Cornerstones and Bombers

    Last week I was very fortunate to win some streamer flies tied by Alan over at Small Stream Reflections.  The fly series was named "Cornerstone Flies" tied to commemorate Small Stream Reflection's half a million page views.  Monday, I received the flies in the mail and decided to fish them in a wild trout river.  I have never targeted wild trout before, so it was a cornerstone for me as well.  I never gave much thought to wild trout fishing before.  Then I started reading Alan's blog and really getting into his adventures into the world these fish live.  

   The other day I got in the Jeep and took a ride to a wild trout stream.  The river I chose was stocked with only fingerling browns, but also contained wild fish and adult trout.  I got a little nervous when I pulled into the fishing area.  The stream was small and tight.  At some points it was  a yard stick wide, but it did look like trout lived there.  I started fishing with a yellow and red cornerstone fly.  It only took 3 drifts to hook up with one of the little stocked browns.  As the day went on i was amazed at just how many of these browns were in the river, and how hungry they were.  I was wondering if they were starving.  I turned over a rock and it was covered in little nymphs.  It was like turning on a light in the projects and watching all the roaches running.  The nymphs were small so I looked into my fly box and tied on a little black bead head, about a size 20.  Around 3pm a hatch started.  I noticed 4 different bugs: size 20 little black caddis, size 16 tan caddis, size 16 BWO, and size 10 big mayfly.  I was not sure what the last one was, but it had a long slender light olive body.  I noticed the trout rising so i reached into my bag of flies and pulled out an old Bomber.  The Bomber was also tied by Alan and I got it through a fly swap through a fishing website.  As I worked my way along the river I caught fish on the bomber.  Most were the little stocked browns but I did catch a brook trout on it.  As the afternoon went on I switched flies a few times and caught a few more fish.  The big fish of the day was a 8 inch brook trout which took one of the cornerstone flies.  To end the day I drove to a campground and got a site.  I spent the evening By a fire cooking steak.

    My adventure into the world of small stream trout fishing was a lot of fun.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to fish these trout with flies tied my someone who has a passion for it.   I am not sure if any of these fish were wild, but I did have a great time.  When I woke up in the morning I peaked out of my Bivy sack and saw how muddy my hiking boots were, a sure sign of a good time.  All fish were released.