Mr. Brown Meet Mr. Fiberglass

I got a wild hair up my butt on Wednesday and decided to head out and chase some browns.  I typically don't fish for the T word in general let alone in the middle of August.  I am a die hard warm water fly fisherman.  However, there is something to be said for fishing for the T word.  What lead me to them and Mr. Brown on Wednesday was Mother Nature.  I hate her!  She hates me!  Every stinking time I have several days off, it seems like it rains.  That happened on Tuesday.  It rained like crazy and the rivers were blown out.  I was not letting her get the best of me again on my days off.  On a whim and with a hair up my butt, I grabbed my 3/4 Featherlight and headed out the door.

After a 40 minute ride, I ended up at Morgan's Run.  I have been fishing this stream since I started fly fishing back in 1994.  It is small and has a very low hold over rate.  The water gets very low in the summer months.  It is stocked with browns and rainbows throughout the year and is catch and release.  Because it is one of only a handful of trout streams in the area, and is easy to access, it sees a lot of fishing pressure.  I mean a lot.  The fishermen range from fly fishermen to spin fishermen to people throwing bait (illegally).  As such, those that survive and become hold overs have quite the IQ.

I scouted the area and settled on the pool below the bridge as a likely spot to land something.  I know from past experience that there are always trout in this pool.  I wasn't disappointed.  As I stalked along the bank, I could see several decent size browns holding in the pool.  Sweet.  Time to go to work.  I started out throwing a psycho nymph in purple.  I had gotten some of these to try out a few months back.  Almost immediately I started seeing follows from some of the browns.  I did manage to land a few sunfish here and there but I was not here for them.  So no luck on the nymph...time to switch.  I decided to go with a hopper. Why not right?  It is after all summer time.  I picked out a brown and threw the fly right in his feeding lane.  Perfect drift.  A turn.  A follow.  A rise to inspect.  A gulp of the fly and a rip of the fly right out of his mouth.  You have got to be kidding me!  I couldn't believe I did that.  What the hell is wrong with me?  I continued throwing the hopper but they would not have anything to do with it.  Time to switch again.  Rooting through the terrestrial box, I picked out a black and red ant I had tied up like two years ago.  Again I was banking on the whole summer time bug thing.  Still zeroing in on the brown I hooked using the hopper, I threw it back up in his feeding lane.  It drifted down and he didn't even budge. Go figure.  However, just before I was going to stripe the fly in and cast out again, I observed another brown move over to inspect the fly.  Turning, he rose quickly and slammed the fly.  YES!  Almost immediately, Mr.  Brown went airborne.  I quickly put him on the reel and the fight was on.  Given the time of year, August, the fight didn't last long.  That was fine with me.  I didn't want to hurt Mr. Brown anyways.  I landed him and managed to get the camera out.  A push on the power button revealed...anybody, anybody.....that's right it was dead.  You have got to be kidding me!!!  My first brown on glass and no photo op?  He measured out at a cool 13 inches.  Not great but not bad given the time of year.  I would not complain over that one.  I was thrilled.  Sadly, though that was the only trout I landed that day.  I did manage to land a total of 10 sunfish but as I stated, I wasn't there for them.

I am so pissed I didn't get a photo of my first trout on glass.  Only after I released the fish did I remember I had my iPhone in the car which has a decent camera on it.  Retrieving that, I managed to snap some photos of the stream itself.  It really is a beautiful stream but from the photos you can tell just how small and low it is.  I can't wait to get out again and chase some browns with that fiberglass rod.