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Those spots, though...

1K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  dp 
#1 · (Edited)
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Another brutal skunking yesterday!:( You'd think all the hours I've spent on my home water would amount to some kind of knowledge. But every time I think I have this fickle bitch figured out, she sucker punches me in the gut. There were three of us fishing from my boat yesterday, we saw dozens of kokanee, lake run browns, and some huge bows. But couldn't hook one. I put it down to lack of stealth, marked the locations in my head, and planned a redo today.
Woke up pre-dawn. Boat still hooked up, but as I made coffee I could see the white caps out the window on the river, and as the light grew steadily I noticed it was raining. Shit. Change of plans.
Tie flies while drinking coffee in warm dry environment. Swap motor boat out for pontoon. Drink more coffee. Tie another fly. Look out the window. Those white caps look smaller now, right? Drink more coffee. Make sure everything is loaded. Feeling really ready to go! Might be the coffee. Finally around ten twenty I rolled out.
First stop is for brookies. It's pissing rain, but I notice a big swirl just out from the boat launch as put the parking brake on. Just then my eyes are drawn upward by movement near the back of the lake. A huge black bear was strolling the shore line, appeared to take a brief swim, and moved out of sight. I took it as a good omen. And it sort of seemed to work, as my first cast caught a brookie of around seventeen inches, all colored up. An hour and half of casting in pouring rain I was thinking that first fish was a curse Hit another one around sixteen inches just as I was calling it quites. Other than a mangled dorsal fin, one of the prettiest brooks I've ever touched. Those spots....
Did a mental coin flip on whether to go for cutthroat or browns next. Of course I chose browns. They're seasonal. I have the rest of the year for cutthroat.
Suffice to say, not ONE lake run caught or spotted. I did get a bonus kokanee(what passes for salmon around here), and a chrome bright, scrappy wild bow of about fifteen inches.
 
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#5 ·
Awesome Brookie TJ and nice story.

What are you using to target your browns?
Everything but the kitchen sink...actually believe it or not, but most of my biggest lake runs have fallen for a #4 bitch creek. Nothing I've found yet seems to work consistently, though.
 
#10 ·
Up to six or seven inches. I usually do better with smaller streamers, but the big ones sometimes get a smashed by territorial fish.
 
#15 ·
Been there done that. Could hear them sloshing all around me. After two hours I couldn't stand it anymore, turned on my headlamp. The fuckers were swimming between my legs. No kidding. I wanted to throw my hat in the river. Lake run brown behavior is the most difficult fishing riddle I've ever had to crack. Especially where I fish em. You can put tons of time and effort scouting holding lies, only to have the river lower or raise ten feet, sometimes leaving those lies high and dry. I would reluctantly admit it all comes down to being in the right place at the right time.
 
#18 ·
Not a bead, but I tied up some kokanee egg looking flies for a dropper. We'll see.
 
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