Tuesday, my relatively new company issued vehicle with considerable tool capacity started experiencing serious transmission issues. Instead of stressing out about Wednesday's work issues, I cancelled my work related appointments, and made various appointments with enterprises that may service the said vehicle. Now that my company truck is out of commission, my wife doesn't know if I'm working or fishing, lol.
Wednesday, what should I do.... Thought about hitting the dam discharge basin at Salem lake for hybrids, and hitting other small lake basins, but chose instead to go trouting.
Off to the hills I went to visit an old friend creek. The air was mid 30s brisk, and the the blue bird skies in the forecast made chasing browns to be a bit counter-intuitive, but I just wanted a full damn day of the creek, and not worry about being chased off by T storms/flash floods. The selected creek has no real trail. One must wade up, and rock hop back.
Feet entered the water at 8:15, was wearing heavy fleece under the camo, and no waders. The water was a bit juicy, but had good color and clarity. The trees were not leafed out, and ambience was perfect.
Within 15 minutes, it was on.
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LoginA few expletives flowed when a 13 incher came undone, but in no time, I hooked up with this 16 incher.
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LoginThis creek is beautiful, but I shall keep pics of the stream somewhat limited.
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LoginOmnipresent doghobble
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LoginVisibility is still good this time of year.
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LoginHow may plant species?
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LoginPlucked a nice 13 incher from the froth that had its eyes upward looking. Kinda odd.
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LoginThis pool is about 7 feet deep. It screwed me again, as well as the deep one below the large falls.
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LoginI had just cleared the falls section at noon, and took lunch just below a large trib that comes in on the east side. Previously, this is the uppermost I've been. I had already caught about 20 fish, and thought about heading back to the house, but no, I must march onward.
The confluence pool was interesting. Caught and lost a 13ish fish, caught a couple punes, watched a swarm of pune browns attack any fish I hooked. Then holy shit, another biggun. This guy wasn't going out without a fight. It pulled, it jumped, and jumped, and pulled. As I worked it to the net, I noted the beautiful walnut color with just a few spots. I love that pattern. However, I did not have the line choked up enough when it approached the net. Missed by several inches, and it took off downstream, and hard. I chased after it, and worked towards the net one more time, and it came unglued just inches from the net. What a heartbreak!
After gaining my composure up the stream I went.
This was the largest caught above the confluence.
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LoginI reckon these are lady slippers. I have not seen any in over 10 years.
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LoginI was just a couple hundred yards from a fishable trib that comes in on the west side. Just above that is a long slide/falls. I was getting tired, and it was 2:15. I had no idea how long it would take to get back. The upper reaches had more broken trail, but effort was still required. Making one's way around the falls section is a real pain. I hunted logging rd. remnants below the falls, but there have been so many slides, it is not worth it to traverse land below the falls. It ended up taking 2 hours and 15 minutes to return to the truck. My body was exhausted, and so was my 2.5 liter water bladder.
The sharp contrast between this creek, and its cousin a couple ridges over is notable. This creek had no herons, and no signs of otters, but it does get fished. The fish here were casual. Its cousin has otters, and no fisherman. There are hardly any fish, and the fish are super skittish. The deer population was apparent up high. Too bad there is no way to get up there.
All said and done, the big fish are near the access. Just above, AND below. While it is exciting to explore places far off the beaten path, sometimes the leroys choose to be elsewhere.
The End.