Day 8: Armstrong's - Last Day!!

April 14th, the last day of this trip, I went to Armstrong's again. By then, I started to feel a little better about the wreck. I needed to overcome the fear and make a happy end. It was another sunny windy day though wind was manageable.

This was the last day of winter rate at the creek. Anyway, I was the only one customer. I moved and fished all over. I started from the lower third to get me hooked with some trout. Several trout should keep me busy and have me focus on fishing, not about the wreck any more. This is always a "go-to" section for me but this morning it was really slow. But even without trout, now I was into fishing. I hooked the first one of the day in the middle of lower riffle with Doug's Home Invader. Her head seemed a bit damaged somehow.

This is the very end of O'Hair Ranch and a deep holding pool. I was not trespassing to Depuy's but my line and fly swum away and hooked one!! Is this legal? Though it's a good holding pool that one needs to cast a few at least, I admit I did this for picture-oriented intention, which usually doesn't work. This time it did work!

I pulled out a handsome 16-incher!! As all the trout I have caught at Armstrong's, this one also looked one-inch longer than actual length. It did look 17" because it was fat and handsome!

And toothy..... By doing this 4 days at both Armstrong's and Nelson's, all of my Home Invader in certain size and color were totally worn out and gone (I snagged trees only a few!).

I dropped by Yellowstone Angler to say hi and bye and went back to the creek. As I was seeing all through during this trip, spring baetis and midge hatches and rising trout in the afternoon were scarce to none. I wanted to catch 20-incher or larger! So I stuck with streamers. I did move few shadows chasing my streamers. Also I saw a couple of large rainbows that were so spooky that I guessed due to the spawning season. My last catch was this browny.

Half of this trip was spent at spring creeks. I planned to take an advantage of a low winter rate. Not the ideal weather condition, but I did enjoy to be there with lots of feisty trout.

I have just noticed that I've been chasing shadows of large trout at Armstrong's without really hooking into them. Of course that is quite an exciting experience itself. But as an angler, I want to catch them. I will figure out my tactics and flies for the next outings. Most likely in the fall when the rate gets low again, I'd say, and most likely on the way home after I fish Madison and Yellowstone Park waters.