Fished Rocky Ford Creek last Thursday, 140 miles and 2.5hrs
drive from North Bend.
Got to the creek by 9:00 am , weather was sunny, No Winds! all
day and warming up steady throughout the day.
I tied two new patterns the night before, one soft hackle with
some CDC and peacock herl in size#10 and the second Pussycat nymph;
pheasant rump for tail,fur/chenille for body , pheasant rump for hackle and
pheasant for wingcase.
The first one proved to be the "ticket" for that day for
me.
On the fourth cast drifting my soft hackle across the slower
currant my line stopped , I quickly responded with side strike of my rod and I
was in to big trout.
He came out of the water and shot for the other bank, my 5
weight T&T handled the fish run with no problem.
This fish was all 23" great silvery color with nice
rainbow slash right in the middle of it.
Second cast with same fly , same drift different fish hit the
fly hard again, but after I had him on my reel, very close to my side , hook
came free and he shot for the cover.
Another cast with the soft hackle same run took a another
big bow, this time I got him in, nice over 20 inches.Next fish broke me
off, but I still had 3 more of those, good that I stay late and tied more of
them night before.
After fourth fish , and temps up to 80's fishing slowed down .
I took a nice lunch, salami and swiss and Gatorade, then went back to another
spot.
By now there was only another person on the entire creek ! not
bad for fall fishing.
I swap my fly selection from the wet fly to dry since few good
size fish ware working the surface , feeding on the very small emerger, I tied
on Elk hair emerger with some CDC and lon 12" leader taper to 4' 6x
tippet.
I made cast well across the creek in the slower water column
where big rainbow was feeding for past 10 minutes, first cast wend right ahead
of him he came out of bottom and just bumped with he's snout, it made good
size wake, Man! my heart rate went up to the sky!
I cast again in the same feeding line , only this time he went
for it with full force! came out of the water, big mean bright rainbow and
like the bone fish did he's tale dance!
Did not spool me , but in fact went for like four, five runs
after he head nothing left in he's tank.
I quickly took a photo, flushed the lactic acid from he's
body and after big splash and hard slap on my wrist with he's tail finn , went
for cover.
By now I was thinking whoa! what a day on the water, all
the fish got lot of good recovery after past spring, and are in
awesome shape to fight with angler now!
So far I landed 5 nice big rainbows, and 3 hrs left to
fish.
After another great looking in spawning colors male I fulled on
big size#10 scud I put on the "Pussycat" nymph fly , I founded pattern in old
fishing book.
I cast this kind of ugly looking nymph right in the middle of
boiling rings, bang! I felt hard pull, fish took it and hold it for
a second, than hook came loose!
Immediately, I made a cast right in the same spot, and start to
finger retrieve, this time fish made surge, I could see the wake on the
surface right behind my escaping nymph, this time he took hard my
offering and the fish was on , it took some time to get him in my net, he
was as long as my net handle all 25"
This was the fish of the day not only becouse he was big and
fat, but the way he reacted to my offering , he wanted so bad , he went second
time!
I got this long handle net for the Rocky creek like fishing and
pontoon boats, it works very well .
After this fish I landed few more fish , one with super
glorious Red colors.
Total 9 landed and 4 hooked and lost, this time I used bigger
bugs in size #10 and smaller!
I learned one thing at the creek that day. Not allways
your best performing fly , like the "scud" works well there, somotimes you got
to switch thinks around and get creative with your fly selections and from
just okay day , could be your Best day on the water!
I bee glad to show the pictures, they came out very unique,
some under water fish shots and some landscape of the creek area.
Thanks for reading,
Les Korcala
