Time: 9:00AM – 1:00PM

Location: Last 30 yards of stream before it entered the lake

Fish Landed: 11 trout

Tommy Creek 06/24/2011 Photo Album

On Friday Mark piloted the cabin cruiser while Jordan and I were passengers as we headed to Tommy Creek. If time permitted, we were also planning to sample Sid Larsen Creek and possibly Big Creek as well. We got off to an early start and arrived at Tommy Creek and began fishing by 9AM. The rest of the crew headed to the Copper River. Mark took his video camera along and filmed quite a bit of my fish catching. He and Desiree promised to send me the DVD once they return to Wyoming in the fall.

Scene of Big Fish Mouth of Tommy Creek

I began fishing with a white flesh streamer that Jordan tied on his Scott S4 6 weight with a sinking tip line. I was once again making casts across the river to the middle, then three quarters, then the far bank and letting the streamer sink and sweep down and across. Mark and Jordan taught me how to stay in contact with the streamer and watch where the line entered the water. It didn’t take long before Jordan switched to the fry fly he tied the night before. Closer to the mouth of the creek across from a dead limb I hooked and landed my second 24” rainbow trout of the week. This proved to be a strong fighter and a beautiful silvery fish. Mark and Jordan referred to it as a chromer, and it had sea lice under its fins.

A Chromer Just in from the Lake

Shortly after releasing the chromer another fish hammered the fry fly, and I fought and landed a colorful 23” drop back rainbow. Mark was sure he’d spotted this fish on a previous trip. It was much more brightly colored and was in the process of dropping back to the lake after spawning in the creek. Tommy Creek was surely making an impression on me. I asked Jordan if he followed a pattern to create the salmon fry fly, and he told me he just observed naturals and put together materials to imitate.

22" Drop Back Beauty after Spawning

We spotted some rises and switched to a small humpy-style fly. I cast above a rise and a fine 16” rainbow rose and slurped in the humpy and shortly thereafter I landed a second 16” rainbow on the dry fly. These would tie for my largest fish taken on dries during the week.

Maribou Flesh Fly Took Many Fish During the Week

After landing the two trout on dries, rising activity slowed so we switched to indicator nymph fishing with the rubber leg pheasant tail on top and the white flesh fly with a red stripe in the bottom position. This produced a couple nice fish including a 20” rainbow that munched the flesh fly. It was during the nymphing that I became more adept at casting across the river and making a big mend and then feeding line out while making rapid stack mends. This enabled extremely long drag free drifts downstream into the meat of the run.

I landed 11 of 14 fish hooked at Tommy Creek including a 24 inch chrome, and 23” drop back, and another 20 inch fish. It was quite a morning.