After a drawn out day at work, I slipped over to one of my favorite streams. I had just picked up my new Orvis Superfine Touch 7” 3wt (expect a review here soon) and wanted to put it to the test with some dry flies. I made my way over to a nice pool that I discovered last week, and took a seat to watch for risers.

My wait didn’t take long. I watched as 5-7 Brown Trout of varying sizes, started rising to primarily terrestrials and caddis. I had arrived at about 6pm, and there was a decent hatch going on.

I tied on a small mayfly emerger, as the fish were sipping off the surface, and I figured the pattern would draw some attention. Sure enough on the first cast I managed to land an odd looking little brown. He put up a decent fight for his size, and after a short battle, I put him back in the water. The fish were still busy feeding, and I was eying down a couple of larger fish at the front of the pool. I dried off my emerger pattern, and sent a nice roll cast to the front of the pool. It took a few passes, but I managed to entice a bit of a larger brown to the surface. Bringing him in on my new Superfine was a blast. After almost hanging me up on a submerged log, I managed to get my second fish to the net:

I was very happy to manage a larger fish out of the creek, given the temperature, and the fact that western, NY isn’t renowned for it’s July trout fishing. Luckily my girlfriend had decided to stop by and hang out, so getting pictures of this guy was a quick and painless process. I slipped him back in the creek and went back to fishing.

After catching a handful of browns anywhere from 6-11″ I noticed a huge trout, pushing all the other fish out of the front of the pool. The water wasn’t too deep where he positioned himself, maybe a foot, foot and a half. The water was crystal clear as well. I knew catching this fish was not going to be an easy task, but I was up to the challenge. Up until this point I was making an upstream approach with the fish I had caught. However, given the low, clear water, I knew I was going to have to change tactics if I wanted this trout. I made my way up the creek ahead of him, and found some cover behind large bush on the shore. I added a bit of tippet to my leader, giving myself about 12 feet to work with. I cast the fly just ahead of him, allowing my fly line to float just out of his sight on the right side. I watched through the bush as my emerger headed right down over his head. On the first pass he very calmly rose to the fly and slurped it right down. A clean hook set and the fight was on! The fish and I fought it out for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was all of 5-6 minutes. After a close call of my leader catching on an overhanging tree, I eventually brought him to the net. A huge trout for this creek, and one I had not the slightest expectation of catching. All in all, a terrific little evening of fishing. Here’s the beast: