The days are getting shorter and cooler, fall isn’t quite here but you can feel the change in the air. Despite being after 6, it was still dark when I left my house to go pick up Jeremy. I was a bit excited for today’s trip as we were headed for a fabled fishing spot in our state.

We are fortunate here, to have such places right at our backdoor. I often wonder if I would enjoy fishing as much if I lived elsewhere. I am not sure why but up until recently, I really did not have a desire to fish here. I am unsure as to why but boy what a mistake on my part. Yes I had a rough day fishing wise but the trip taught me an important lesson. It taught me that it is a good thing to get out of my comfort zone and to learn new things.

For the longest time, I have fished mostly the same types of places, learning them well and always catching fish. Well the tricks and tactics I normally use were of little use here. The basic skunking, (I say basic because the small guys I got don’t really count) I got sparked me to want to learn this place, like the same desire I had when I first got into fly fishing.

As we drove into the conservancy I saw a hawk sitting on a telephone pole. He was nice enough to let me get off one pic before taking off.




At the sign in area I decided to take a few shots of the area.







On the way to the first area we fished





There were plenty of risers all over the place, some big and some small. I made my way to a good casting spot and began casting to a riser. My fly drifted below the fish and another took it. After a very short fight I landed a “huge” 11 inch brown. The rest of the day was the same for me. I had no problem getting the small guys up but the big guys wanted nothing to do with my offerings.

While fishing one area, I hear Jeremy say oh shit moose. I look and there were two lying down in the trees not more than ten feet away. We waded to the other side and headed to another spot. This spot was the more of the same. I did take one fish pic though as this is supposed to be a report.




We fished around for a bit but never managed to entice anything large coming up. On our way out we both said that we wanted to learn this place and that we should fish it more often. Here are some random shots I took while hiking around.

Nice camera work!  Thanks for the post.

I think I know where you were at, I have been there only once and boy was it tough.

You could see the monsters just cruising around, but the only thing I pulled out was a 3" brown.

Beautiful place.

Awesome report with great pictures. Especially the hopper!

your great with a lens

Beautiful!

Thanks for sharing!

It was a fun day for sure and I was glad to get a chance to use the new camera. After using it the field, I have come to the conclusion I need an additional lens or two. Thanks though, glad you guys enjoyed the pics.

It gets better after dark....

might have to go try it. We got a late start and didnt get to fishing till around almost 10 and after getting nothing we decided to go drive around and check out the area instead of fish.

Great shots!

very nice, with the shots of the hoppers I hope u guys were throwing Hoppa's

J-