I head to Slough Creek with some expectation and lots of excitement. How was the fishing? It stayed 40s all day. It was somewhat cold too. I got there much earlier than I planned. Drake patterns brought lots of trout to the surface for the last two month regardless of amount of hatch. But it was simply quiet. Green Drake may be thinning out, I thought. I didn't see any baetis in the air or on the water so I trailed this little soft-hackle.
WHAM on a short swing. A typical cut-bow from that hole. I always enjoy little flies get some attention from trout and land them right.
After this one, it was totally dead. I was patient and hoping for hatches. 1pm? 2pm? NOTHING!! Baetis never hatched under this "supposed" perfect weather. I saw a few green drakes but trout didn't pay any attention either.
============================================================By 3pm, 3 other anglers nearby decided to leave. I should have. Lamar might offer better hatch and catching trout. But I wasn't interested in catching trout. I stubbornly decided to stay to make some more learning and observation for Slough. Hatch would be later!!.......maybe. I worked some more. I tied on a Baetis Foam Nymph. It was impossible to track this tiny fly on the surface with 40-ft cast but I executed my special technique "SET TO THE RISE" (I'll describe this later). I hooked a potential nice one in front of one of leaving anglers. But gone.......
I kept working on all by myself. I did another "set-to-the-rise" and this time trout acted like either Brown or whitefish, both of which don't exist in Slough. It went deep and held. I know how to fight with big trout but this one was very heavy. I was afraid of foul-hooked somewhere on its body but it did seem to be on its mouth. I was with 5X tippet, totaling 16 or 17 feet leader. Very hard to net it in. I even tried to beach it gently, which I'm good at, but it never gave up. My rod-hand felt sored for the first time since when. Fight lasted probably for 2 or 3 minutes. As I was afraid to lose it, I lost it...........Gone. Not line broke or gap opened, fly just popped out. It was guessed almost 20-inch, not larger than that, but must have been quite heavy. It could have been a fish of the year........
I kept working on all by myself. I did another "set-to-the-rise" and this time trout acted like either Brown or whitefish, both of which don't exist in Slough. It went deep and held. I know how to fight with big trout but this one was very heavy. I was afraid of foul-hooked somewhere on its body but it did seem to be on its mouth. I was with 5X tippet, totaling 16 or 17 feet leader. Very hard to net it in. I even tried to beach it gently, which I'm good at, but it never gave up. My rod-hand felt sored for the first time since when. Fight lasted probably for 2 or 3 minutes. As I was afraid to lose it, I lost it...........Gone. Not line broke or gap opened, fly just popped out. It was guessed almost 20-inch, not larger than that, but must have been quite heavy. It could have been a fish of the year........I fished some more till dark but that was all. I'm not so disappointed or even desperate about losing two nice trout but I am disappointed with the hatch........ What was wrong with the creek or the bugs? And why am I keep enjoying this sadistic treatment from Slough??
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