A couple weeks ago we were up on Verdigre, the first time since last Fall.  Being a spring creek, it is possible to fish the stream all year-round (if you're willing to put up with the cold, wind, and ice in your guides...), but honestly it's more fun when it warms up a little.  In the Spring and Fall, the weather is great, the vegetation is down, and particularly in the Spring, there is the prospect of a few hold-over fish.

Having fished the stream for pushing a decade now, this trip we decided to spend some time trying places in the watershed that get less pressure, that we have usually ignored.  It's not that a person gets bored, but sometimes you do ask yorself what you might be missing.  Which of course means "Is there a big lunker, tucked away in an unusual spot, that I've been missing?"  This time, every new spot was a bust.  Not only no lunker, but no small fish, no anything.  Really.  Honest.

So we fished the regular spots, and there were fish.  For the most part, they were hold-overs, not the usual 11-inch silvery stockers, but beautiful fish with dark green backs, red-striped sides and some size to them.   Here's one:



The rod I was using is one made last year, a 7-1/2ft 4-wt Perfectionist, really a lovely rod for that small stream, where you want delicacy, strength to cast into the ever-present wind, and not too much length.

On this particular trip, we kept a couple of the stockers and smoked them, and cleaning them set the agenda for the rest of the weekend:  fish any fly you want as long as it is a scud.  They were packed with them.  The streambed is littered with caddis cases and most of the year, a peeking caddis will draw strikes, but this weekend, it was all about scuds - small, dull colors, dead-drifted or stripped.  Pretty soon, the mayflies and the caddis will be out, and the menu will change, but this early weekend, it was all about scuds and beautiful hold-overs.

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