Well, despite all the snow astill lingering around, spring is in full swing, chrome in the tribs-wise. One of the closest places for me to fish has a waterfall about 5 miles upstream, from the frogwater, not big enough to prevent the fish from accessing the 17 or so miles upstream, but enough of a challenge to slow them down especially as the water drops. Below this falls there is about 100 yards of cascading pocket water, and then a very popular pool. The right side of the stream is lined with small trees and icy rocks, and the left side is not a whole lot better, although there are few trees. A check of the flow gage Monday noon said it was a good day to use some saved vacation. I fished the pool for a while and noone was doign anything, and there were not many people around. But I had seen more than a dozen rolls in a half hour on the very high flows last Thursday where this stream goes into the big pond . So I crossed on an old bridge and walked upstream to the falls, putting on the polaroids on the walk. In the drop pool for the falls, it was like the troughs at Altmar, a 10 lber hanging in the big standing wave, 3 huge fish facing downstream into the eddy current, and numerouse places where the occasional tail or dorsal broke through the foam. I had a little fly on, and started with that, three drifts and I come up solid on a little male about 5 lbs who tears up the hole, but the vibration of the tip says he is tail hooked, so I staight line. It took three tries to tie a glo bug on, my hands were shaking so badly. And the slobs are still there fading in and out of sight in the turbulance.
Roe glo bug and a sack, and 2 drifts and I am into the biggest steelei I've had on in at least 10 years, runs around the pool and then starts for the lake, breaks the 8 lb like 6x porpoising down through the white water below before I could even start to follow. Shaky hands and 5 minutes of tying and I'm rigged again with another glo bug and bag. No visible fish in the slack water, so I lob out into the froth, and bang I'm into another one bigger than the second one. This fish stayed connected down through the first set opf rapids, dropped in behind a concrete structure streamside while I picked my way around the trees and over the rocks. I got to the concrete and my line was wrapped, I figure the pig has to be gone, start working on unwrapping the line and I see the sack come downstream as the line comes free, and then at least a yard of chrome rolls with the glo bug visible in the corner of the maw. I tightened up, and after a couple spins out in front of me she resumed her mad dash for the lake, three brook trout on a fly style jumps as she navigated the heavy chute into the big pool and gone. Another 10 minutes to retie, 12 lb and another glo bug,. I looked at my watch, I had arrived at 04:30 it was 05:21. No more action between then and dark but I watched a nice size pair swim up the heavy flow over the falls as if the water had no force at all. No way I could take off yesterday, but cut out early and the hole was again loaded, but the fish were on the other side of the creek due to bright sun. I did nothing, but the guy across the stream, who had a slightly crazy look on his face when I arrived and gestured wildly about fish in the pool, had on 6 in the next 45 minutes using a little orange fly. I noticed that he was wet to the knees ansd standing ankle deep in the flow, but he didn't have hippers or waders on. He finally left when the action slowed and the cold water finally overpowered the adreneline. Right before dark, there were fish in front of me but they wanted nothing to do with a Chartreuse glo bug, and there was not enough light left for tying, or negotiating the hazards to go downstream with a fish.
The lesson in this tale of intermittent reinforcement is that NOW is the time to use the time off, as this kind of intensity in the tribs only lasts a couple of weeks although there will be fish now for at least another month if you explore the gravel areas. Have fun!!
L13