Fishing at Crooked Creek

My brother-in-law Dave is home from Calgary. I always enjoy this time because he is an avid fisherman like me. Before he moved out West we would spend many days fishing at Crooked creek. On his return trips home we always make sure to take a few days and return to fish at this beautiful spot.
On last Sunday we decided to go. We arrived at Crooked Creek at around noon for an afternoon of fishing. This was the first time I have been at Crooked creek all summer. We figured the water would be running high and hard because of all the rain we have received all summer. We were correct in this assumption as the water was very high and running very hard for this time of year. We decided to give it a try since we were there. We said we would go a ways up the water and if we did not get any action at all we would leave and try the Kennebecasis.

We tried the first few pools with no action at all. We were using different dry flies. My favorite one to use there is my home-made Royal Coachman. I have had excellent luck at Crooked Creek using this fly.
We knew there were a couple of other pools just a little further up the system so we kept going. At the next pool I caught a little brook trout at the head of the heavy water in front of the pool. We said at least we saw a fish and Dave went to the next spot just above this one. In a few minutes he called my name as he had a nice rainbow trout come after his fly. He said he did get the fish close to shore but did not set the fly properly and the fish got off. This was enough for us to continue fishing. The next pool is a very deep spot that we have had good luck at over the years. Dave fished the pool for a few minutes and then I tried my Royal Coachman a few times. On one cast I thought I saw a rainbow swirl a little to the left of the fly so I casted again in the same area and the fish hit the fly right away. I got the fish in and we were excited to at least catch one fish in these water conditions. We fished here a few more minutes and I had one more small rainbow come up but it did not take the fly. Around the corner was another favorite spot of ours so we ventured to it.

Dave, who now had a Royal Coachman on tired this spot with no luck. I moved to the back of the pool and casted my Royal Coachman in a few times and again I thought I saw a swirl. I threw the fly in again and a very nice-sized rainbow jumped completely out of the water at the fly but missed. At this time I yelled at Dave to let him know what I just saw but because of the heavy water running into this spot he did not hear me. I casted again and the fish hit right away. I gave Dave another yell and told him I had a nice one on. Again because of this action we decided to go a little further up the system.

We could a few small brook trout but decided to turn back after a few more spots. We said we would hopefully be back in a week or so to go further hoping the water would be down some.
On the way back to the car we fished the same spot again. On a spot that we have not had much success in recent years Dave caught a nice rainbow.

I was pleased just to get out fishing with Dave at Crooked Creek but also pleased that we both caught some fish. Hopefully the water will drop some so the next time we go the conditions will be a little easier to fish.