Midnight Mousing Trip – August 2017

Bob sends out a few nice loops before dark.

We have had a great end to our summer and I have much to catch up on. 

I always try and do a late night fly fishing trip to our local stream during the dog days of summer. I make sure to pick a night near or on the new moon, and when the water is low and clear. This gives us the best opportunity for success.

Last year I didn’t even try and get out on the stream, because of how poor the fishing conditions had been over the past few years. The local trout population had suffered greatly since we had to back to back bitterly cold winters. The locations that we usually could find plenty of fish were now vacant, and up until this past winter, seemed to be on a very slow rebound.

The fish and the fishing are now starting to make their way back, but it will still be a few years before the stream begins to fish as well as it did before.

Midnight fly change

This year my good friend Bob and I decided to start at a new location. It was a section of stream up from where we normally fish that receives plenty of stocking during late March and into April, depending on stream conditions. Sure it gets plenty of pressure from all kinds of anglers throughout the spring and summer, but I also know that in those same areas, bigger holdover and wild trout can be a pleasant surprise.

Arriving with plenty of light to rig up our rods, we fished a nice pool below the bridge before the darkness set in. We worked it over pretty well, but no fish came to hand.

We then walked way downstream, tied on high-riding mouse patterns, fished a great looking tailout, and worked our way back up slowly.

We fished our mouse patterns on the swing and with a constant slow and steady strip. In all that time, we only had two or three fish come up and give a good pull, but none of them could stay hooked.

With just a couple of hours or so left, we then headed to a section of stream that we had spent a good amount of time in fishing at night. It is a place, that in the past, we could always count on catching at least a few trout before heading home. Even here, the fishing started off incredibly slow. I was beginning to think that the fishing that I had experienced earlier in the year was just a fluke. And that the fish, were not rebounding like I thought.

Finally on the board!

Over the next half hour or so we flogged the water, until I heard a loud splash followed by a hard pull. It was the first trout of the night. We were on the board!

Over the course of the remainder of our time we had just a few more good pulls, but none of those made it to the net. We left the stream that night feeling fulfilled and tired, and perhaps most importantly, hopeful. Hopeful of the future of this stream and the trout that reside within it’s ever winding course. 

The fishing that we used to experience is still a little ways off. In the meantime, I plan to try and get out when I can enjoy the fish that are there and willing to take a fly.