Saturday, May 2, 2009

The Return of the Indian.

The Browns Are Back.

Home waters hold a special place in all fly fishermen's hearts. These waters are often where we honed our craft learning how to cast, mend, fight, and land fish. They are usually the spot where we landed our first trout on fly fishing tackle and our first trout on a fly we tied all by ourselves. These firsts, are some of the defining moments in a fly fishermen's career. It is these moments, on our homewaters, that we cherish most. In these moments we develop a lifelong passion that eventually becomes an addiction.

Home Water.

Little Caddis House on the Rock.

Primary Food Source.

I can still remember my first trout on the fly. I had just turned 13 and had received a new outfit for my birthday. That evening, I geared up and headed with my father down the street to the local creek. I had tied on a prince nymph from some assortment that came along with the outfit. I began fishing the deep pool under the bridge. I had no luck, but I remained patient and persistent. As the sun faded behind the trees, I turned my attention to a small riffle at the head of the pool. At this moment I did not have the ability to read water and the spots where trout often hold, so I had no expectations for where I was about to cast. It was only a few inches deep, but I cast anyway. My fly landed along the edge of the riffle and as my leader and line drifted back towards me they suddenly paused. I lifted the rod to set the hook and on the other end a small rainbow began fighting back.

Young of the Year.

Beautiful Brown.

Since then, I have had many more moments on my homewater, Indian Creek. In ten years I have witnessed the rise and fall of its bounty. Each year environmental factors such as floods change the landscape of the small stream filling in previously deep pools and creating new holding water behind log jams. I have also witness the effects of development on the wild brown population. Over the past few years their numbers had dwindled. An outing would often yield zero native fish. I stopped fishing the Indian and reserved it for special moments once or twice a year just to see how it was doing. Over my spring break, I returned to the Indian and was astonished to find that the browns were back and they were larger, prettier, and smarter than ever. On my last outing, I landed one of the largest browns I have ever caught out of the Indian. In small riffle under a heavy canopy of evergreens, I drifted my flies along an edge of slate. Out from under the slate, the big brown emerged and gently took my caddis. He put up an amazing fight on my 2wt before coming to hand.

Landed in the Rain (the best time).

Nice Fins.

Full of Caddis.

I Was Pumped.

Release.

Powering Away.

Back To His Lair.

1 comment:

Wade Rivers said...

Excellent composition on a beautiful series of pix. Spring time trout fishing on Indian Creek sure turned out to be heap big medicine this year.