My New Addiction - Rainbow Falls

First weeknight trip to Rainbow Falls. Makes for one LONG work day but totally worth it. Not too many people there last night when we pulled in. It was such a nice day yesterday I thought it would be packed but it wasn't too bad. I'd say 10 guys total on the property.

Nice buck that took a #16 red annelid

Ben and I started on Trout Creek. We hit some areas we didn't hit on the first trip. The runs directly below the dam are as good as I thought they would be. There is a section of 5 nice runs directly below the dam. Each have a nice weir that dumps a little white water into the hole. There are two that I noticed that have an underwater shelf that drop off into a deep cut. You can get a really nice drift right up against the shelf and the trout seem to be stacked up against the drop off. Really fun fishing these runs because you can tell when a fish is going to hit before the take. Addicting!

This trip I came armed with a bunch of streamer patterns like the ones Ben was killing them with last trip and didn't have much luck with them. It seemed like bigger patterns were the ticket this trip. Just goes to show that you still have to figure out whats going on on any given day. Makes it even more addicting...

26" Hoss

We hit Elk Lake as the sun was setting. I fished it for about a half hour without much luck.  I tied on the biggest black slump buster that I had, came within a foot of knocking myself out with it on the forward cast, and let it sink for a good 20 seconds. I started a VERY slow and lazy strip. 4 short strips and a 2-3 second pause. I saw my streamer and was getting ready to cast when something caught the corner of my eye. I hesitated and this big boy swam around in front of it (between me and the streamer) and opened his mouth and ran it over. My heart was in my throat when I set the hook. My line just stopped. He just sat there for a second in front of me like he couldn't believe he was hooked. I thought he was going to come right in but that would not be the case. He found some motivation and was running. This gave me some time to yell over to Ben who was at Spring Lake. He jumped in the truck and drove over in time to see the end of the fight and this jaw with fins swim into the net.

We headed back down to the creek just as it was getting dark. I tied on a white Meat Whistle with yellow dumbbell eyes and stuck a few nice fish before it got too dark to fish. Awesome way to spend a Thursday night!

One thing I've learned over these first two trips is that a very slow and gentle stripping action is best on streamers. I've picked a few up on faster strips but it seems that most take the fly on a pause in between very slow strips. We'll see if that holds up.