More skinny water...

Return trip from Tacoma with three girls on a Saturday. Drove up Meadow Creek, where I had found some little cuts in the past where it crosses the main road. Creek alternates between near the road and down in a canyon. At a spot near the road I found some nice looking water, crystal clear and really cold, nice holes and runs, reasonably open and easy to fish. Found two beautiful cuts in the first hole, nothing in the next few. Fished dry dropper, one on dry, one on dropper. The dry rose up from the bottom about two feet in front of me - watched the whole thing, pretty fun. Action was not fast enough to meet my requirements to stay longer, so back to the car and on to a family favorite on the way to dropping Tory and Rachel off at home. Sometimes I find cutthroats don't warm up until later in the day, so this might be worth one more return in the full sun of mid day.


Meadow Creek cut in the morning light

Stopped at a new stretch of our perennial favorite when travelling across the mountains, with reasonable parking and access at a FS road crossing. Found the stream relatively open compared to other areas we've fished. One or two in every hole, beautiful stream, beautiful fish. Pretty, but not peaceful, for those who know. The last fish was the "biggest" and came from a little run below a bigger hole. The fly hit the water, and I saw this guy flying downstream from the hole above, headed for my fly just as the fly disappeared from sight behind a boulder. I estimated the timing (if fly "A" is drifting downstream at a rate of 2 mph and fish "B" is swimming downstream at 8 mph, and they are currently 3 feet apart, how long will it be until fish "B" and fly "A" meet? - I knew Algebra would come in handy some day!). Well, I didn't do the formal calculation, but instinct was good and I blindly lifted up at the right time to hook him. The silly fish probably ran 20 feet downstream to catch the fly! Maybe that is why he was the biggest...After 45 minutes of pleasure, I headed back to the car to finish the trip home. Another successful trip across the mountains and back.

Waiting patiently to be unhooked

 

Fish sized to the stream

 

Doesn't get much prettier than this for the ultra-skinny water

 

The very hungry fish