Somewhat against my better judgement, last night I made a run out to Cloud Creek, the small southern michigan stream where I sometimes go when no other trout prospect is on the horizon. (For those who are new around here, its real name is not Cloud Creek.) I first fished it two years ago with modest success, but got skunked on three outings there last year. After those discouraging results, and considering the diffficulty in wading--Cloud's bottom is clogged with brush and piles of slippery rocks--and of walking through the heavy (and thorny) brush along the banks, I doubted whether I would return. But last night I did, and though the stream's bed and banks slapped me around pretty soundly, that proved to be a wise choice.
Cloud Creek lived up to its psuedonym last night in more ways than one. Although it was sunny when I left home, dark clouds gathered on the drive to the stream. As soon as turned onto the road going to the bridge were I access the creek, rain began pelting my windshield. It subsided by the time I got to the stream, but after I had rigged up and got to the water, a downpour commenced. That actually lifted my spirits, since streamer fishing often improves during rainshowers. I went strikeless until I got to a long, deep run where the stream's banks pinch closely together, the spot which had produced best for me two years ago--meaning I caught a trout or two there on each outing. It obliged once again with a standard-issue Cloud Creek stocker, a brown trout of about 8" with sides shaded in coppery blue. I'm sorry I didn't have my camera along to document that fish, along with the anemones, honeysuckles, and nanberries in bloom. The creek's bottomlands became lovely in the apricot twilight that emerged once the rain had passed.
Pleased that Cloud Creek's trout wouldn't shut me out forever, I continued downstream to where the stread widens and acquires a much more even and wadable bottom. There, I actually had room for backcasts. At one of the first places I stopped in the wider water, I took two trout in two casts, and got a strike on the third. I switched to an olive WB after losing the black one on a high limb, and picked up a few more trout as I worked down. All came from near submereged logs or piles of brush. Following a roll cast to the edge of a long sweeper, I hooked my largest Cloud Creek brown to date. It was the first fish there that actually took line from me, and landing it was a challenge, since there was brush beneath and along both edges of the run where I hooked it. Eventually I did bring it to hand, where I sprung a tape and measured it at just shy of fourteen inches. Obviously some of those stocked fish survive over the summer to grow to nice sizes.
A short time later I marked another Cloud Creek first: a trout on a dry fly. Though I've seen nice flights of mayflies there before, I'd never seen any hit the water, nor had I seen any notable amount surface feeding by trout. I did see a couple of regular feeders by the bridge last spring, but I couldn't discern what they were eating, and they rejected all the flies I tried on them, shattering my faith in the naivete of stocked trout. Last night, there were a few March Browns on the wing, as well as fair numbers of small tan caddis fluttering about or dipping into the stream to lay eggs, but no feeders. At least until I got to a wide pool in one of the rare spots where the creek borders open high ground. There, I saw one regular riser near the top of the pool. I had begun to see a number of small black caddis on the wing, and figured those as the current appetizer of choice. These weren't the black caddis commonly seen earlier in may. They are a smaller, darker type that I know I've seen before, but never seemed to draw fish. I didn't have an exact match for them in my fly box, so I tied on one of the lighter, larger black caddis patterns I'd used on opening weekend. Second cast--wham! On the way in, the small but feisty brown made at least two water-clearing jumps, very unusual for his species. Once I'd let him go, I spied another rise a bit downstream. It did not repeat, and my drifts over where it had been drew no strike. Then just downstream I saw another rise that I moved down to fish with no better result. I watched the creek for five more minutes and saw nothing. I took that as my cue to call it a night.
Heading back upstream, I slipped on one of those rockpiles and fell into a hole that topped my waders. Not long thereafter, I suffered a sharp nerve pinch in my right foot (something liable to happen in wader boots when your foot lands in a strange position) that continued to sting all the way back to the car.
But while I ended it soggy and limping, this was my most successful Cloud Creek outing to date. I caught seven fish of at least legal size (though all were released), including one hefty holdover fish and one fish on top. Though I had nearly written off this stream, I might be drag myself out there another time or two this season.
Tags: Fishing; Flyfishing; Trout
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