Fishing - TR: low, low water and a surprise

I had the good fortune to spend the day on Saturday on my favorite little
bit of trout stream. The water was, as it has been since July,
exceptionally low. I wish I had taken stream wide shots to compare with
those that Tim recently posted.

The low water, in combination with the heavily falling leaves, made for some
tricky fishing, but I did get some cooperation. This is a caddis rich
stream, and at one point late morning, the sun hit the water and caused
quite a hatch. I happened to be on a stretch of the river that has deep
pools and holds some good, and wily, holdover fish. When the caddis started
hatching, the trout came out of seemingly nowhere to aggressively feed on
the surface. I'm sure they were chasing the caddis pupae as they ascended
to the surface of the water. It was quite a sight.

Fortunately I had a caddis pupa emerger on my tippet, and fished it with
some action. Best fish of the day was this palomino trout, the first time
I've ever caught one. It measured out a bit past the 16" mark that I have
marked on my rod, and gave a good fight. Though I wish I could have gotten
him to pose a little better...

http://salvelinus.cwru.edu/palominotrout.jpg

Despite the conditions, I got several other rainbows on caddis dries and
emergers. I usually catch at least one brown, but didn't get one on
Saturday.

A good day out!

Bill