12-07-03 - Pet Fly Smackdown "Afterparty"
Waters Fished: Waterloo Creek, North Bear Creek,
South Bear Creek
Fish Caught: 11
Outing Date: 12-07-03
Weather: Cloudy
Air Temp: 40's, sporadic breezes
Water Temp: Water Temps were around 39-40F
Water Level: Normal.
Water Color: All were clear
Fish Species: Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout
Pattern Fished: Tucker Nymph
Pattern Color: as per the original pattern
Fishing Quality: surprisingly good!
Alright folks, so the "Afterparty" was
actually the campfire, but hey, what better way to celebrate than
to keep on fishing, right?
Well, I was a bit sick with something on Sunday
morning, and still am, as it's Thursday and I really don't even
have the energy to write this! So needless to say, I slept in a
bit on Sunday morning while the BLTs and Greg headed out to fish.
Their first stop was the Waterloo; later in the
morning I met up with FMA and he headed out that way too...after
some breakfast and a shower I finally made it to the water. Meanwhile,
Fruitbat was already home and FAT was headed that way as well; the
boys were sick too.
Well, at first it didn't sound too good for the
Waterloo...only a couple fish were taken in the normal spots. I
met up with FMA and the rest headed upstream to try other pools.
So FMA and I spent the morning working over the water that had already
been pounded by our buddies.
In all fairness they should have perhaps stayed?!
From what I hear they only hooked into 2 or 3 fish upstream. Meanwhile,
I gave FMA the verbal tour, describing the various fish-holding
holes downstream from our drop in. After about 30 minutes, Fred
came back up and said, "Look, I had to come back up. I would
feel really guilty if I didn't tell you, I've gone 15/19 in that
pool downstream." LOL, I went down to check it out and figured
out WHY he was doing so well...most folks can't get a good presentation
into the pool from the common bank; cross the river and you make
that pool your b*tch; Fred ended his time there just a few minutes
later with a total of 16/22 if I remember correctly!
Well, after noon we made our way over to the North
Bear. Since the BLTs headed over there earlier, FMA and I literally
hit EVERY spot on the North AND South Bear - no sign of their vehicles.
I left Fred at the Junction of the Bears and headed out for another
look (I was Tim's ride home!). Along the way I stopped at the South
Bear right in town; found a few 'bows smackin' the surface in the
first pool. Put in some long distance casts (about 60 feet) as anything
closer was spooking them and keeping them off the surface. When
I got the long presentation going, I was rewarded with 4 fish landed,
a couple hitting the Tucker Nymph the instant it hit the water.
Well, I headed back to the North Bear and found
the BLT's vehicles at the FIRST PLACE we had looked earlier! Feeling
pretty lousy, I decided a nap was in order.
When I finally came to via the sounds of B and
Red Hat walking up to the car, I learned that the North Bear was
crowded and things hadn't gone so well. More bites than the Waterloo,
but not the action they had seen the day before. So the unanimous
decision was to head back to the South Bear's honey holes and end
the day catchin' fish!
B had some ibuprofen which I thankfully downed;
by the time we made it to the South Bear I was still under the weather
so I opted not to fish. But I was starting to feel better, so what
the heck, I walked down with my camera and figured I'd watch my
buddies fish.
Man, what I good time I had watchin' the boys work
the pools. I ran back and forth between the two holes which happened
to be the ones B and I found on our first trip to the South Bear.
By the way, there's something like 5 miles of Lower South Bear.
Well, that's 5 ROAD miles...the river winds and twists a lot, so
there could easily be 7-10 miles of river down there to explore.
SWEET! Obviously there's more good spots just waiting to be found.
I took some pictures, but the real highlight of
the evening was trying out my camera's "movie" functionality,
which allows me to capture up to 1 minute of quarter-screen video!
I'll leave you with these final comments; they hooked a lot of fish,
and I have the videos to prove it! Check them out if you're on a
high speed connection!
So is this the end of fishing for 2003? Perhaps.
Then again, there has been rumors of Steelheads and Browns still
being taken on the fly in the Milwaukee and Root. And Chromeseeker
has suggested another WINTER TROUT RUN before we close out the year.
130 days in 2003 so far...you know me...it might be worth checking
back before 2004 starts (which, BTW, I think I'll be fishing on
01-01-04, can't think of a better way to ring in the New Year!).
MP

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