One more closer to 100....

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Took Jessica and Melinda on a day hike up to Meeks Table. A little late for a lot of the wildflowers, but the tiger lillies were out in force in the meadows.

But this isn't a blog for sissy wildflowers. On the way home I thought I'd give Oak Creek another shot. Years ago I stopped very briefly and found it very small and overgrown and didn't raise any fish in a very brief attempt. While the girls slept, I took a little detour (really Natalie, it was little - only about 10 minutes out of the way) and found a wide open stream. A few years ago a fire burned the whole canyon, so it is completely opened up. Stopped two miles up, fished about 20 to 30 min, at least a couple dozen to the fly, a dozen or more to the hand. All quite small rainbows (3" to 7"). Most on a Goddard Caddis, some on the size 16 Psycho Prince. A smaller hairwing caddis probably would have caught more - there were a lot of rejections right at the fly.

A couple more miles upriver might find some larger fish. If the lower stretch tends to dry up small, the upper reaches in the forest (rather than oak scrub) might be more hospitable for trout year round. But most importantly, never caught fish here before, so this adds one more stream to my total on the way to 100 streams in Washington.