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Monday, February 20, 2012

Laurel Highlands 2/19/2012

I had a chance to fish in the Laurel Highlands this past weekend on both Indian Creek and a smaller creek nearby where my wife's family owns a cabin.  I woke up early Sunday morning and headed to a stretch of water that looked promising on the drive in Saturday afternoon.  It certainly was a pretty stretch of water and the scenery was nice, but it was very unproductive fishing and likely was just time wasted that I could have spent on more productive water.  I fished an egg with a flashy pheasant tail nymph dropper unsuccessfully for about an hour and half before I decided to go back to the smaller creek at the cabin.

The water at the cabin was pretty low and I wasn't sure what to expect there.


To give an idea of water level, all the rocks to the left are usually under water leading up to the dam.

I decided to switch up my rig to a size 10 white egg sucking leech on a gut feeling.  It ended up being a great decision.  I walked over to the side of the cabin to a fishy looking pool I scouted Saturday night:




On my first drift through the pool, I hooked into a brown trout that came out of nowhere to hit the leech.



I continued to fish this pool for a few minutes when my brother in law pointed out a feeding trout that I had failed to notice.  After a few drifts (and a few snags in an inconveniently placed tree branch), I convinced it to eat...




I continued to fish this spot for a while with no more action and then I headed downstream a bit.



While I'm certain there were some fish holding here, I had no luck so I moved down to the pool below the dam.  I should be able to add some pictures of that spot once I get them from my brother in law's camera as I think he snapped a few while I fished.  When I got down there I dropped my leech in the pool to prepare to cast and an approximately 8inch brookie slammed it. I got it to hand, but unfortunately had no camera on me down there to snap a photo.  It was pretty though :)

A few minutes later something a little bigger hit my leech and when it shook it's head, it broke me off, taking my oh-so-productive leech that I only brought one of.  Oh well.  I tried to entice it to eat again, but was having no such luck so I'll have to revisit that fish when I return back up there.

Also of note on this trip was that I taught 10 year old to tie his first fly on Saturday night after dinner.  He picked it up really quickly and tied up a nice looking size 14 zebra midge.  He is all about learning more, and it was pretty rewarding to teach him how to do it himself and see his smile when he was done.

2 comments:

  1. Great stuff man! That's really cool that your boy is getting involved!

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  2. Great post. Those are some really nice pics too.

    www.troutyeah.blogspot.com
    Josh

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