Time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM
Location: Confluence with Eagle River up to split in Brush Creek downstream from the Gaboury’s house
Fish Landed: 5
Brush Creek 07/05/2014 Photo Album
After a fun morning of edge fishing the Eagle River at 900 cfs, Dave G. and I returned to the Gaboury house where we ate leftover barbecue from the neighborhood Fourth of July party. We hadn’t had our fill of fishing after three hours on the Eagle River, so we decided to undertake a second outing on Brush Creek. Once again we enlisted Jane to be our taxi driver, and she drove down Violet Lane and dropped us off next to the open space path that leads to the confluence of the Eagle River and Brush Creek. Again a red pick up truck was parked beneath route 6, but this time we chose to ignore it, and made the assumption that a fishermen would have passed through this stretch of Brush Creek hours ago.
When we reached the mouth of Brush Creek, I fished a short stretch of the Eagle downstream but had no success. I then waded across a rather swift Brush Creek and fished along the Eagle for a short distance before turning my attention to the smaller tributary. As was the case on Friday, Brush Creek was still flowing at a high level with only a few spots that fish could find refuge in and fishermen could fish. I began walking along the left or north bank and came upon Dave G. fairly quickly. Through no planning, it worked out that we were on opposite sides of the stream as we progressed back toward Eagle Ranch.
In a long straight stretch below Violet Lane I encountered a three foot wide swath of slower moving water next to the bank and tossed my pool toy and salvation nymph within a foot of the bank. The pool toy drifted a short distance when it paused, and my reflexes took over with a solid hook set. The fish reacted with a dive and head thrashing and then a brief downstream attempt at escape, but I managed to maintain control and landed a beautiful 15 inch brown that consumed the salvation nymph. My good fortune from the morning seemed to be continuing.
Fine Chunky Brown from Brush Creek on Saturday
Once I’d released the husky brown, I ventured further upstream under route 6 and then contorted myself to scramble over a steep bank and through some difficult wooden thickets. Next came a long straight fast riffle stretch, and that did not offer any viable locations to cast a fly. Finally in a deep pocket next to the bank below a dead tree branch, I landed two chunky twelve inch brown trout. I was thrilled to experience some action after a long dry spell.
Once again I skipped around quite a bit of water that offered few holding spots, and then passed under the Sylvan Lake Road bridge. From the bridge to the point where Brush Creek divides into two roughly equal channels, I landed two small 6-8 inch browns from marginal areas. The split afforded me an opportunity to cross the brawling stream, so I took advantage and met Dave G, and we decided to return to the house so we could prepare for a dinner date at Pastatively with Jane and Beth. Brush Creek continued to be tough fishing with few viable spots that could yield fish, but I’d managed to pick up five fish in two hours including a 16 inch beauty.