Scouring The Narrows 4/20/12

Last Friday was supposed to be sunny and warm, so I thought I would head up The Narrows.  I had enjoyed hooking those nice trout on streamers on my last trip, so I wanted to try some more of that, but a little closer to home.  Well, I awoke to find a cool, cloudy day.  I went for it anyway, but I was greeted by a slick and muddy road.  I was a little afraid I would get stuck, but I didn't want to drive all the way up there for nothing.  I arrived at a favorite deep water spot where I thought I might find a big brown, walleye or smallie.  Unfortunately, the water was quite high and full of nasty moss.  I threw a jerkbait, lipless crank, grub and an articulated sculpin on the fly rod.  While trying to burn the crank through some fast water to make another cast, a large trout shot up from the depths to have a look, but was soon disgusted by the glob of green sludge that soon enveloped my bait.  I managed a little tick on the sculpin, but that was all.

The gloomy weather had brought out some bwos, so I ditched the deep hole and moved upstream to some faster water.  I rigged up my 4wt and tied on my new favorite nymph in a pheasant tail motif.  I was still getting a lot of moss, but finally I caught a little dink planter.  That was a lot of work for so little, but I moved upstream.  I finally reached a nice deep run and worked it hard.  I missed a decent trout, and then to my surprise hooked this little guy.

It wasn't much, but it was my first smallie of the year.  He actually put up a decent fight on that little rod.  I caught a decent bow, maybe 14", with some nice color, but he refused to pose for a photo session.  I worked the run some more and scored a few more 10-12" bows before moving upstream.  I managed another trout here or there, all about the same in size, but they were scrappy little buggers.

I had just a little time now before I needed to head to work, so I decided to head back downstream to a favorite smallmouth spot.  The sun was finally out, so I was hoping they would be getting more active now.  I tried a lipless crank, jerkbait and grub from the bottom of the run, but nothing much happened.  I thought I had a couple of hits on the grub, but it may have been the bottom.  I moved upstream to a deeper part of the run and got a nice thump on the grub.  I love the sound that braid makes when you set the hook on a fish.  He fought very well for his size, and even jumped a time or two.  After a short while I lipped a pretty little chunk of bronze.

I had one more good thunk on the end of my line, but I swung and missed.  It was time to go, so I hurried off to work.

Total for trip:  7 rainbows, 2 smallmouth

Total for year:  233 fish