I went down to the public access to brave the possible crowd.. Got there around 6 and the hole Between the last access and the island was chock full of people, so I opted to hit a little used stretch on the miracle mile.. I rigged up an olive bugger and started working over the tail out of the riffles and immediately hooked a nice little rainbow (13 or 14 inches).. Had a few more flashes over the next half hour, but no takes.. Just as I was pondering on what in my fly box would work, the stream surface comes alive with browns! There were flys buzzing the surface and the hole I was in quite literally blew up with top water action! Browns were literally launching themselves in the air after these little white flies..
I tied on one of those weird little cracklebacks that I tied and it was game on for about 45 minutes! I stuck around 15 of em, so many that I destroyed two flies! And these fish were in a frenzy too.. None of em were too big (I didn't take a picture of the biggest one, I knew I only had so many casts before it was over for the night), but 7 inches to around 10 and every single one of em thought they were in the Circus! Acrobatics galore, and putting a decent bend in my 5wt..
Then they shut back off, just as fast. So I flailed with the crackleback for a few more minutes, then, as the last light was fading, I switched back to that beadhead bugger and fish the same spots that the browns were hanging when the topwater bite was on and managed to get one more hook up on a decent fish, another 13 inch bow... Didn't photo his butt either because I just about ate it and drown myself when I set the hook on him and I temporarily lost my senses..
Hit the road around 8:30 and then, on the way home, spotted the golf course/fitness center that I just signed up for... I remembered they said I could hit the ponds with a pole, providing I don't bother the golfers. So me and my light rod decide to take a walk down to the hole 1 tee that's overlooking the pond..
Lil blackie flat tore em up for about an hour, the I decided to walk back to the truck and get the fly rod and my one popper.
Bad move, I guess? I got a good hour of practice at false casting a popper on a 5wt in the dark, but I didn't get one looker on the popper. (unless you count the bat that kept buzzing my line)
Anyway, I feel better now..