Crossover

[Gressak]

The surf is winding down. My last outing produced what my fellow surfcasters consider a death rat. The small striped bass that remain at the end of the season. First to cooperate at the beginning of the migration and the last ones to mark the end. This one was 24"…not as small as most rats but still within the category.

I knew this might be the case. So I fished from 3am to daylight, then hit the local wild trout brook.

The brook typically holds small brooktrout. My last outing there was quite some time ago…over six months. These last couple outings have produced some browns and brooks. I am not sure what I feel about the browns. They are not supposed to be there. Like…I think either some stocked fish got dumped in the wrong location or with all the rain, some fish found their way via flooded waterways …as in… rivers that do not touch did this year.

caught as many as I dropped. Not bad for an hours investment. In past outings I was lucky to catch one… either I had some mojo yesterday or I ran into some careless fish.

[dwalker (David Walker)]

Nice fish, hungry and greedy too, going after that large fly.

[Gressak]

David. Yes. They all completely inhaled the fly…except the small fish that could not.

Another noteworthy observation. I did some damage on two of the fish. The tiny brookie…has blood in its eye. The hook point is barbless and went right through the occular cavity. The brown may have had its gill raked and was bleeding. Again barbless. During the fight the fish may have shaken the hook but the bend somehow slipped on a gill…no hook point engaged post land. For all purposed that fish was landed with the bend of the hook pulling a gill. Not good for the fish…but the truth.

Barbless can sometimes cause more damage. Multiple entries…and deeper entries.

Its all part of chosing this for entertainment…and catch / release has its own mortatity and effect on the fishery.

Dumb stuff i reflect on.