A good day on the Credit

I stepped into the water above the spot formerly known as the second parking lot at about 2:00. Cool sunny day, breezy. Water temperature 54 f.

A good Hendrickson hatch came off from about 2:45 until 4:30. I was at Brimstone pool when I saw the first of the bugs. I caught a 15 incher in a fast run above Brimstone on a comparadun and a couple 10 inchers in the same area. Further upstream, there were some very good trout splashing in a flat. The same run had some smaller trout rising in the faster water - the big ones were close to the far bank. I had several refusals before catching a very nice 18 inch brown. Once the hendricksons stopped, there was I minor hatch of olives. In another flat I pricked two large trout on a little Adams. By 6:00 p.m. the only bugs on the water were some tiny midges, and the trout were not rising to them. The temperature dropped a few degrees and all surface activity stopped. Before mother nature turned the bug tap off, I had caught four trout, including 2 very nice ones, and missed lots more rises.

I worked up to Stuck-Truck pool - another fellow was coming down to the river here so I left the stretch to him and walked up to the meadows. I was not happy with what I saw. There was a group of guys with spinning rods. They had a fire going at the bottom end of the meadows to grill meat. I saw several discarded beer bottles in the area (as well as quite a lot of litter in general in the area. There was an open worm container not far from the group. I said to these guys, "hey, you're not using bait, area you?" and they said no they were not. I told them there were special regulations on the river, single barbless hook, catch & release. There were several of them and I didn't want to get myself beat up so I retreated, but I'm sure these characters were poaching. From a distance, it looked like they were using spinners. I also noticed two other discarded styrofoam worm containers littered in the meadows. We need some enforcement up there!! I called the MNR tip line and asked for some enforcement in the area.