Well, I made the drive to Crane Creek today and was kind of disappointed. I am not as good a fisherman as I had delusions of being. The stream is gorgeous and the fish...well, I needn't say more about them. I started at the City Park and fished upstream of the red bridge as well as downstream of the road, halfway to the dairy farm. To start off with, I was using my Scott 8.5' 5wt and a 9' 5x leader. Well, with a #14 GRHE under a Thingamabobber, I was fishing the nymph rig to anything that looked fishy around the red bridge when the indicator jumped. Well, after a hook set, the prized 7" McCloud came to hand. About an hour later, I was downstream of the road, swinging a black #10 BH bugger to anything I could reach and when it came around a rootwad, the line went tight and the fight was on...well, kind of. It was another 7" rainbow.
Now for the disappointment. The only fish of size that I saw was two 12" plus fish that I spooked in the park. darn they were shallow, and I could not see them until they fled the scene of the intrusion. Now, I also saw one more fish in the City Park area and without giving away the location, I swung a bugger around the rootwad of a tree lying parallel to the current and saw a fish flashing my bugger. I got a bit antsy on the hookset and pulled it away from the big fish of the day.
I was a little peeved when I was fishing downstream from the park and I hear a chainsaw. Well, I am standing on a gravel bar, drifting a bugger into an undercut and darn tree falls not forty yards from the creek throwing branches a crap my direction. I was pissed.
Now, after I ate lunch, I went to the dairy farm access and grabbed the spinning rod and a Rooster tail. I tossed the Rooster Tail up underneath the bridge there and caught another 7" bow.
All in all, I did better than I anticipated, but I was hoping for more fish and maybe bigger fish. I wish I lived closer to the creek so I could fish it more often.
Now, can I ask a few questions since this type of creek fishing is new to me.
How do you fish the deeper, faster water? How heavy a fly is normally used for fishing these types of situations?