With trout season starting in April in my area, I’ve been trying to get some more skills when it comes to fishing. The reality is that my abilities in that department are disturbingly sub par. Recently I’ve decided to change that. Well, a friend of Mine, Rich (Mibuwulf as you may know him from Blades and Bushcraft) and I decided to spend the weekend doing some fishing. The plan was to go to Carmans river fish on Saturday, camp overnight, and do some more fishing on Sunday. Since the season would not start for two more days, we were going to catch and release only.
When we got together in the morning, Rich had decided that it was time for me to learn how to fly fish. While I have messed around with spin fishing before, I had never fly fished. Rich was a good teacher however, and once we got to the river, he quickly put me to work at a lower section of the river.
As Rich explained, in this area we have a self sustaining population of brook trout. The DEP also stocks rainbow and brown trout each year. In the early part of the day, we fished close to a dam where there was a large population of stocked rainbow trout. Pickings were easy.
Soon we were joined by two more friends.
After a while we decided to move up the river to look for more challenging populations of native brook trout.
On the way there were several pitcher plants. They are carnivorous, trapping insects in their pitcher shaped flowers and digesting them. I had no idea they could be found this far north. I always imagined they were a more tropical plant, but apparently not.
When we were traveling to our new location we spotted a swan which at first glance appeared to be dead. It was on its back and not moving. Upon a closer look though, it was alive, and apparently trapped in the underbrush. The guys got to work setting it free.
The swan had been trapped there for quite some time and had a very hard time walking once it was set free. We carried it to the river, where it started swimming. We didn’t see it dead for the rest of the day, so I assume it made it.
Once we reached the upper part of the river, Rich was able to locate a population of brook trout, and we were able to catch them quite successfully.
Unfortunately, we decided to call off our plans for overnighting. Both Rich and I were recovering from being sick this past week, and I in particular was not feeling well. We decided to pack up and go home. Not to worry, fishing is just starting for the year, so we’ll have plenty more opportunities. Big thanks to Rich for showing me the ropes. To see some awesome fly fishing in Patagonia, check out Rich’s YouTube channel here.
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