new super secret pool

i have found a new super secret pool, right in town. actually, it's not all that super secret (it's right behind mambo italiano), but no one ever seems to fish it. i caught a nice 12 inch brown (shown above) out of there yesterday, hooked into another bigger one briefly before losing it, and saw what was probably an 18 or 20 inch rainbow roll over on a fly after that. i'll be heading back frequently this week.

i just can't believe how great the fishing is right through the heart of steamboat springs!

this fish was really satisfying to catch. it'd been awhile since i'd caught anything bigger than 8 inches, and i caught him on the third fly i tried last night. i started with a wooly bugger, which imitates - among many things - leeches or very small fish. i let it sink at the top of the riffle, then stripped across and downstream through the pool. no luck. at this point, the fish started to rise, so i tied on a regular old elk hair caddis dry fly, and fished it on top for awhile. no luck.

and here's where i did some actual thinking about how the trout were feeding. when a trout feeds on dry flies on top of the water, they usually just sip them. it's a pretty relaxed move for the fish, and the surface of the water is barely broken sometimes. but the fish last night were bursting through the water, and even jumping. this often happens when trout are feeding on caddis emergers that are making their way up from the rocks on the river bottom to the surface. the trout get excited, dart at the insect just before it breaks the surface, and as a result the trout themselves wind up airborne.

so i knew i had to tie on a soft hackle caddis, which imitates the caddis fly in this stage of its journey. it's a "wet fly" that rides the current just below the surface. i tied one on, and sure enough, on my fifth cast i caught a fish.

occasionally, i almost feel like i know what i'm doing out there.