Summer's Almost Gone

Date: August 27^th

Weather: 88 degrees

Stream: clear, 90’s cfs

Hatch: Tiny mayflies

Beer: The Dancing Man

            One of the saddest parts of the year is when I buy the last case of Dancing Man. It’s a short but sweet run from May to August and you know summer’s almost gone when the D-Man is scarce on the shelves. To make it worse, the trout season closes in a month. It’s almost too much to handle.

            After coming back from the Eastern Shore and some great ocean fishing, I was eager to get out to my old haunts on the Kinnickinnic. Nymphing produced pretty consistently and surprisingly, there were a 

quite a few rises, probably for terrestrials not those tiny mayflies. My hot nymph was a size 14 green caddis pupa. It’s green, fuzzy, and apparently looks delicious to lurking trout witnessed by the hook in the trout’s mouth.

HUGE!!!

            Most of the trout I pulled out were less than 12 inches. A nice fish but not what I was after, especially since fall is coming on and these fish need to pack on the calories. At my sweet spot this year, the trout have just given themselves to me. As I was drifting a nymph, I heard a loud gulp 20 yards downstream. On my second cast, the strike indicator disappeared and a gold flash was on my line. This one made some nice runs and didn’t give up like a smaller trout. I kept the drag lighter than normal for fear of breaking the line. When I finally reeled it into the net I let out some whoops which carried down the canyon. It was huge and its girth was impressive. If I was coldhearted I would have cut it up into some trout steaks but it was too beautiful for that. Its jaw was what stood out; it was developing a kype, where the jaw develops a hook for the spawning season. Trout caviar here I come!