The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.
This one was surprisingly straightforward to identify. The lack of a sclerite at the base of the lateral hump narrows the field quite a bit, and the other options followed fairly obvious characteristics to Clostoeca, which only has one species, Clostoeca disjuncta.
Following Saturday's success chasing my first Westslope Cutthroat, my goal for Sunday was to find some closer to home. Once again ignoring the regional fishing guidebooks and chasing after half a sentence from an old technical report and some promising squiggles on Google Maps, we found another nice stream tumbling down out of the mountains. Again, there were willing trout in every pool.
My Google Maps sleuthing was a bit off, though. I chose my location based on the presence of some longer, slower, larger pools than were visible in most of the creek. Those turned out to be nearly empty, save for a few fingerlings. The best fish were in the more frequent plunge pools formed by the stream's abundant boulders. Interesting lesson learned.