Gary Engberg Outdoors

gengberg February 1st, 2012

There were cattle everywhere. They tromped down the banks badly. This stretch was not the postcard of a beautiful place. Sometimes the old adage of “Trout Don’t Live In Ugly Places” is wrong. There was one thing that really piqued my curiosity. There was a huge spring that emptied in about 120 yards upstream. I decided to give the stretch my due diligence .My first stop was at the farmer’s house. I wanted to get permission and to find out if there were any aggressive animals in his pasture. I found the farmer in his barn. He was more than willing to allow me to fish. He told me he wanted his fences taken care of and if I saw any garbage I was to pick it up. I asked him about the stretch. He told me the boundaries of his land. It was quite a big piece of land. He also told me that no one fished it. There were no aggressive animals either.

I geared up at the road and went in at his lower downstream boundary. The stream was really skinny and devoid of fish at the beginning of my adventure. I took a look under rocks to see if there was any invertebrates. The stream bottom was silty and I found no bugs on the rocks I overturned. I took the stream temperature and it seemed ok for trout so I fished on.

The first 100 yards were a real downer. No trout and not very fishy looking water. I decided to fish it right and try the entire stretch. I was taking the water temperature all the time. The water was starting to get cooler as I went upstream. The bottom was not so silty now. My anticipation began to grow. I was about 100 yards below the huge spring I mentioned before. The stream widened out but still had some depth.

Every little pothole contained a smallish brook trout. I was up to about 20 brookies in the promising water and then came the cattle. I was certain the cattle being in the water would ruin my outing. The cattle had tramped down the bank and there were numerous crossing dug deeply in the banks. To my amazement the holes in the most “ugly” part of the stretch were more productive.

I was up to 30 brookies and 5 browns in 120 yards of this fishing outing. One of the brookies was quite nice. I started adding two and two together. Browns and brookies in the same water and a huge spring. The light went off in my head and I thought there was a good possibility of catching a “tiger” trout in this stretch. I sized down my Panther Martin to a size four. Ten casts later I caught a tiger trout. This ugly place with eroded banks and silty bottom was really a producer. Continue Reading »