Return to Clearwater Creek

I made the trip out to Clearwater Creek this morning.  I wanted to make sure that nobody had been fishing my spot this year and while I was there I figured I should probably fish a little myself.

As I stood at the back of my car putting my rod together I noticed a small swarm of Stimulater Flies nearby.  This made the choosing of my starting fly very easy.  While most fly fishers know that the Stimulater Pattern was designed to imitate the Stimulater Fly they are unaware of how the Stimulater Fly received it's name.

In the spring of 1680 Father Louis Hennepin was exploring the Mississippi River when his group was captured by a Sioux war party and carried off for a time into what is now the state of Minnesota.  While spending time with the tribe during his imprisonment he could see the warriors mash flies into a paste which they would then rub on their sore muscles and joints as well as other body parts in need of stimulation.  Later in his memoirs he would write, "It appears these natives had discovered the Flex-all 454 of the New World."

 It wasn't long before I had that Stimulater tied on and a trout to hand.  "One trout in the hand is worth two in the creek".

 A few casts later and a slightly larger specimen.

 Then I found a frog.

 A nice little frog.

 He was quite the poser.

 Soon I would switch to the bugger in order to match the hatch.

 The green worm hatch.

 He had about five of these in his mouth when he chased my bugger down.

 It was evident that high water had rushed through here recently.

Last week when I was fishing with Mark he said, "These purple flowers always remind me of Memorial Day".  This brought back a flood of memories from when I fished with Mark last week.

We cleaned house that day.

 Mark was getting them on crawlers and spinners.

 I was catching them on streamers.

 I was so happy.

Awakening from my daydream I found myself staring at a huge rock cliff.

 And a beautiful creek gurgling it's way through the canyon.

 Slug city over here.

 This is called small water.  Just because it gets really small doesn't mean that there aren't deeper pools upstream.

 Like this one.

 What a special place.

 Mossy rock.

 And another small brook trout on the Brown Bugger.

 A spider hiding under a Burdock leaf.

 This dead tree was supporting a living tree.

 Talk about a legacy.

 At 1:30pm I met up with the St. Paul Fly Tiers and Fisherman's Club for lunch in Martell.  I  joined this group last year.  It was a good lunch with great friends.

 Afterwards I visited another place and caught a couple like this guy.

 I stumble across the strangest graffiti at times.  I want to find these kids just to tell them, "It's not the trout that suck, ........".