Haven't posted recently because, frankly, I've had some bad luck with fishing. A couple weeks ago I drove out to the East Fork of Indian Creek in the Daniel Boone National Forest only to find that the trout stocking truck hadn't made a visit yet and the stream had no fish in it. A week later, I drove to Great Crossing Park near Georgetown, Ky to fish the North Fork of Elkhorn creek and discovered the park was closed due to a construction project. I won't even mention the numerous times recently when I've actually gotten to cast a rod someplace and haven't caught a thing.
Well, all the fishing dues I've been paying recently bought me a tremendous day on the Cumberland River yesterday--possibly the best day I've ever had on the Cumberland in 30 years of fishing it.
Followers of this blog (not sure if I even have any) will know that for the past several months I've mostly been fishing from my Gheenoe, which has a trolling motor and a six horsepower outboard. Yesterday I decided I would leave the Gheenoe home, since I haven't been doing well fishing the Cumberland with it anyway, and take my canoe instead. The Gheenoe gives me access to several miles of the river, because the outboard can buck the current upstream. But yesterday my plan was to wade the shoreline very close to where I parked my vehicle. I'd only need the canoe to cross the river and fish the bank opposite the boat launch.
When I first arrived at the river I was a bit dismayed--the flow level looked higher than I'd anticipated. I'd been planning to wade but now I wasn't sure how possible that would be. As I was studying the water, a large fish, probably a trout, jumped near the bank opposite where I was standing. Well, that was a positive sign, anyway.
Back in the parking lot, I pulled on my waders. I'd just driven two and a half hours to get here, so I wasn't going to give up without at least trying to get into the water.
As it turned out, it wasn't quite as deep as I'd first thought. The sky was overcast and the surface ruffled from gusty winds, so earlier I couldn't see down through the water. But the depth and current was such that I was able to get far out enough that I could avoid snagging weeds on my backcast.
I started out with my seven weight rod and a sink tip line. To the tippet I knotted a white crystal schminnow fly that I had tied myself. I had a hit right away but then nothing for a while. Since at that point the day was somewhat dark, I switched to a brown and black schminnow. I started getting action immediately. I caught two rainbow trout on the boat-ramp side of the river and lost several more. The fish were hitting my fly hard and so I struck back hard to set the hook. But that only resulted in my breaking off the fish and sometimes my fly as well.
After a couple hours of casting along the boat-ramp bank, I got in my canoe and paddled across the river to the other side. Before long I found a sweet spot where there was a low ridge of rocks that broke the current. Many, many trout were hanging out just in front of those rocks. I stopped trying to set the hook and just waited until the fish hooked themselves. The first few fish were probably recent stockers. But then one that was considerably bigger took my fly, even though it was in the same area. That's the fish you see in the photo above. It's hard to judge the size of that fish by the photo. I estimate that it was 20 inches plus. I don't think I've ever caught a bigger or more beautiful trout in the Cumberland.
I continued working my way slowly downstream--very slowly, because I kept hooking and mostly catching trout. In an area similar to the first one I hooked a fish that at first seemed no bigger than the eight to ten inch fish I'd been catching. But a few seconds after I felt it at the end of my line, it took off downstream, into some faster water, and my entire fly line spun off the arbor of my reel and then I was into the backing line. I've never had a trout take me into my backing before. The last time this happened to me, I was up in Michigan with a twenty pound chinook salmon on the line.
I was using 4X tippet, which has a breaking strength of around six pounds of pressure. That's enough to hold most trout. But because of the size of this fish and the strong current it was in, I had to be very careful not to apply too much pressure.
Once I got the fish into my net, I saw that it was slightly smaller than the first one and not as brightly colored. I took the picture you see below with the fish lying on top of my landing net. I just measured the oval of the net and it's sixteen inches. As you can see, the tail of that fish extends several inches beyond the oval. So I'm estimating that fish as at least eighteen inches.
I continued to catch more trout as the afternoon wore on. I lost one that probably would have been in the 15-16 inch range but never got a close look at it.
I ran out of the dark schminnows I'd been using and put on a dark bead-head wooly bugger. The trout liked that one, too. Apparently, anything long and dark that could have been food was enough for them to take a swipe at it.
For the final half hour of the day, I switched over to my five weight rod with floating line and tried a nymph and indicator rig. The trout seemed to like this less well than the big streamers I'd been throwing. But I still managed to catch a couple more.
I had thought yesterday would be my last day of fishing in Kentucky this year. I hadn't been expecting to have much luck and I know the weather is starting to close in. But after yesterday's experience, I may have to give it at least one more shot.
Video I shot of yesterday's trip is available at:
http://youtu.be/keDVpq7smME
