Mountains, Rivers, & Trout: 3rd Week of March Report (Almost All a Photo Gallery)

I'd like to say I'm back to full-time fishing from this past week (though I'm not exactly fishing full-day = early-late but my outing is getting longer and later in the evening). I visited DePuy's Spring Creek (www.depuyspringcreek.com) for 4 days. Each day was filled with some of the greatest spring actions I ever experienced for this time of the year!! That means I took lots of picture, which means this post will show perhaps the most pictures I ever done. But don't worry: my writing should be very minimal instead. Let's look!

Monday, March 16th, it was cloudy in the afternoon = a perfect condition for baetis (blue-wiged-olive)!!

Then my own FA Nymph was the top producer of the day!!

Nice!

Then...

This was definitely the "river-run" Rainbow!! A lot too handful for my little 4wt-8ft rod though.....

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Wednesday, 18th, it was warm and bright in the afternoon. I didn't know what to expect at my regular spot but I started to see rises. I soon figured midges were hatching. BUT!!! It wasn't a typical rise form. I didn't see any dorsal fins and tails were breaking the water, not to mention no heads/mouths were protruding either. With some trials and errors, I figured out trout were feeding probably 4-inch below the surface. I was managed to haul in several trout. My pump results confirmed my observation. They were exclusively feeding on midge pupae!!!!!

By the end of the hatch...........

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Thursday, 19th, it was very much similar condition. Oh, don't let me forget to mention that, besides midge & baetis hatches, "spring spawning run" of Rainbows are also hot & furious!! They may even rise on our dry-flies!! Before & after the hatches, I do look for them.

Besides egg patterns, this time of year, my own BPC (Bead. Pheasant. Copper.) has been very effective. I strongly believe this imitates baetis (BWO) nymphs, soon-to-follow PMD nymphs, and perhaps snails.

Then, again, super technical midge hatches...........Trout were again exclusively feeding 4-inch below the surface. My own Pupaerger hooked something.........big...........

It was a very fine brown. I actually thought it would be another river-run rainbow. This was a bit too much for my 4wt-8ft. Mostly because of leverage = rod length.

I kept fishing. Here are another pump result. One small brown spat on me!!

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Friday, 20th, it was another similar condition = 3 days in a row. I got a large river-run 'Bow before the midge hatch.

So I acquired a new wand in the evening of the previous day from my neighborhood fisherman at the creek. WOW............it just fits in my hand as well as it fits to my "casting personality". After two near-misses, this cute brown became the memorable start of journey with me.

Is this because hook was wimpy or trout was too big?

Napping while I was working hard - I guess their long necks need rested correctly.........

As the day gets longer, I start to stay a bit longer at the creek. At one particular spot, I observed several cruising trout. After several trials and errors, I was able to "dap" my flies successfully on its course. It was barely rod-length apart = 9ft!! I set the hook at the exact moment trout opened & closed its mouth!! Super up-close-&-personal moment!!