Thursday, April 14, 2011

Stubbornness & Greed



I hadn't been on a trout stream in two weeks due to opening day and the extravaganza that takes place on trout streams across the country. To top it off, I experienced a major skunking the previous weekend  fishing in some new and unfamiliar territory. With spring break approaching and a beautiful day outside, I made a bee line to the water soon afterwork intent on some evening action.


Sculpzilla.

As I approached the water, a brown trout rose in the nearest riffle and hundreds of midges were above the water. Larger crane flies were picking them off inches above the surface with their long appendages dangling towards the water. On top of the crane flies were sparrows weaving in and out of branches and dancing above the riffles better than any piece of manmade technology ever will. I stepped into this food chain and decided on introducing some protein. Despite rising fish and perfect conditions for a deadly dry dropper combo, I decide not to change rigs. Looking down on my 4wt. fly rod I noticed an old dry fly leader with a piece of 2x attached to the end of it and four inches of articulated sculpin on the end of that. Out of stubbornness I decided to leave it be. I tested the knot strength of the connections because the rig was super old. Satisfied, I chucked and ducked the sculpzilla into the riffle. The rising brown trout exploded, almost instantaneously on the fly, and I was into the first fish of the day. 


Slightly High.


A Greedy Brown.


I Love the Taste of Sculpin in the Afternoon.




Footprints.


The Stalker.

For most of the day, my stubbornness resulted in many follows but very few takes. It seemed the majority of fish were not willing to attack something a quarter of their size. They would follow the fly several feet and turn away at the last second. That left me with only a few greedy & gluttonous fish approaching sixteen inches to take. They wanted it bad, and were met with two stinger hooks in the face. 


Mayfly.


Greedy Bow.


The Sculpin Stache. 

2 comments:

Matthew D Dunn said...

Sculpin stache. That's awesome.

Feather Chucker said...

Nice blog, I like the pics. I'll have to try a sculpin pattern like that.