Bored so I went Fishing

[Seth]

Got down to the park about 12:30 just as the last two anglers were packing up and heading out. I fished from 12:30 to 4 and had the whole river to myself. Fishing was good. Lots of midging activity. My total fish count was between 20-30. I quit counting after 15 and caught several more after that. Most of the fish were between 1-1.5#. I'm not sure I ever did catch anything real small. My two best fish came on back to back casts by the bathroom hole. The first good fish was an 18 incher that I plucked from the fast water upstream of the falls. The next cast was below the falls and it produced a 21" rainbow that weighed just over 4#. The trout were midging heavily and I think a guy with a soft hackle or a crackleback on a fly rod could have really put a hurting on the fish. There are quite a few trout over 20" in the stream right now. I wasn't looking real hard for them and I spotted at least a half dozen. Nothing gigantic, but all about like the one I landed.

I also saw a trout about like the biggest one that I caught floating dead in the moss down by the river bend near the back parking lot. My guess is somebody caught it and then beat it all around and held it out of the water for a lengthy period of time trying to get pictures and stressed it to death. That is a shame. If you catch a nice fish, keep it in a net in the water while you get things ready. As you can see, the big one I caught today is still in the net with it's head in the water. If I let it flop around on the gravel for several minutes while I fumbled around getting my phone, chances are it too would have died. The net is also what I use for weighing fish. Leave the fish in the net and then clip the scale to the net. No sense is risking damage to the gills.Of course you have to deduct the weight of the net to get the actual fishes weight. I think my net weighs around .20 so the fish was just a smidge over 4#.

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[Lee Stallard]

Wow. That's a nice fish.

[Johnsfolly]

Congrats on a great day fishing! Very nice rainbow. Glad you brought up keeping the fish in the water.  At the temps we have been experiencing their gills will freeze pretty quickly. Be a shame to lose nice fish due to mishamdling.

[laker67]

Nice fish Seth. Like you, I have always weighed fish using the net also. 

[Smalliebigs]

cool Seth.....you should see some of the trout handling I have been witnessing at the Three urban lakes I had been fishing until the little ice age. Some guys were holding the trout on the ground with their foot while they pulled on the rooster tail in it's throat hahahahaha....classic.

For the green snakes I am almost always barbless and usually never lift a green snake out of the pond or stream.....just pop the opposite way the hook point went in and they come right off VERY easily.

 

[Gavin]

Nice rainbow Seth! They midge allot at MS, but they can be super picky about size, and color when they are keyed on that tiny stuff.

[bkbying89]

I was down at the Springs Thursday and stayed until the end and did miserably. I saw very little activity. I was way off my game and the only thing I caught was a cold. I did see a really nice size trout, all red and beat up. It looked like there was a huge gouge on its side ( A bite mark?) and the fins were almost worn and ragged. The hatchery Manager said they were going to release some trout this last Friday. They release fish throughout the season to replace the ones mishandled by fishermen. I see a lot of guys trying to be conscientious about releasing their fish but you will always lose a few. 

 

Bill