1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Photography
›
3. Tanking big stockies w. no one around to fish the floods.

so since swpa has been in flood stage, we've been throwing sink tips and big flies to get down... nice having a stream loaded with fish with virtually no one fishing. No one fishing the high flows and I'm loving it...

my buddies fish:

we got some rad video of the fight, which ensued for quite some time and a long distance. we both almost took some diggers. this is the kid who guides in alaska.. kid's spirit is unbreakable.

all fish released...





yellow buggers produce all the time:



my fish, not as big, but still worthy for a pic:



funny part about it is, I caught a similar sized golden on the season opener in the same stretch, but due to the markings, I'm thinking different fish:



Jason, tomorrow, I'll post the original to this pic... there was a guy in the pic behind me.. the stamp function took him right out... just giving big ups to cs5 my man



it's a great feeling that very little fish are being creeled... going to plenty of dry fly action late season with the temps and rain holding the hatches off... this time last year grannoms were in full force here in western pa.

That is one of the biggest things I'd like to get CS5 for, the content-aware fill. I just usually don't have anything in photos that I need to remove, but it's a cool feature! I had to look pretty closely to see where it repeated trees along the shoreline.

There's also a little patterning in the water just below the trees, but I didn't notice either until Jason mentioned the trees. That does sound like a cool feature. My CS3 suddenly feels inadequate.

Great fish, guys - congratulations. Fishing flooded streams is a little scary sometimes, with the high water and low visibility for wading, but it can produce some abnormally big fish and tough fights. I did well last year in similar looking water with an olive sculpin. That was in June, and I'd headed out expecting to fish a new terrestrial in low water, only to find that a thunderstorm the night before had blown things out. I was disappointed not to be able to fish my new fly, but I changed plans and rigged for the high water. I caught a few of my biggest wild browns from that stream that day, and nearly floated my hat a few times. Big fish and no drowning - a good day.

I'll have to try a yellow version of the sculpin - or does it only work on palominos?

-Shawn

Shawn,

they catch them all my friend... a killer pattern that not many use.

Jason,

here's the original:



I wanted to keep the bank level and looking natural... I wish I had a better place to stamp, but hey, it def. still looks better than the oober right behind me haha.

Nice report and pics. Thanks for sharing.

Those pics remind me of a day last May on the Upper Current here in Missouri. The water was so high that the National Park Service had closed the river to boating due to flooding, deeming it unsafe...But the sign said nothing about wade fishing being banned so I fished anyway. Wading was pretty scary. The normally small, gentle river was a hoggish brown color and bank full, but I actually did pretty decent for the rainbows on bright orange glo-bugs. You can catch 'em in high muddy water, it's just that most people don't try. I know that day I was all alone on a stretch of water that is usually extremely crowded.

"yellow buggers produce all the time." Noted. Nice fish' guy!!