The Demon and the Brown Trout

 

The Demon and the Brown Trout

5/03/2021

 I took out my 7' 3 weight Hardy Demon fly rod in planning to fish a small stream in the Allegheny National Forest that flows into a dammed up swimming hole. From the dam the water flows through a forest of trees, picnic areas, campground and empties into the Clarion river. I knew I would end up in the large pond, made by the dam, and have more room to cast a longer rod but my short rod would have to do.

  Wading and fishing downstream through the forest of trees with a Woolly Bugger didn’t produce any trout. I saw some nice size rainbows and other trout but they wouldn’t even look at my bugger. In fact they swam the other way. The narrow crick gets fished pretty heavily so I’m sure the trout, at least the smart ones, are shy and wary of anything that is offered to them.

  When I reached the big pond, swimming hole, there were plenty of bait anglers around. I don’t usually fish lakes or ponds for trout. I like good current flow so I can swing my streamers. The only time I strip streamers is at the end of the drift back towards me against the current. Nymph fishing in dead water just seams unreasonable. Dry fly fishing is fine but without current the dry fly sort of just sits there and the trout have all day to examine it like a coroner examining a corps to determine the cause of death. I came to fish so I gave it a try.

  I got to the pond in early evening. The sky was a pale blue with gray skies above the hill tops that looked to threaten rain like earlier in the day. There was no air flow such as to speak of. The water was clear and I could see plenty of trout for some distance from the bank side I stood on. There were trout rising rarely out in the pond but the only thing I saw upon the water were pretty small midges that looked like dots on the surface. There wasn’t much room behind me for a long back cast and besides I had the 7' three weight which isn’t the easiest rod to make distant casts. I found a spot along the bank where I had a half decent chance of making sidearm back casts under the tree limbs and being able to get an offering of some kind to the fish I was able to see. The trout that I could see weren’t all that lengthy though but there were a few to be in the 10” to 12” range. Most looked like rainbows but also some brown trout were mixed in.

  I started casting a Woolly Bugger without any weight on my tapered leader. The trout would come up and inspect it, swirl around it and very few times a trout actually mouthed it. It wasn’t easy to hook them though. With not much of a current flow it was hard to keep a straight line. I couldn’t really feel the fish take the bugger on a pull. The ones that did mouth it I had to be super quick to react in enough time to set the hook as they swiped at it. Most of the trout I did hook up to on the bugger were no more than about 9”. A bait caster joined me to my right on the other side of a small bush that separated us. He started with live minnows and was fielding one more often than I was. I changed over to my best Triple Threat minnow pattern and watched the trout examine that also like they were trying to determine if this swimming thing was edible. Every once in a while I got a taker but again I had to be super quick on the take.

  When the guy didn’t get anymore hits on his minnows he switched over to single eggs, under a float, he said he used for steelhead fishing. There was just enough current flow in front of us for a slow drift. He tagged a couple of trout with the single eggs and missed a bigger trout that I actually watched take the single egg. He watched it also but didn’t get the point to connect when he tried to set the hook. He fished a little longer and then went elsewhere to fish. I played awhile with the trout teasing them with streamers and they were teasing me checking them out or following them without grabbing them. Since this wasn’t working and my arm was getting tired of constantly casting I decided to knot on an egg pattern for the heck of it. I looked at my fly patch and only had a few sucker spawns attached to it. I don’t usually fish sucker spawn to trout but I always carry a few among other things I don’t normally use. I added a strip of 5x fluorocarbon tippet and knotted on the beaded UV roe sucker spawn without using an indicator. With the seemingly weightless fly it took a little more effort to get a long enough cast out.

  When the sucker spawn first hit the water a few trout came to investigate. When it began to sink it was like every trout in a 3 foot vicinity came over to see what all the fuss was about. While the sucker spawn slowly, and I mean slowly, drifted and sinking the trout around swirled at it like they wanted it to move with a little more action. I watched them bump it without opening their mouths. Some got annoyed and left while others followed it like a child watching a snail just to see where it was going. When the sucker spawn almost came to rest on the bottom a trout raced over and grabbed it. I made a quick reaction and yanked the rod up. The small trout danced with the tight line like it was aerial dancing. I got it onto the bank and released it back into the water. I used the sucker spawn for some time catching a couple more brown trout only while the rainbows got tired of the same old thing.

  This whole time I felt like a little kid, on my knees yet, fishing in a pool of trout at some yearly fair that comes to town. Not that I felt any younger just felt like a little kid, on my knees, casting not too far in front of me to visible trout. I’m sure I didn’t feel as excited as they would be but I was having a little fun anyhow. There were of course other kids fishing the pond along with their dads or moms as well as other adults so I didn’t feel too embarrassed. Come to think of it I was the only person that was using a fly rod so I kind of looked out of place I’m sure.

  While I’m tossing the sucker spawn I noticed a lengthier dark shaded trout just out from the bank side bush that overhung the water to my right. I’m not sure if it just moved in or maybe it was there all along as the sun moved in such a way that I was able to see it more clearly. It looked to be a brown trout of good size. It was just holding there as if watching a boring TV show just to pass the time. Either that or was semi-enjoying the sight of the small swimming trout in front of him.

  The only trout I had caught on the sucker spawn so far were brown trout and this one looked like a brown trout. I always figure trout don’t get that big being stupid. If it was caught before it was lucky not being in someones frying pan, got itself free or was let go which might make it more wary. I decided to give it a good effort and try for it. I reckon I had but only one chance to get it right. Watching my sucker spawn, for some time, drifting with the slow current I had an idea how far it would sink and drift by the time it hit the surface. I had to make sure the line didn’t splash much and make sure the drop zone was well in front of the brownie and drift towards him like drifting sucker spawn to a holding steelhead.

  I dropped the beaded sucker spawn well in front of the big brown. A few other trout came to investigate but soon turned away like it had a foul smell to it. I watched as the sucker spawn started slowly sinking and drifting towards the brown. It drifted so slow that I thought it was like watching a loose CDC feather falling from the sky in a breath of wind. I tried my hardest to picture the scenario of the brown taking the spawn if it ever reached him. I swear I had time to finish the half smoked stogie I was puffing on waiting for the spawn to arrive at the browns doorstep. The whole time the spawn was drifting towards him he didn’t appear to move a muscle. The sucker spawn never actually reached the brown before it slowly fell to the pond bottom. I wasn’t sure what to do next. Should I bring it back for another cast possibly spooking the brown. I knew it was in his vision. I let it set there. I had limited visual on the UV sucker spawn as the sun glare on the water surface changed with the passing of cloud cover. I watched the big brown swim over to where my spawn was to investigate. He hesitated but once I saw his head shake I took a chance and ripped the rod upward and hopefully set the hook in his jaw. I felt the rod sections bend within my gripping hand. The brown trout gave some whipping forceful head thrashings trying to release what bit him. The fly line twitched violently in mid air as the rod tip flexed with each jolting tug. In an instant it took off away from the bank and out towards the middle of the pond. I wasn’t sure how far it was going to go, the pond is pretty large, but I was hoping not far enough to get into my backing. It got out to where the shallow leaves were before the leaf pile abruptly ended into a deeper section of the pond. There he gave a couple more head shakes and continued upstream if you want to call it that. I kept a tightened grip on the cork, feeling the pressure the trout was putting on the arcing rod while watching the fly line trying to determine where the trout actually was. When he turned downstream I quickly moved the rod downstream cranking in line, on the standard spool, trying to keep the line tight. The whole while we fought tooth and nail I knew I couldn’t bring him up the bank like the other trout I had done with the 3 weight short rod and 5x tippet. I stepped over the log barrier to get to the water so I could net the trout if he stays hooked and gets close enough. It was exiting and heart throbbing as well as nerve wrecking trying to get him closer. He came to the surface a couple times with more head shakes and gator rolls that I was afraid might get my leader/tippet in a compromising position around the trouts fins or gills.

  I remember some guy using a short rod for steelhead fishing claiming that a shorter rod puts more torque on the steelhead that he was able to get them to tire more quickly. I'm not sure what weight rod he was using but this definitely wasn’t the case on the short 3 weight.

  It didn’t appear for some time that this brown trout was going to give up. He thrashed around time and again when he wasn’t swimming to and fro. I had him close a couple of times but just not close enough to net him. I could feel my forearm muscle starting to fatigue trying to keep the rod handle up while the rest of the rod seemed to bow strenuously towards the battling trout. He rose to the surface with a couple of weak thrashes while I was slowly and cautiously bringing in line. I didn’t want to get the fly line all the way passed the tip top eye fearing that if he made a quick getaway the nail knot to the leader might get caught in the eye. I already had the net out ready for when I could get him closer. I had the rod up as high as I could and reached out as far as I could with the net. The brown trout reluctantly, I’m sure, surfaced and moved towards me. I got the net under him and scooped him up. He thrashed around much in the net and I placed the bottom of the net on the ground to keep him from flipping out of the net I was unable to control with his full weight being in it. He let me free the hook from his jaw pretty calmly. After a couple of quick pics I placed him in the water and he swam away pretty darn quick and disappeared as if he was embarrassed to be caught in front of all his little fish friends. 

  

 I didn’t fish much longer after that. I made sure I didn’t leave anything behind and headed for the truck. When I got there I realized I didn’t even get to finish the stogie I started to smoke back at the pond. Oh well, it was enjoyed on my way back to camp.

 ~doubletaper