to give it another go...I had originally planned a Sunday escape, but changed the plan on Saturday morning when the weather indicated that Sunday was going to be a gamble...I promptly threw my 4 weight Schroeder and a few boxes of flies in the car and slid west.
Side Note: I happened to grab a reel loaded with an old double taper Scientific Angler Supreme 2 line. This line retained zero memory and floated like a dream all day long. Why am I paying $69 for the latest and greatest lines nowadays?

There are a few ways to proceed with this post...
1. I can be vague and let you assume that I rocked the creek
2. I can focus on the 17" brown that I caught on top with a terrestrial pattern
3. I can let the pictures speak for themselves
or
4. (and this is the route I am taking) I can tell it like it was.

So here's the deal...I took a pile of pictures of the TWO trout I caught. The first was a 17" brown (taped) that happened to be hiding in a spot where I caught an 18" fish a few years ago. I pasted the fly against the bank and this fish assaulted it...I was halfway through the fight before I realized what the hell was going on. I caught a glimpse of him and started muttering to myself...mostly cursing (I think). Then, I landed the fish and thought - That's a helluva nice trout.

Shortly after that (in the same run) I was wading upstream with my fly dragging in the water (through water I had just fished) and the second fish, a scrappy 14 incher, latched on. From behind me I heard the audible "blip" of a fish hitting a surface meal, turned, connected the dots and raised my rod tip. I have to admit that catching a fish like this really, really sucks. I hadn't even gotten over the smug satisfaction of fooling the first fish before the second fish made a fool out of me. Let me put it this way...In total I spent 5 or 6 hours wading slowly, staying low, false casting away from my target, dropping my fly near banks, undercuts, slots, buckets, pocket water etc...and this fish took my fly as I waded past it dragging the fly upstream. I need to reread Leonard M. Wright Jr's book

So that's it. 6 hours...1 great fish and one nice fish. One brilliantly played and executed and one a complete fluke. I did get a few other rises, but didn't connect, caught an awesome chub (7") and spooked a nice brown who betrayed his home when I damn near stepped on him (a future target to be sure). I also shot some underwater footage of a sculpin and witnessed the downstream drift of two mating snapping turtles. I saw this once before when I was fishing this stretch of water swinging wetflies. I was facing downstream and the couple almost ran into my legs but I noticed them out of the corner of my eye and got out of their way... This time I followed closely and snapped a pile of pics.