Turkey Day Ditchfest

[J Francho]

Spent my Thanksgiving morning wandering the ditches near my house.  I was the only one on the water, had about 5 miles of creek to myself.  I spotted a couple of browns near the mouth, but they were too skittish.  Spooked a couple more while wading under a bridge, far upstream.

Seeing the browns, gave me confidence in bait of choice: salt cured brown eggs, 9 in each sack.  On cold, cold days with clear skies, I find small egg sacks work well, and on warm overcast days, you want meatballs.  Conditions were mixed, so I went middle of the road.  Always odd numbers.

I ended up with about a dozen domestic rainbows, and countless smolts, one going about 3", lol.  The brown trout has eluded me thus far this fall.  I've had three on, and lost them all.  No takers today.

I hope you like action shots!

[dave]

Once again,  nice pictures.  Fish too.

[J Francho]

Thanks Dave.  No whoppers, but it was fun as hell.

[Fat-G]

Nice fish, awesome pics. What kind of camera do you have?

[Paul Roberts]

I loved it when that crick was full of smaller domestics -13-18in. I'd use a 4wt rod and have a ball. Nothing like scaled tackle. I actually avoided big fish at times there. I once caught a 29inch steelie on a 7ft 4wt (in the Willow Roots Cut below the main bridge). It went berserk and simply beached itself lol.

BTW, don't wanna be a know-it-all, but those little guys are called "parr". The purple thumbprints along the sides are called "parr marks". Bows smolt in May. They turn bright silver (while still in the creek), then drop out over the course of the summer -usually on spates.