Stockies on the EB

Well, it's Saturday. We did buffett at the diner for breakfast, trip to Home Depot with my son, and picked up a Christmas tree. The afternoon was spent trying to get a 9 foot tree to stand up straight inside a tree stand that was way too small to hold the weight of the enormous Douglas Fir. After running some hooks and rope all over the damn place, the tree is standing. (complete with lights and various things hanging from it)

I needed a break and once my son went down for a nap, I headed out to the East Branch for an hour of fishing for stockies. The water was stocked on 10/4 by the PFBC, but only 600 trout were stocked in about a five mile stretch of water. Over half of those were taken out by the worm dunkers, and after listening to Tom Rosenbauer's 10/28 podcast saying that in most cases, stockies only survive a few weeks, I wasn't expecting much.

But, with limited time and a small chance to catch fish, I made the 100 yard trek down to the stream. I tied on a streamer and started roll casting along a bank near a deep pool. Mr. Rosenbauer was wrong. A 12 inch rainbow took the streamer. He was definitely stocked, but started to gain back some wild color. It was still nice to catch a trout less than a stone's throw away from my house. I released him to hopefully catch him again in a few weeks.


As for the fly that he took, it's a new one I tied up that I was going to test up at the Salmon River for steelies, but never got around to it. Real simple green and black streamer with no hackle. Sometimes less is more.

Size 14 Mustad 2xl streamer hook (weighted with lead)
Killer Caddis glass bead
Ice Chenille - Peacock
Black Marabou