September low water brookies

[Dougfish]

J and I ventured out on a familiar stream. The plan was to camp two nights and explore it to piss trickle headwaters.
Then it came down to one night
Then it quit raining. So we settled on what was fishable.
The fire road going in was much rougher than the last time I went in.
The old short wheelbase Nissan had no problems. The newer 4 door, 6' bed Tacoma was trickier.
I scraped a few times, but made it up.
Oil pan intact.


I had a wonky left knee in the spring and missed a backpacking trip.
On Friday my arthritic right knee flared up.
Fuck.
Sir Hopalong. On a mountain stream.
We caught fish on the lowest water we've fished on this stream. An endless stream of Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies flew downstream by us all day. One hung around and befriended Jacob. I had to bail about 2:30 and hobble back to build the camp. I caught about 10-12.
J finished with 30? All were caught on dries. My modest photo dump follows. I brought dry fire wood and we had a bodacious fire. With mayflies, yellow sallies and october caddis flocking to the lantern. We got rained on at 1 - 2 am, strugle up at 6:20, ate breakfast and broke camp. I could not fish today.
Creeped the too low Tacoma out and headed home.
J has more details. I wasn't the only debacle.
Lol.
I made a tasty dinner. He hade a killer breakfast. Truck camping means you eat well.
We took the CA trip tent. First use of it since then.
Five years! Kept us comfy and dry.
But I had a soggy mess to deal with back home.

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Cheese!

[Big J]

What Doug said.  Quick one night trip.  We need rain. Stream was lowest I've fished it.  Brookies were still smacking dries.  Big fish would either spooky or hiding. 

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This brookie had eyes bigger than his stomach.

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Amount of frogs spotted on this trip was odd too.  Don't ever remember frogs like this on the stream.

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This pipevine swallowtail Red-spotted purple (thanks Fin for correction) followed me around for about a half hour.  Kept landing on me and hitched a ride up a couple of pools.

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Met Doug back at camp.  I went down lower to hit a nice pool I knew about and on way down ran into a trail runner that was 14 miles in on a run and missed the axillary trail back to where he parked.  His phone was dead.  So hiked him back up to the trail he blew past.  Then hiked back down to the pool and had a couple hits on the dry but that was it.  Found a cool box turtle shell I brought home for the kids.  Doug worked on some chicken fajitas.  Peppers from his garden were killer.

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Tons of mayflies, caddis (killer october caddis hatch happened that night) and stoneflies gathered at the lantern.

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Sleep decent.  Good storm rolled thru with some lightning we could see but never was close to use.  Woke up early and got some coffee and breakfast going.

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Doug's knee being shot, we decided to pack up and leave.  Plan was to get back to my house and then I'd drive north and find a stream with more water to fish.  About 15 minutes down the road I realized I left my fly rod at camp. We had to turn around and go back.  Fire road is so bad I didn't make Doug drive up it.  Just decided to hike up and grab it.  By the time I got back home I just decided to hang out at home and catch up some things around the house. 

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Fun trip with a night camping was due. 

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

Good job!

Which one of you is going bald?  See the headlamp/cooking photo.  I seem to remember Doug being bald, so it must be Big J.  I certainly hope so!  Schadenfreude!

[Big J]

Good job!

Which one of you is going bald?  See the headlamp/cooking photo.  I seem to remember Doug being bald, so it must be Big J.  I certainly hope so!  Schadenfreude!

Oh my baldness day is coming! 

[Woolly Bugger]

That's some good stuff there, except for the bad knee and forgotten rod!