Jimmy Harris
11-17-05, 08:43 AM
Well, since I encouraged everyone to abandon all their responsibilities and head to Dukes Creek on Wednesday if it rained, I feel obligated to report the results. What exactly are the ingredients of humble pie?
It did rain early Wednesday morning, enough to blow out the Soque, Chestatee and Chattahoochee Rivers. Perfect, I thought, for Dukes. There were no openings when I called on Tuesday but by late Wednesday morning, several anglers had abandoned the creek so I booked two slots for a fishing buddy and myself in the afternoon. The creek had a little more volume of water than my last trip there on Sunday afternoon but it was not muddy at all. Stained with tannin from all the leaves in the water but not off-color due to runoff. Bottom line is I landed two rainbows and my buddy one. We both had other fish on and at least 4 of them were in the 18" - 20" class but we didn't bring them to the net. Just one of those days when it didn't happen. On checking out, we looked at the fishing reports from the other anglers and even the guys who had fished all day caught only three or four fish. Some consolation I guess. Some interesting notes from the day: Saw two big rainbows going through the spawning ritual. Most of the fish were in shallow water; riffles barely deep enough to cover their backs. All the places that held fish on Sunday were barren of fish yesterday. I would love to know what the barometric pressure was yesterday. I held off for almost an hour before trying a Y2K Bug but as soon as I tied one on, I hooked three fish in the next ten minutes. Of course they all got off but, obviously, that was a fly that worked yesterday. Pink San Juans worked also. The thing about a day like yesterday is that I can't wait to get back over there again and try to do better. What a great stream!
It did rain early Wednesday morning, enough to blow out the Soque, Chestatee and Chattahoochee Rivers. Perfect, I thought, for Dukes. There were no openings when I called on Tuesday but by late Wednesday morning, several anglers had abandoned the creek so I booked two slots for a fishing buddy and myself in the afternoon. The creek had a little more volume of water than my last trip there on Sunday afternoon but it was not muddy at all. Stained with tannin from all the leaves in the water but not off-color due to runoff. Bottom line is I landed two rainbows and my buddy one. We both had other fish on and at least 4 of them were in the 18" - 20" class but we didn't bring them to the net. Just one of those days when it didn't happen. On checking out, we looked at the fishing reports from the other anglers and even the guys who had fished all day caught only three or four fish. Some consolation I guess. Some interesting notes from the day: Saw two big rainbows going through the spawning ritual. Most of the fish were in shallow water; riffles barely deep enough to cover their backs. All the places that held fish on Sunday were barren of fish yesterday. I would love to know what the barometric pressure was yesterday. I held off for almost an hour before trying a Y2K Bug but as soon as I tied one on, I hooked three fish in the next ten minutes. Of course they all got off but, obviously, that was a fly that worked yesterday. Pink San Juans worked also. The thing about a day like yesterday is that I can't wait to get back over there again and try to do better. What a great stream!