Well.... not to steal the thunder from another thread. I congratulate that fellow for reaching a young 70. Anyway, I turned 65 this week and decided to treat myself to a day a stream. So, I broke out an 8' 5wt. Karstetter. Balanced with a #4 Orvis CFO and an SA DT5F we put the steel to a few healthy trout today. The conditions were excellent. After an hour hike into a higher elevation meadow, I found the stream covered with a spinner fall that had the attention a few trout. I believe these were PMD spinners as I encountered PMD duns later in the day. I hit the stream at 0800 and the water was a cool 50 degrees. Later that climbed to a more comfortable 60. The trout were all tucked under the darker banks as the sun blistered the meadow and surface of the stream. The gin clear water gave the trout no place to hide. Undercut banks were the rule! It was a long hike out in the 90 degree sun but worth the effort. Check out the stream and its denizens.
Mark
The creek;
Handled by the Karstetter! 18"s and pushing 3 lbs.
This bugger crashed the opposite bank when it felt the steel. Slammed into the rocks and then flipped itself back to the stream. Several attempts to return to its hideout but I checked it with the Karstetter by giving the butt and muscled it back the center stream where it crashed the surface a number of times. Tough bugger it was but finally, exhausted, slid to the bank where it allowed me to take a photo or two. A wonderful combatant. Released it went directly back to its hideout. Made my day!
