Fall Fishin'

Saturday was a picture perfect day for fishing (or anything else outdoors). A beautiful fall day on a Maryland trout stream. My friend Matt and I were the first ones to the parking lot, first light. While I'm waiting for him to get all his gear ready, I walk over to the pool closest to the parking lot and caught a nice rainbow in my first minute of fishing. The next one came just a few casts later, and both were a lot of fun -- lots of jumping. Matt was ready and we walked to another very popular pool (thinking crowds would arrive soon, we might as well hit these pools while we're the only ones here). The fish picked up where they left off, and began throwing themselves at us. "Fish on!" "There he is!" "Got another!"

Now I know what you're thinking. These are probably freshly stocked, idiot rainbows who have never seen a predator until we showed up. Well I'll have you know that these particular trout had been stocked four full days before we arrived, plenty of time to become wise and crafty. So, clearly, it was only through our superior angling skills that we were so successful. Well, okay, maybe they were idiots. But it was still great fun, the anticipated crowds never really materialized, and almost all the rainbows (there was one brown mixed in) were in the 13" range. Many were in a jumping mood, which is always a treat. The one pictured below (caught by Matt) was the largest and last of the day. We actually stopped counting, but over two dozen fish were caught between us (although there is some argument as to whether it counts to catch the same fish more than once, something we suspect had occurred at least a time or two).

One other note. I always wanted to catch trout on a dry fly, a nymph and a streamer all in the same day, and that goal was realized on Saturday.