Exploration of Good Looking Water

 January 9, 2024

A couple outings ago I fished a small creek that I ended up giving up on after I decided to check out a nearby river that I though might be on the mend.  After that outing I had a friend go to that creek and he ended up fishing the same area I did and he managed some nice fish.  I decided to return and start below my last starting point and fish some areas I've never checked out.  I've caught some fish in this system but never had a stellar day.  I got a late start at 10:30am.  Area looked good.  A lot of great holding water.  I thought I'm definitely getting fish this time.  Hours passed and I only managed one rise, that I missed, and spooked two others.  By 2pm and the creek becoming more and more impassable I quit and decided to drive down to another river.

Here again I'd be fishing an area I normally bypass.  It simply gets too much traffic so I avoid it like the plague.  The spot I wanted to start was cordoned off so I had to drive further down and begin from there.  It wouldn't be long before I'd start to get into fish. 

There weren't many but I'd still be getting some.  I'm not too sure why the fishing was so poor.  Fished till dark which wasn't wise since I was in a canyon I've never been in and wasn't too sure how to exit but I made it out safely. Fishing was slow not sure why. Was it because I was fishing my heavy leader I've not changed or added tippet to for about 6 outings which is probably now 0x or greater? Was it because I was fishing an oversized sized 10 fly in the middle of winter? Probably not as I did mange rises and fish later in the day with the same set up. This is my usual set up anyways. It is possible the the fish were simply hugging the bottom and refused to come up on a dry. It's also possible that since these areas are heavily trafficked there simply isn't many fish left in the system. I'm assuming its the two latter but who knows.