Time: 8:30AM – 10:30AM

Location: Between Spring Creek Reservoir and confluence with the Taylor River

Spring Creek Morning 07/27/2021 Photo Album

It was 46 degrees, when I rolled out of my sleeping bag at Lottis Creek Campground . I got off to a nice early start for my long day of fly fishing and arrived at a pullout along the dirt road that follows Spring Creek by 8:10AM, and the temperature was up to 51 degrees. I wore my fleece to start the day, since I planned to return to the car by mid-morning, and this would allow me to shed a layer prior to continuing through the warmest part of the day. I rigged my Orvis Access four weight for some small stream fishing, but I really had no idea what to expect on this rare early morning venture into fly fishing.

Honey Hole

Suffice it to say, that I never anticipated landing eighteen trout in two hours of fishing. The creek was running full, yet very manageable, so I began and ended with a peacock hippie stomper. During a thirty minute period I felt that the catch rate slowed, so I added a pheasant tail nymph, but the fish continued to attack the attractor dry fly and ignored the nymph. The dropper was simply a nuisance, and it seemed that I experienced more long distance releases perhaps due to the leader connecting the stomper to the trailing subsurface fly. I theorized that the small fish felt the line coming off the bend, and this sensation caused the fish to flip off the hook.

Large for Small Stream

Bankside Lie

My two hours on Spring Creek were great fun, Nearly all the likely spots delivered, and in many cases they yielded multiple fish. Of course most of the stream trout were small, but early in the game I tempted a fourteen inch brown to chase the hippie stomper from its lair under a log. I made a downstream drift, and just as the fly approached the submerged log beneath an overhanging branch, I lifted to avoid a snag, and the wily trout grabbed the dry fly, before it could escape.

Fish Landed: 18