The sporadic rains we’ve experienced the past two days pushed a little water into our tributaries Thursday and Friday.  I decided to leave work early to check out two tiny tribs.  Even though they were only three miles apart, one was higher and more discolored.  I liked the tea colored water conditions of the heavier flowing creek and  started fishing a well-known, deep, wide hole below a drop off that held fish over the past month.  Many times, aggressive fish will hit on the first few casts.  After twenty minutes of no luck, I opted to hike downstream and scout.

I soon observed two large browns on a gravel bed.  Thirty feet below them were a smaller pair of lake run rainbows.  I’ll always target a greedy fall steelhead over a brown.  On my first decent drift, the larger steelhead sucked in my egg pattern.  After a few cartwheels and keeping it out of the brush, I snapped a quick photo.  The other steelie took after a few casts and I admired the great color on these precious fish.  Fun to spot them in shallow water and see their interception of a decent fly.  Egg sucking leeches sure hook their share of fish for me!  A good pair of eyes and polarized glasses sure help too.

With limited daylight left, I drove a few short miles to another creek and hiked directly to one hole.  My fourth cast yielded a 27″ steelhead that took off downstream.  That same hole soon gave up a decent brown and a smaller, 14″ steelhead.  Nice to catch three fish from one spot.  To cap off the day, I removed a trash bag from my fanny pack and picked up trash along the creek en route to my car.  I always keep a few plastic grocery bags in my gear bin and encourage others to pick up trash, especially on private land.  We’re seeing more posted water and a possible reason for prohibiting access is trash from anglers.  At one spot, I picked up a corn can, worm tin, beer bottles, lengths of mono, plastic jigs, etc.  We take so much from these waters, let’s protect them and all pitch in to keep them clean.

Finally, when I arrived at my car I observed a tan caddisfly on the back windshield.  It must have been a size #16 and it hopped around my car.  December and caddis are unusual.   We’ve been blessed with an unseasonably warm Fall and I found this little guy an ironic icon to help welcome Winter!