Early June Trout

June 5, 2011

Well it's almost 6:30 pm and I'm sitting here thinking about how to recap this past weekend of trout fishing. I'm in the shade of some beech trees listening to the wind blowing across the hills and the sound of the stream flowing. The sounds of songbirds are the only other noise to be heard, it's nice, real nice.

The weekend has been a good one up to this point, with a few fish coming to hand and taking in some beautiful late spring scenery. I just finished up completing my trout 'grand slam' for today, a small brown was kind enough to give me the trifecta when he took my copper john nymph. It's amazing how well he blends into his underwater environment.


Just about an hour ago I landed the 'big' fish of the weekend, a sixteen inch rainbow, caught in one of my favorite places when it comes to trout fishing. There's some history at the spot and it was good to kind of reconnect to the past a little bit. The rainbow was a beauty with a bright crimson gill plate and stripe. I was hoping the eagle would give me a fly over and complete the whole scene but it was a no show. Oh well, maybe another time.



Earlier in the day I had some good fishing upstream of this location with numerous brookies and rainbows being caught on spinners and flies. This small rainbow was a real looker, for some reason I love the way parr marks look on a trout.



Water levels are way down in some streams but the recent 'cold snap' has brought water temperatures down again, if only for a little while. Even the mighty Clarion was a cool sixty six degrees this evening and a few brookies fell victim to my spinners and crankbaits. Unless they find some thermal refuge their time is limited in this river. I actually thought about keeping a few but didn't.




Brook trout once again made up the vast majority of the fish caught over the last couple of days, no complaints here though, I love catching them!






Some notable scenes from the weekend include a gorgeous sunset on Friday evening while fishing a good stream.




And this grouse I came across while waking down an old logging road.


This one though, is just wishful thinking on my part.


Another really good weekend of fishing that charged the spirit to make it though another week. Sometimes while sitting at a place like this the temptation is great to just stay and leave it all behind. Then reality sets in and you're just thankful to get out here for at least a little while and enjoy it all.

As I head out and turn away from the stream I can't help but look back and think that life is indeed good!