Mixed Bag

Got out for a little bit today before and after a visit to my Grandma's in Hendo.  I fished two different streams.  The first was the stream mentioned in Wild Bows in April.  I fished it first, between 9am and 11:30 in the morning.  It was in the upper 60's. The caddis I tied in my previous post produced.  I caught about 12 fish, and 5 where on the caddis larva.  The others where on a red copper john.  I missed as many fish as I landed, and had another break me off.

Silly bow couldn't resist my new fly

Turned over some rocks and found the caddis pupa below, all in rock cases.  Green instead of white like the fatty ones I found in the stick casings.

A pupa and half of a rock casing that I broke open.

A big stonefly.  My buddy Heath said is was some sort of roach stone.

After my visit to my grandma's, I decided to visit the creek on our family's land.  When I was 13, I caught an 18 inch rainbow on a roostertail the same day my cousins caught a red eye bass and bream in the same spot.   

a picture of me fly fishing at age 12 or so (1989ish) on a little stream in WNC.

My family leases the bottom land to a sod farmer, and between the silt, sod herbacides and corn feild pesticides, I assumed the few trout that used to inhabit that steam are long gone.  I was pleased to catch a little rainbow in the exact same spot I landed that big rainbow over 20 years ago.

this is the old family barn and sod field adjacent to the stream.

Maybe, just maybe, the stream will make a roaring comeback! Doubtful.  Irrigation, farming, and run off seem destined to win.  In my dreams, it will be my own stretch of private trout water full of massive wild bows and browns.  I'll sleep well with those dreams.