Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday, August 20 @ The Creek


I went to The Creek this evening with Garn Christensen, our school superintendent and a good fishing buddy. We started down low in the big holes by the cave at the turn of the valley. We clawed our way down there because Garn had snorkeled it yesterday with the Rotary Club clean-up of the creek (nice work Rotary Club!) and saw about one-hundred fish in the big hole there.

The fish weren't interested in what I was tossing so Garn wanted to go to the next hole down. I saw something I'd never seen before--somebody swimming in waders. I've seen people bobbing down stream in waders after getting out to the neutral buoyancy point, having done so myself on a number of occasions. No, this was swimming--launch into the water and then crawl stroke--across the hole (10'+ in depth) with fly rod in hand. He did catch one or two down below. I finally managed to land one small rainbow in the upper cave hole.

Once we headed upstream though, the fishing picked up and was pretty steady. Garn did stop to empty some water out of his waders. Grasshoppers are very thick this year. Some of the foliage on the willows even showing their effect. Some of the fish were so stuffed with insects that they had the body form of triploids with their distended bellys. I fished a Renegade, and Garn a hopper most of the time. I think that the Renegade had the slight edge tonight. A great way to spend the evening after a day spent in work!

2 comments:

Rick Merrill said...

Great report! I don't think I have ever been down that far. Should have tried the CGPP (caddis green psycho prince). I like your friend's dedication - sounds like someone Tom and I would like to fish with.

Tom Merrill said...

Garn is hardcore! I dig the wader swim. I will be even more impressed when he does it in the winter chasing steelhead.