Weather was great for hanging out at the beach, but probably not the optimum to entice Brookies to take a dry. Skies were clear, and temps moved into the mid to upper 70s as the day went on. We parked at a bridge overlooking the creek along Rousch Road, rigged up, and got on the water around 8:30 or so. Since three would have definitely been a crowd on this stream, Frank and Bob decided to fish upstream from the bridge, I would make my way downstream, and we'd return to the truck for lunch. While my section of the stream showed potential in spots, it just didn't show the same characteristics as the upstream sections we fished a few weeks ago. There were a few decent lies, but for the most part the creek consisted of long straightaways and flat bottoms, not particularly conducive to a meaningful Brook Trout experience. I did manage one 6 incher, but that was it for nearly three hours.
I made my way back to the bridge, and since it was an hour or so before lunch, I headed upstream to see if I could intercept Bob and Frank. When I caught up to them they had less to report. Again, their section had some holding water, but no fish. They didn't even see or spook a fish.
Over lunch we dwelled on the mystery, but decided that further exploration would be fruitless. So we made a command decision to head upstream and fish some of the same water that was highlighted in the earlier two posts. This time Frank and Bob started a little above the point where Slider Run (a very small tributary of Kettle) runs into Kettle Creek. I decided to check out Slider Run. As I started walking to the stream, though, I heard the recognizable sound of Bob yelling, and then loud voices between Bob and Frank. Turns out that the vegetation on the banks was very high, concealing a big hole into which Bob inadvertently found himself. For a moment I thought I might have to head back. But the yelling stopped, so I assumed that all was well and continued to check out Slider Run.
Perhaps a couple of weeks ago the trib would have been worth fishing. But not this day. So I made my way back to the bridge, and decided to fish behind Frank and Bob. Fortunately, this section of Kettle Creek bailed us out. While the water was much lower in this stretch, there were plenty of lies for Brookies. Better yet, there were trout in those lies. Not big fish, mind you, probably 4-6 inches (although Bob got a nice fish that went about 10 inches), but trout that aggressively went after our hopper and hopper/dropper patterns, even gracing us with another chance or two when we missed the hookup.
A couple of hours leap-frogging the stream provided us a few fish to the hand and several misses, enough action to call the day a success. For now we'll let the Brookies have a rest. But with October and cooler weather just around the corner, I'm looking forward to a return to take another crack at these Kettle Creek gems.
Tight lines,
Mikey D Fishing
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