viewtopic.php?f=6&t=459
At the time I had to lie about my whereabouts. I promised Matt I would hold off on putting up any details of where I was so he could have the opportunity to go see if he could have a repeat of that kind of day. He got half that, which was still a good day.
I never did finish that post or put up a new one with the details. I have 58 pictures from that day, 28 of which follow in this post. So be prepared to scroll down. Looking through the pictures I realized I still had a lot of the words in my head of what I wanted to write down. The words are still stuck in my head. Maybe by getting at least the pictures up here for now I can go back and add things at my leisure. At least that's the plan.
I really do need to be more disciplined about putting things down. I hate backlogs.
For over twelve years I've been getting grief over these kinds of detailed reports. I'm ruining the river you know.
I've been getting Gray's Sporting Journal for a long time. I prefer stories and essays over articles on technique and things to buy. James Babb had a story in the latest issue of Gray's. Two paragraphs that echo what I've been doing all these years. . .
"Of the 116 stories I've written for Gray's, only eight have been specifically about my obsession with small-stream trout fishing, so I hope you'll permit a ninth. Writing nine small-stream sermons in 15 years probably qualify me as an advocate, but stops short of being an evangelist.
I can't decide, when I visit a small freestone creek and see no one fishing it, whether I'm disappointed or relieved that my evangelism—excuse me, advocacy—wins so few converts."
Then there are descriptions that are almost word for word of a trip I made to Mill Creek a couple of years ago after a 2 year hiatus. Right down to the lack of trails and network of spiderwebs telling him no one had been there in quite some time.
Good story.
Here's some decent pictures at least. Some day I'll be able to write a good story.
Then there was the post from 10/17/09 Mill Creek.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=496
I used to go to Mill creek all the time every October and do well. Lots of small fish, the occasional bonus big one and a wide variety of species. This year was a test to see how the cooler weather was affecting them.
On September 24th I caught 107 fish, about 90 of them smallies from peanut size to 13 inches. I lost all the big ones and easily 200 more because I was using a 5 foot ultralight with 6 pound test trilene. I don't use trilene much anymore. I forgot about the stretch factor. It was unreal. In the 11 years I've been going there in the fall, it was never like that and never that early. The water was clear and over a half dozen smallies would attack the lure on every cast, all taking turns to bang on it. The shallows were loaded with clouds of baitfish. If a pool was a foot deep, it held small schools of small smallies. It's a real blast on an ultralight. Since I always go for quantity over quality, I couldn't have asked for anything better.
2 days later I went to Big and Little Rock creeks, which are primarily spring fed creeks. They were completely devoid of fish. Not even a single bait fish was seen. This is pretty much what happens on them every year, but this was much sooner. The water was much colder than on Mill. By touch, I forgot to take thermometer readings.
On October 17 when I went back to Mill, I had to struggle to catch 17 fish. That's a little over 3 weeks later. Not a single bait fish was seen. This is very unusual this early. There's a knee dam upstream. On 9/24 it was above the dam where the bulk of the fish came from. On 10/17, not a single hit or fish seen above the knee dam.
So, to make a long answer longer, yes they do abandon the creeks this time of year. A fish hatchery manager friend says everything, year round, is all temperature driven. Time of year doesn't matter as much. I think the fish moving out of the creeks is why some have been reporting good catches lately. Pay attention to whether that stretch has a creek. Might better explain the better fishing. More bait and smaller fish in the river for the bigger ones to chow down on.
That's my theory anyway. Has held true for 11 years of following it now.
