CreekScrambler
Active Member
*Couldn't jam this in the trip report section for lack of photos*
*topic migrated to something more interesting than initially posted, title updated*
I went out on Friday for a full day on a certain SRC favorite for an early morning salmon attempt to be followed by sneaking around for SRC water. The gear guys weren't getting anything out of the narrow slot that they were working, so I went down the river to work a couple other spots with the two hander. After about two hours, I started getting antsy for trout and went back to the lot. Found a ~7' multi piece aluminum oar in the river on the way out and left it by the entrance to the park from which I accessed the river. Hopefully it found its way back to its owner.
This was my fourth trip to this river, and after plenty of reading and tying with a brief taste of success on my previous trip, I spent the day consistently catching a nice mix of SRC and resident rainbows, with SRC representing the majority of the catch. Lots of deer and raccoon prints along with bear prints and piles of berry-laden scat. Makes one ponder how far away Yogi and Booboo really ever are while we flog the waters deep in concentration. One dude I ran into announced as he passed on the bank that there was a bear in the pool around the next bend....this news brought an end to my excellent day out.
One particular side channel created by a large logjam at the head of an island produced a series of 4 fish with the last being a hefty SRC that took the full cork of my 5wt when he started bulldogging in about 5' of strong current...I couldn't budge him and paused to think tactics for a moment. My choice was over losing him to the logjam by letting him run in the tiny side channel or drag on the stalemate with a mere 10' of line to the nail knot. He managed to spit the hook, saving me the pain of having to choose. Still a glorious fish that put the healthy 16-incher of the previous trip into perspective. Maybe hand-lining him in would have resulted in a favorable handshake.
Just wanted to say that I've had a blast working this river and digging for information in my personal fishing library as well as this forum. My slim orange dubbed reverse spiders and bulkier red reverse spiders brought fish to hand all day long and the entire process has really opened my eyes to the awesome opportunities we have for these excellent fish. I had somewhat prepared for an underwhelming experience and had started losing steam after my second unproductive trip targeting SRC. I've improved my water reading and subsurface fishing techniques in the process of learning to use spiders as a great SRC wet fly. I'm currently inspired to tie and try some October caddis wet flies for the Yak this coming weekend after a few seasons of lackluster fishing on the grande orange dries that are so popular. I'll still tie some dries for this trip, but I'm thinking streamers and wet flies will be the ticket.
Any big a-ha moments across the forum for SRC? Any other species that took a few trips to get the hang of are welcome, too. For me, it was swinging wet flies and reading water. The old way was attractor dries and attempting to fish pocket water. I'm glad to know that searching likely water subsurface with something besides a streamer can still be plenty of fun.
*topic migrated to something more interesting than initially posted, title updated*
I went out on Friday for a full day on a certain SRC favorite for an early morning salmon attempt to be followed by sneaking around for SRC water. The gear guys weren't getting anything out of the narrow slot that they were working, so I went down the river to work a couple other spots with the two hander. After about two hours, I started getting antsy for trout and went back to the lot. Found a ~7' multi piece aluminum oar in the river on the way out and left it by the entrance to the park from which I accessed the river. Hopefully it found its way back to its owner.
This was my fourth trip to this river, and after plenty of reading and tying with a brief taste of success on my previous trip, I spent the day consistently catching a nice mix of SRC and resident rainbows, with SRC representing the majority of the catch. Lots of deer and raccoon prints along with bear prints and piles of berry-laden scat. Makes one ponder how far away Yogi and Booboo really ever are while we flog the waters deep in concentration. One dude I ran into announced as he passed on the bank that there was a bear in the pool around the next bend....this news brought an end to my excellent day out.
One particular side channel created by a large logjam at the head of an island produced a series of 4 fish with the last being a hefty SRC that took the full cork of my 5wt when he started bulldogging in about 5' of strong current...I couldn't budge him and paused to think tactics for a moment. My choice was over losing him to the logjam by letting him run in the tiny side channel or drag on the stalemate with a mere 10' of line to the nail knot. He managed to spit the hook, saving me the pain of having to choose. Still a glorious fish that put the healthy 16-incher of the previous trip into perspective. Maybe hand-lining him in would have resulted in a favorable handshake.
Just wanted to say that I've had a blast working this river and digging for information in my personal fishing library as well as this forum. My slim orange dubbed reverse spiders and bulkier red reverse spiders brought fish to hand all day long and the entire process has really opened my eyes to the awesome opportunities we have for these excellent fish. I had somewhat prepared for an underwhelming experience and had started losing steam after my second unproductive trip targeting SRC. I've improved my water reading and subsurface fishing techniques in the process of learning to use spiders as a great SRC wet fly. I'm currently inspired to tie and try some October caddis wet flies for the Yak this coming weekend after a few seasons of lackluster fishing on the grande orange dries that are so popular. I'll still tie some dries for this trip, but I'm thinking streamers and wet flies will be the ticket.
Any big a-ha moments across the forum for SRC? Any other species that took a few trips to get the hang of are welcome, too. For me, it was swinging wet flies and reading water. The old way was attractor dries and attempting to fish pocket water. I'm glad to know that searching likely water subsurface with something besides a streamer can still be plenty of fun.
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