TR 9-4 and 9-5 Labor Day Weekend

[JestersHK]

Made it down Friday afternoon for a quick trip at the start of my Labor Day weekend.  Stream was in great shape, just a bit murky, and a tad lower than it has been, perfect for fishing.  Fished Friday night starting around 4pm and caught around 10 fish total all coming on a 1/32 Brown head maribou with a cream and orange tail.  Threw the usuals first with bumble bee and black maribous and the old Olive drab wooly bugger for almost an hour with just a few follows and nibbles, but caught all fish on the Brown and cream combo.  Fish were a bit on the small side, but we had a hot grill and needed to catch some dinner for Friday night.

Got up Saturday and made it down to the stream around 8:30 or so.  Was pretty surprised that it wasn't shoulder to shoulder being holiday weekend.  It was busy but nothing crazy.  Fished with my camper buddies and we caught a few below the dam and off the apron.  Moved further down stream and finally got to the bluff wall and started drifitng a peacock pattern mini about 4 feet under a float and the bite immediately picked up.  Did really well sore mouthing them at the wall before we moved on down to the outlet.

The outlet was pretty busy, and the fish were stacked up deeper than I ever seen them before.  My buddy started jigging through them and was catching them left and right.  I stopped drifitng and switched over to a big 1/8 oz black and drab jig and started chucking it across the stream.  Saw a few nice fish come up from the bottom and follow, but then my line would get into the mess of fish all stacked up like cord wood at the end of the riffles and would screw up my retrieve.  We fished here for a bit until the bite slowed, and then headed back in for some lunch.

Went back out around 2:30pm and we headed up to the first set of falls after the spring head.  The Brown and cream maribou was putting fish on the line consistently and seemed to be the color and pattern to beat.  We also saw a "lunker"(Taney has spoiled me with lunker size trout) hanging out right by the edge of the falls.  Fish was probably close to 3.5-4 pounds.  Nice to see fish that size in the spring acting fishy as its usually a rarity unless they are gorging on the gut piles.  Flipped a few things at him, but he wasn't budging.

Finished up on the apron drifting a glo-ball and catching a few here and there.  Again mostly just average to below average fish, but they were biting so can't complain. Finished off the day with over 20 fish landed.  Nothing spectacular, but overall a good trip.  Again no pics this time... I'm slacking and honestly the fish were just the average stockers.  Caught a few off the Apron who had decent color on them and looked like they had been in the stream for a while.  I'll be sure to break out the i-potato on my next run down if I make it before my next Taney trip.

Tight Lines guys, 

[rcguy]

 Nice report! Thanks

[Johnsfolly]

Sounds like a good trip.