I met my good friend, Nate Green, up in Payson, AZ this morning. I jumped in his Jeep and we headed off to Tonto Creek about 20 or 30 minutes from town. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was about 50 degrees, clear skies with some snow on the ground. I was pretty excited because this one of the first few times that I have fly fished on a creek.
From there we gathered up all our gear and headed out to hike up and down Tonto Creek. Our plan was to spend the entire day fishing up & down a 2(+/-) mile stretch of this creek. Once we got past the private property area we found some small pools and within just minutes we were pulling out some small browns and rainbows. We continued hiking downstream and found various pools and runs to fish. Nate really had the touch today. While he was pulling in fish after fish I spent a good amount of time tying, re-tying and unknotting my line. Nonetheless, it was still a blast.
About mid-day I had found a nice little pool that I spent a good amount of time at. Nate had stayed back about a ¼ of a mile or so fishing a different pool. I caught a few brown trout that were mid-size (10 to 12 inches) and was loving life. Nate mad
e his way up to where I was and talked a bit about how things were going. He decided to continue on down the creek to see if there were any more good areas to fish. After another ½ hour or so I decided to move down to see what I could find. I ran into Nate and he said it wasn’t very good further down so we decided to start heading back up stream.
We made it back to the pool I was fishing earlier. I told Nate that it was a pretty good little spot and to go ahead to fish for a little bit and I'll wait. So Nate flings a couple of nymphs out ther
e and within just a minute or two has one on the line. He said it didn’t hit very hard but it wouldn’t move off the bottom for some time. Then it came up, jumped and Nate just about pooped in his little pink panties. This thing was huge! Of course we were both excited so I moved over to where he was standing and helped him net this monster before it got loose. It was a brown trout that ended up being about 17 1/2 inches and it was FAT. That really topped off the day there.
It was get
ting late in the afternoon now so we headed back up the creek climbing over huge rocks and moving from pool to pool. My day of fishing started to dry up but Nate still had a little luck left as he caught a few more browns and rainbows on the way back. We got back to the Jeep right at dark. Both of us were tired and hungry but had made some good stories and memories.
As we were heading back to Payson I realized I left my felt boots on the ground by the truck and Nate left his rod on the top of the Jeep. After heading back to where we parked we ended up finding both. Not a bad day of fishing at all.
From there we gathered up all our gear and headed out to hike up and down Tonto Creek. Our plan was to spend the entire day fishing up & down a 2(+/-) mile stretch of this creek. Once we got past the private property area we found some small pools and within just minutes we were pulling out some small browns and rainbows. We continued hiking downstream and found various pools and runs to fish. Nate really had the touch today. While he was pulling in fish after fish I spent a good amount of time tying, re-tying and unknotting my line. Nonetheless, it was still a blast.
About mid-day I had found a nice little pool that I spent a good amount of time at. Nate had stayed back about a ¼ of a mile or so fishing a different pool. I caught a few brown trout that were mid-size (10 to 12 inches) and was loving life. Nate mad
e his way up to where I was and talked a bit about how things were going. He decided to continue on down the creek to see if there were any more good areas to fish. After another ½ hour or so I decided to move down to see what I could find. I ran into Nate and he said it wasn’t very good further down so we decided to start heading back up stream.We made it back to the pool I was fishing earlier. I told Nate that it was a pretty good little spot and to go ahead to fish for a little bit and I'll wait. So Nate flings a couple of nymphs out ther
e and within just a minute or two has one on the line. He said it didn’t hit very hard but it wouldn’t move off the bottom for some time. Then it came up, jumped and Nate just about pooped in his little pink panties. This thing was huge! Of course we were both excited so I moved over to where he was standing and helped him net this monster before it got loose. It was a brown trout that ended up being about 17 1/2 inches and it was FAT. That really topped off the day there.It was get
ting late in the afternoon now so we headed back up the creek climbing over huge rocks and moving from pool to pool. My day of fishing started to dry up but Nate still had a little luck left as he caught a few more browns and rainbows on the way back. We got back to the Jeep right at dark. Both of us were tired and hungry but had made some good stories and memories.
As we were heading back to Payson I realized I left my felt boots on the ground by the truck and Nate left his rod on the top of the Jeep. After heading back to where we parked we ended up finding both. Not a bad day of fishing at all.
