Fishin’s been rough in August as mentioned in my previous post, so I was glad to have something to write about of late. Basically all stream in my local area are too low for productive fishing. It’s very rare that that happens. In fact, prior to last fall and now currently I don’t ever recall a time when there was just nothing at all that wasn’t too low. I still have one strong hold that is a long time ‘go-to’ of mine but even thought it not super low it has been fishing terribly this season for whatever reason. I’m thinking that the super high water in May and June wiped out nearly all of the young of year trout because I haven’t caught a single trout under 4” there this year and typically they make up a decent % of my haul. It isn’t’ a stream with a high trout population so environmental factors matter a lot. All in all it’s been a tough 2026 trout campaign. It’s going to happen at times so you just gotta fish when you can and catch what you can catch. I have fun either way. Thankfully there have been a few small rain events here and there that bump my low water spots just enough for a morning outing. I had this occur in the last few days and I pounced on it.
I knew that I wasn’t in for a big numbers outing but I just wanted to get it. I arrived streamside a little later than normal as another rain shower approached. I ditched my bike upstream and then went back downstream and sat in the truck as the rain approached. Thankfully it didn’t rain very hard as the stream was already quite off color and any more heavy rain probably would have had me head for the home front. At 8:15 the shower pushed out and I hit the water. I chose my trusty white bladed spinner for this one in an attempt to cut the turbidity of the stream flow. After a short hike upstream I hopped into the 59 degree water and started casting.
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At first, the stream gave me some mixed messages as I caught 5 trout in the first 5 minutes.
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For a second there I was wondering if I was on my way to a 100 trout day as I’ve done so many times here in the past. Things quickly settled in though and the fishing slowed dramatically into something that I was much more familiar with of late. Trout here coming to hand from mostly predictable locations. Almost no trout were being caught from anywhere that I could see the bottom of the stream. Only deeper spots. Thankfully there were just enough of those to keep things interesting and I was having a decent time catching some good looking fish.
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In the back of my head I was definitely hoping for something interesting to happen. About midway through the stretch I found it in a deeply shaded run flowing swiftly over and around a series of large instream boulders. I had already taken 3 nice wild browns and a this oddly color splashed native brook trout.
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I sent a cast between the rocks and immediately had a strong hit from a smaller fish. I securely set the hook as I did with amazing consistency on the entire morning. The fish struck pretty close so I almost immediately picked it up out of the water without any in-water fight what so ever. It was thrashing for all it was worth but the second it broke the water I knew I had a wild tiger on my hands and immediately swung the rod to get it over dry land as I do with every tiger I catch recently (having had a few pop out of my hands without a picture in recent memory). That swing felt like an eternity as I waited for the now maddened fish to pop off and swim to freedom but thankfully I had it securely anchored and breathed a sigh of relief when it was no longer over water. After a quick picture I release my 30th even wild tiger trout no worse for the wear.
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That was a fish that I was very proud of and have been waiting for for a few years now. I often wonder is any other human in history has caught so many of them. Some calculations would suggest that 115,000,000,000 humans have lived and I feel pretty confident that not a single one has ever caught 30 wild tigers. While completely insignificant, even to me, it’s kind of wild to contemplate such a thing. Granted…….wild tiger trout are probably only a phenomenon that’s existed for the last, maybe 150 years if that. I’d like to be fair here haha. Still, I’m very proud of that number since they are just such a rare find.
I meandered my way up the creek to and a little beyond my bike. The fishing slowed to a crawl and it was time to pack it in. On the day I caught 67 trout in a little over 4 hours on the water. Pretty par for the course of late. it was a good time and good fishing. It really didn’t matter though as that one fish made the day and I would trade the tiger for a huge pile of fish any day of the week.
I knew that I wasn’t in for a big numbers outing but I just wanted to get it. I arrived streamside a little later than normal as another rain shower approached. I ditched my bike upstream and then went back downstream and sat in the truck as the rain approached. Thankfully it didn’t rain very hard as the stream was already quite off color and any more heavy rain probably would have had me head for the home front. At 8:15 the shower pushed out and I hit the water. I chose my trusty white bladed spinner for this one in an attempt to cut the turbidity of the stream flow. After a short hike upstream I hopped into the 59 degree water and started casting.
At first, the stream gave me some mixed messages as I caught 5 trout in the first 5 minutes.
For a second there I was wondering if I was on my way to a 100 trout day as I’ve done so many times here in the past. Things quickly settled in though and the fishing slowed dramatically into something that I was much more familiar with of late. Trout here coming to hand from mostly predictable locations. Almost no trout were being caught from anywhere that I could see the bottom of the stream. Only deeper spots. Thankfully there were just enough of those to keep things interesting and I was having a decent time catching some good looking fish.
In the back of my head I was definitely hoping for something interesting to happen. About midway through the stretch I found it in a deeply shaded run flowing swiftly over and around a series of large instream boulders. I had already taken 3 nice wild browns and a this oddly color splashed native brook trout.
I sent a cast between the rocks and immediately had a strong hit from a smaller fish. I securely set the hook as I did with amazing consistency on the entire morning. The fish struck pretty close so I almost immediately picked it up out of the water without any in-water fight what so ever. It was thrashing for all it was worth but the second it broke the water I knew I had a wild tiger on my hands and immediately swung the rod to get it over dry land as I do with every tiger I catch recently (having had a few pop out of my hands without a picture in recent memory). That swing felt like an eternity as I waited for the now maddened fish to pop off and swim to freedom but thankfully I had it securely anchored and breathed a sigh of relief when it was no longer over water. After a quick picture I release my 30th even wild tiger trout no worse for the wear.
That was a fish that I was very proud of and have been waiting for for a few years now. I often wonder is any other human in history has caught so many of them. Some calculations would suggest that 115,000,000,000 humans have lived and I feel pretty confident that not a single one has ever caught 30 wild tigers. While completely insignificant, even to me, it’s kind of wild to contemplate such a thing. Granted…….wild tiger trout are probably only a phenomenon that’s existed for the last, maybe 150 years if that. I’d like to be fair here haha. Still, I’m very proud of that number since they are just such a rare find.
I meandered my way up the creek to and a little beyond my bike. The fishing slowed to a crawl and it was time to pack it in. On the day I caught 67 trout in a little over 4 hours on the water. Pretty par for the course of late. it was a good time and good fishing. It really didn’t matter though as that one fish made the day and I would trade the tiger for a huge pile of fish any day of the week.
