Falling Spring Branch 6/24/12

After what has seemingly been forever, I finally found my way down to falling spring branch today.  I spent a lot of time at this stream during my college years and will always make a few ventures down to here each year.  I started out today with the hope of finding an early hatch of Tricos.  I arrived at 8 am to find a swarm of them hovering over the creek.  Figuring it would probably be at least 30 minutes to an hour until the spinner fall I decided to take a seat on the bank and tie a new leader.  Just as I finished the leader the fish began to steadily rise.  I tied on my size 24 trico spinner at it was on.

On my very first cast a small rainbow dashed over to my fly and grabbed it.  Unfortunately I was bit quick on the hook set and missed it.  The same thing happend on the next two casts.  I took a few seconds to relax and pick out another rising trout to cast to.  I noticed a decent rainbow coming rather steadily so I made a cast within a foot of his location.  Seconds after my fly hit the water, he grabbed it and I was hooked on.  A nice 9-10 inch rainbow that was squirming around a bit too much for a picture.  I continued on the stretch for another two hours until the tricos were done and was able to pick up 4 more rainbows between 5 and 10 inches along with many more misses.  While head back to the truck I noticed a decent rainbow steadily rising in the same pool that I had started.  I read the water for a few minutes before figuring that he was probably sipping emerging midges.  I tied on a size 20 CDC zebra midge and waited for him to give away his location.  A soon as he rose again I pinpointed my cast just above him.  He came over and examined the fly but wouldn’t take it.  I figured another look might change his mind.  This time as soon as the fly hit the water he raced over to it and grabbed.  I made a quick hook set and after a few acrobatic leaps I was able to bring the 10-11″ rainbow to hand.

After releasing him I decided to end the day with some streamer fishing.  I was able to get a few exciting follows and even a quick swat in this stretch but no
luck.  I moved down to another stretch and on the second cast got hard take.  After a short fight I brought a chunky 11″ rainbow to hand.  I continued on stretch but was only able to get a few follows before deciding to call it a day.  Another great morning on what is probably my favorite stream.  Not because I can catch a lot of fish here but more for the challenges that it presents and not the mention all of the great memories that I have had on this stream over the last 11 years.