I'm hesitant to post any TRs anymore after some of the recent ones Yaller has posted. Makes me ashamed to post my word vomit.
My buddy and I decided to play hooky yesterday and brave the low waters up high. We got to the parking area and only saw one vehicle, which was covered in morning dew, meaning they were campers and likely not fishing. Our goal was to cover as much ground as possible, hoping for a wild slam, which has been a goal of mine for a while now. I wasn't sure there were browns in this river, but I knew it's tributaries held them, so I was hopeful.
With it starting off in the low 50s, but projected to reach high 60s, I decided to wet wade. It was probably the coolest temp I've wet waded in, but I never felt cold and will continue the practice in colder weather in the future. I know I was sure glad I did when we had to hoof it out.
We probably should have hiked in a bit farther before fishing, but we decided to hit the water pretty quickly. I put in at the first hole around 9:30 and hooked up on this guy, the first of many this size.
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LoginMy buddy moved on up several holes above me, and I fished up until I reached his put in, then got out to move ahead of him, catching another small bow on the way.
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LoginWhen I caught up to him, he was at the base of a decent sized waterfall. I asked him how his luck had been, and he told me he'd caught a small brookie. When I scoffed in unbelief, I asked for proof. He provided this picture:
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LoginI informed him he had actually caught his first wild brown, which confirmed to me that I could, in fact, catch a wild slam here.
I moved up to a nice shaded pool at the top of the falls and threw in a few times. On my third drift, I had a hard take on my dry. I could tell it was a decent fish, and when I tried to strip it in, my line wouldn't come in. Somehow it had gotten wrapped around the rod tip. Instead of untangling it, I kept the rod up and starting pulling in line hand over fist as best I could. I lost tension at one point and thought I lost it, but alas I managed to get this fella in.
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LoginI was really proud of that one, considering the river size and the hole he was in.
We continued to leap frog one another, moving upstream. I continued to catch a few small bows and finally hooked my own little brown, moving me closer to our goal.
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LoginWhen I sat down for lunch, I couldn't help but take in how wonderful the day was. The leaves were starting to change and fall, a nice breeze kept it crisp and cool along with some slight cloud cover. It actually felt like my favorite part of the year had arrived.
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LoginWe continued to move upstream, hooking mostly rainbows on dries and a few more small browns on the droppers.
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LoginI caught this buttery beauty at the top of the above run. It slammed my fly, coming completely out of the water. It jumped again before I got it in.
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LoginMoving on up and getting closer to walk out time, things were looking a little more brookie-ish, but the fish had slowed down.
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LoginI reached one final hole and decided it was time to turn back after fishing it, hoping to see some beautiful blue spots and orange bellies. On the first cast, something took the dropper. Sadly, the slam was not to be yesterday, but now I know it's possible and will return to accomplish it one day.
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