"Winter" Fishing The PT ~ Plenty @ Nature Center & Valco 04Dec24

Flows are down to ~80cfs; viz is 25"; air temps are ~65°; crowds are modest during the week; fall mayfly and midge hatches mid-morning to mid-PM. I had a decent outing on the PT, 1st at Nature Center, and then at Valco upstream. I caught a 100 tiny trout 6"-10" on everything on the line: mayflies & midges including olive mylar Perdigon, black beauty, pop top, awesome midge, grey & black RS2s, etc. I also caught a couple of 18"er cutbows, one in each section (no pic of #2 as my battery died), and some 15"-16"ers too. Fish were spread out and comfortable but I didn't see the even bigger fish in here. It was a nice day on the water, and it was not too crowded at all.

I was especially excited about the performance of the new Rodfather Ghost Bomber. Of course it handled landing all the fish today on 5.5X but the long line nymph rig casting and mending performance was completely "on."  This has got to be one of the very best rods from a Chinese blank, MHX Native. I can't wait to get some bigger stuff on.

At the Nature Center, above the big weir, I was surprised to see redds formed. I don't know if they are brown trout spawning beds or what. Perhaps the fish are confused or finning off sections early but I did see fish on them! Weird. I didn't fish to them but did catch some decent 'bows nearby... dunno.