Crockett
04-27-2011, 12:06 AM
This is a mini fishing report and to share some of what I learned when fishing this past weekend. I try a lot of different things and figured out some stuff that helped me a bit this time that I wanted to share. I fished a speck stream in part of the park I don't get to much and wanted to get away from the usual sam's creek or road prong destinations and hit someplace new. I got me one of Fred's maps and it showed a footbridge on a stream that I hadn't fished up yet. I thought I could get in the stream and fish up it a mile until I hit that footbridge and then get out. This plan worked great. I caught a lot of fish and was a very happy camper.
The stream was great:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/honeyp1.jpg
One of many nice specks I caught this day:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/speck2.jpg
Took me 5 hours to fish about 1 and a half miles but I finally hit the footbridge way up the headwaters of this creek and I was happy to see it. I wondered if maybe there wasn't a footbridge and hit a bunch of islands and sluices and got a little bewildered but made it. Here I am on the footbridge:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/madeit.jpg
I caught a lot of specks this day most being small but lots of fun. Anyway here are a few things I learned just cause I would like to see more stuff like this myself.
I have tried vests and tech packs but I keep going back to just wearing a small dark colored daypack and having a lanyard around my neck. You can see the pack on me in that pick above but the lanyard I keep tucked inside my shirt cause i don't like it bouncing around. On the lanyard are just 4 things. Nipper, very small forceps, bug float, and dry shake. That is it. I keep tippet and flies in daypack or the big side pocket of my pants.
The boonie hat has been great cause I am a habitual leaver of articles at streamside. I scatter flies, tippet and such around on rocks and always forget something. On this trip when I needed to change flies or tie a new one on I take off my hat and put the flies, tippet, and stuff I am using in my hat while I am working with it using my hat as a bench to tie on flies and stuff then put it all away and the hat back on. That helped me a lot. Many of you probably already do that kind of thing I just catch on slow and have to figure it out for myself haha.
Another thing I learned which I already knew but wasn't disciplined enough to do it was to fish the tail of the pool first and when i would get one on I would pull him up out of the pool real quick to keep from spooking the others. I didn't let the little guys "fight" and swim around in the pool a lot I just jerked them up out of there quick and clean. I was able to catch many from the same pool by starting from the tail of the pool, providing a quick exit for the trout when hooked, and releasing it downstream in the previous pool I fished helped me catch multiples from each pool.
Finally this time in addition to my Korkers I wore a pair of gaitors over them. They are black and you can kind of see them in the pick. I found that the gaitors helped in several ways. The day before I just wore my korkers and shorts in another creek and got hit a lot by stinging nettle(Oh yeah I found a while back the best way to relieve nettle sting is to wash the spot off in the creek with the cold water). Wearing the gaitors I was immune to the nettle and didn't worry as much about scraping my legs, things biting me, etc. But best of all they kept my Korkers tied all day long. I don't know what it is about wading but my Korkers always come untied and I tie them 15 times a fishing trip. With the gaitors they stayed tied all day and that was great.
Most of that was common sense but I wanted to share it in case there is some nugget in there someone hadn't thought of.
Another secluded piece of speck paradise. I can still hear the water rushing there
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/100_2992.jpg
The stream was great:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/honeyp1.jpg
One of many nice specks I caught this day:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/speck2.jpg
Took me 5 hours to fish about 1 and a half miles but I finally hit the footbridge way up the headwaters of this creek and I was happy to see it. I wondered if maybe there wasn't a footbridge and hit a bunch of islands and sluices and got a little bewildered but made it. Here I am on the footbridge:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/madeit.jpg
I caught a lot of specks this day most being small but lots of fun. Anyway here are a few things I learned just cause I would like to see more stuff like this myself.
I have tried vests and tech packs but I keep going back to just wearing a small dark colored daypack and having a lanyard around my neck. You can see the pack on me in that pick above but the lanyard I keep tucked inside my shirt cause i don't like it bouncing around. On the lanyard are just 4 things. Nipper, very small forceps, bug float, and dry shake. That is it. I keep tippet and flies in daypack or the big side pocket of my pants.
The boonie hat has been great cause I am a habitual leaver of articles at streamside. I scatter flies, tippet and such around on rocks and always forget something. On this trip when I needed to change flies or tie a new one on I take off my hat and put the flies, tippet, and stuff I am using in my hat while I am working with it using my hat as a bench to tie on flies and stuff then put it all away and the hat back on. That helped me a lot. Many of you probably already do that kind of thing I just catch on slow and have to figure it out for myself haha.
Another thing I learned which I already knew but wasn't disciplined enough to do it was to fish the tail of the pool first and when i would get one on I would pull him up out of the pool real quick to keep from spooking the others. I didn't let the little guys "fight" and swim around in the pool a lot I just jerked them up out of there quick and clean. I was able to catch many from the same pool by starting from the tail of the pool, providing a quick exit for the trout when hooked, and releasing it downstream in the previous pool I fished helped me catch multiples from each pool.
Finally this time in addition to my Korkers I wore a pair of gaitors over them. They are black and you can kind of see them in the pick. I found that the gaitors helped in several ways. The day before I just wore my korkers and shorts in another creek and got hit a lot by stinging nettle(Oh yeah I found a while back the best way to relieve nettle sting is to wash the spot off in the creek with the cold water). Wearing the gaitors I was immune to the nettle and didn't worry as much about scraping my legs, things biting me, etc. But best of all they kept my Korkers tied all day long. I don't know what it is about wading but my Korkers always come untied and I tie them 15 times a fishing trip. With the gaitors they stayed tied all day and that was great.
Most of that was common sense but I wanted to share it in case there is some nugget in there someone hadn't thought of.
Another secluded piece of speck paradise. I can still hear the water rushing there
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll9/CrockettCreek/MiscFishingSpots/100_2992.jpg