Well I got away on Saturday to do some brook trout fishing, I had to go solo since my usual partner decided he needed to see Larry the Cable guy at the JLC.
So after working a 16.5hour day on Friday, I quickly drove home showered and tossed my gear in the truck.... a brief 2.5 hour drive got me to the side of the river where I was planning on fishing in the morning, parked the truck around midnight and tried to get some shut-eye, after laying down for 6 hours I might have managed 3hours or so of decent sleep........my alarm woke me up at 6am. After I crawled out of my sleeping bag I popped the cover on the truck bed and put on my boots, (no waders required at this spot) already had my rod set up, reached for my vest, uh it must be under my waders.....ok maybe I tossed it in the back seat..... nope.......D'OH!!!!!!!!!!! still on the hook in the garage
well I still had one spinner rigged up on my rod, and my fly rod as a backup, a few casts later, and nothing......
Headed back to the car and fired up the blackberry Canadian tire app..... nearest one was about 34 kms away and didn't open til 8am..
drove to the lakefront cottage my uncle rents for the weekend and at least had myself a good breakfast
off to CTC for gas and gear, (on the plus side gas was 131.9.... 2cents cheaper than anywhere else I saw) $30 later I was geared up and ready to roll.
second cast on the stream and WHAM! a nice 9"er
not bad for walking about 50 yards from the parking lot!
working my way upstream to a few spots where I did well on the opener and last year I got the big donut! (where are all the fishies?)
Got to my "go to" spot and on the first cast I saw a big flash and set the hook! 2 seconds later, snap! :yikes big fish grabbed it and once it realized it was hooked turned and snapped me off with a shake of it's head, 4lb flouro line!
Quicky re-tied with another spinner and on the second cast I had another nice one follow and watched it bump my spinner twice without taking it. I couldn't feel it hit but really wished I had a bit of worm on the hook, That would have made the difference for sure.
Worked the pool for another hour and threw everything in my limited arsenal at the water and only saw one other fish (also with lockjaw)
Packed up and left the hole, for sure I would get them biting on the way back.....
Next small pool upstream I managed 2 little guys around 7" or so
headed upstream again and hit a few other pools that produced well for me last year but it was not to be this time.
Next pool I remembered from last year, I didn't get one last year but I did turn a few, so I figured I'd give it a shot..
2nd cast in another break off on a fish (maybe time to switch back to Mono for the extra stretch)
4th cast, Fish On!! and a big one!
got it in with no probs(PHEW!!!) and wished I had my tape measure with me since It's one of the biggest trout I've ever caught out of this stream
got to play with my new camera as well but it's kind of tough to hold it with one hand and keep the fish steady and make sure it's in the shot, while trying to revive it at the same time!
after that I went up one more pool but I really didn't care if I got another, that was the last fish of the day and I felt like the day was a success!
jjcanoe