May Fishing

Out a couple times in the past couple days. Paul and I hit tunnel road again and stood in the stream watching sulphurs and march browns and millions of cream midges hatch, fly around, and float down the river. There were also thousands of american toads crowding the stream edges...they were deafening and you could see and hear them splashing along the banks. I'm sure the big boys eat those things like candy... No fish rising. Only at 9PM did things turn on. I pulled 3 out of the hole that stumped me the last time out. The big fish were back, rolling at flies along the bank, but I couldn't get one to hook themselves. Tonight was a different story. Beautiful night tonight, bugs everywhere, and virtually no one on the stream. A Friday to boot. Strange. They missed out. I took advantage of the empty stream and finally fished at the mouth of Elk Creek...crazy little spot with big boulders and random, deep holes that made wading difficult at best. First cast I had a missed strike...fourth cast another...sixth cast, however, I caught a monster. Huge brown trout whose 15inches belied it's size. This thing was fat. Had a huge head and a thick, hooked nose. And I've never seen a more beautiful brown; this thing was 4 different colors of bright orange, mottled with various sized, dark and haloed spots, and all its fins had bright white edges. I was going to keep it for breakfast (and to take a picture), but literally it was just too gorgeous to not put back. Go make babies, big guy. Caught 6 total on sulphur and march brown dries. Had 1 other on that came off and a few more missed strikes. The only other guy on the stream didn't catch a thing and I'm assuming was relatively pissed at me by the end of the night. Sometimes you get Penn's, sometimes Penn's gets you....as the fella says.