I fished two waters today. The first one was a wild trout brook. Struck out. Saw one fish mock me as it darted. Another mocked me by swiping at my presentation twice but did not take. To my horror the water levels were dangerously low and I saw a foresting crew working to clear what might be a road. Not good.
To redeem my bruised ego I headed to some stocked water to connect. All water has been low this year and most of the trout are either in fast water or deep. As i arrived at a pool that typically holds a lot of trout, a traditional fly fisherman was just leaving and announced he had a pretty good outing. Never good to get sloppy seconds, but it would not surprise me that it may have been thirds or fourths…because it was pretty late in the day.
It took me a bit to get things dialed in but there were a couple dozen fish in the pool. I must have caught 6 or 7. These fish were over worked and really challenging to convert. I had a number of refusals. I would guess that I had at least a dozen swipe/rejections. I connected by working a futsu on the swing…pulse…and then rod finger tapping just sub surface. Not one fish any other way. Being on fish this way is so educational, especially if you dont give up and slowly put the puzzle together. There were naturals emerging but they were of the midge variety. So cool to take fish on a honker 12, when we should be fishing a 22.