Rick and I went out fishing finally after a much too long break. Schedules too busy and the decrease in daylight hours were the main culprits. We opted for our trusty fishing grounds, Lair O' the Bear section of Bear Creek. The weather was awesome, a nice 70 degrees with a nice overcast sky and the trees a mix of flame yellow and green.
We headed out on a Monday afternoon. Rick had the day off and I played hookey for a few hours. Got in around 3pm and noticed we had the entire stream to ourselves, sweet! We opted to head to the south end of the park and work our way up. The bugs were out in full force. Tons of small tricos, gnats, blue wings, and others that I could not tell for sure.
Two minutes after hopping in, rainbows started to surface feed like crazy. There were probably 20+ good sized fish jumping all around us and alot of them within 6 feet of where we were standing. Typically it's the more agressive browns that will surface feed at this time of day but only rainbows. Rick and I quickly cut off our hopper dropper rigs and switched to dries only. I tied on a BWO and the fish were diggin it. But as quick as it started, it stopped after only 20 minutes or so. I did not see any bug hatches that may have explained the feeding frenzy. Before it stopped, I managed to hook a beautiful 10-11 inch rainbow (my first for the season).
We slowly moved up stream and I nailed another 7-8 inch brown out of a trusty pool. Just before I pulled out the brown, Rich notices a large mule deer sporting a decent rack crossing the stream right behind us. Another couple of quick short casts lands another 7-8 brown out of the same pool.
We moved further up stream and Rick pulls out a nice small brown out of a section of water that is typically hard to reach but with the low water levels, no part of the creek was unaccessable. A tad further up stream I nail a very small brown out of a shallow pool which typically nets a lot of fish when the water is high. That ended up being my last for the day but 4 decent fish in 2 hours was a super trip for me.
The weather was awesome as summer continues to try and hold on. This time last year, I remember snow flying just a little farther up in elevation. A reminder to enjoy those last few warm days.
Sorry, forgot the camera.
Brad
