Thread: Creek Update . (Long )

It’s been two a quarter days since the front dropped 1.2” of rain and swelled the creeks around here .
Although, I usually stay away from parks on weekends, I wanted to check out the creek above and below a local reservoir that’s fishable.
The park on the upper end was packed with hikers and picnickers. The locals love this place . But most don’t fish it .
First stop , the upper end where I fished last week . The water was up , stained , and moving double what it was last week . But I felt like I could still manage to fish it if I moved around and found areas with some slack areas or where the current would swirl and flow back upstream.
I was right ! I ended up catching 3 nice crappies and a smaller one , a super nice shoal bass and a hand size redbreast.
I hated to leave them biting , but I needed to check out the lower section below the dam .

The water below the dam was also running fast and high , but the water was as clear as a mountain stream . I wasn’t sure if I could catch anything it was run in so fast . I started casting downstream and slowly twitching my micro jig upstream along the edge of the bank .
My first fish was a nice stream bass , I believe is a largemouth. At first I thought it was a spot , but the jawline goes back to the eye . I also caught another nice crappie .
I’ve never caught crappie out of this creek before .
To top it off I caught three nice shellcracker before heading to the next spot .
The next spot was the creek below an old mill pond dam .
When I got there , it was full of picnickers and woods walkers .
And the water was muddy , and it was way too fast to fish .
I didn’t even get out of the car . Wished I’d stayed at the last spot .
It turned out to be a good couple of hours of creek fishing.

Equipment used was a 5’ St Croix Premier ULM with a Carbon X reel and Daiwa J Braid with a 3# Floroclear leader and a 5’6” St Croix Trout series ULF and a Carbon x reel with Jbraid and 3# leader . On the trout series , I lost a jig and when I broke off , I lost my leader and tied directly to the braid . Even in the super clear water , the fish didn’t seem to mind . I caught all of the shellcrackers with a direct tie . I don’t think I would have landed a lot of these fish on the 2# test I usually fish with . Several had to be lifted up the bank .

Drove over a bridge just north of where I’ve been fishing today , after over an inch of rain in about 8 hours last night , most within a couple of hours time .
The water was muddy red and looked like Olympic style rapids .
Going to be awhile before it’ll be fishable again.