Poking Around My Local

Have a new area I've been wanting to explore for a while.  I know a few streams that are supposed to have trout, but access is the issue.  Took a practice CPA exam this morning and decided to take the afternoon off to see if I could find some trout in this new area.  First stream I tried had some Public Land down low, but was disappointed to find it was too silty to hold trout.  Fished a good stretch that yielded nothing.  Pretty looking water though.

So I was going up the road to try and find higher access when I came across a couple walking the road.  Decided to just roll down the window and see if they knew anything about trout in the area.  The guy happened to own land that follows a trib of the stream and holds trout.  I didn't even have to ask if I could fish his property, he just immediately told me where to park and fish on up, just stop at his house on the way out to report what I caught.  Very nice couple and I was very appreciative of their generosity.  Told me he also had a small pond (20 ft by 10 ft) that he puts stocked trout in, feeds them to 5 to 6 lbs, and then catches them out to eat.  I did mess around with his pets for a little bit, lots of fun on a 2 wt.

He told me some otters have moved in the stream in the past couple of  years and have put a hurting on both the trout in the stream and trout in his pond.  Said the past year he fattened all his trout up and the otters cleaned him out.  He estimates the otters got over 400 lbs of trout.  Said he use to see quite a few brookies in the stream that were around the ft mark, but not since the otters have moved in. I did see a few nice fish, but mostly caught tiny bows.  They did have some neat looking par marks though.

Stopped by the guys house to chat and he showed me the original house to his property.  Hard to put a date on the house he said since it burnt down twice and was built in two different sections, but he has traced evidence back to early 1800's.

Good fishing is always fun, but sometimes you meet people along the way that makes the adventure even more enjoyable and interesting.