Grape Creek Outing 25May14

Half the CoWW went to the Bear Gulch access of Grape Creek and slayed it. We had 40 fish days in decent weather (though there was a spate of sprinkle in the PM). We hiked downstream from parking for an hour before we started fishing - though we did assess later we didn't need to go in that far at all... we actually had to hike back out for 20 min at the end of the day since we didn't fish but 2/3 of the creek back upstream by 4pm and the fishing was consistent and good the whole way. We basically saw no one on the stream all day though there were 2 cars in parking on arrival and 2 different cars when we returned. Every pocket and hole held good fish. We used giant #8 green stimulators and BH droppers all day and had most of the action top water. This tributary of the Arki fishes like the Arki. The creek was a bit off color with low visibility from rains and it was higher than I've fished it before... no fish were rising, except to our flies and while we were a bit worried during the hike in, that soon abated. 85% of the fish were ~12" browns and the rest were generally larger rainbows... we had some smaller, some larger, some oranger, some golder, etc. but in general I was exhausted pulling the 12-13" brown guys off my line... at times I even hoped for remote releases and there were plenty of those too. I got the chance to wield my new GLoomis GLX #3 Whisper Creek... it was great rod for this stream though I could've presented a #24 gnat with it and the #8 stimi was a smidge clunky. A fox came down to drink nearby too. We capped off the "many fish" day with a stop at Green Man Taproom for a variety of good IPAs... a worthwhile stop where we talked with the Slovak woman owner and her pro runner bar maid.