Get the Skunk Off

With the weather warming up and a few extra hours of sunlight after work, I couldn't resist the heading out to the coulees to search for trout.  I decided to head for one of my favorite spots which is also one of the closest.  The last 2 times I got out to fish I was skunked. The first thing I actually saw on this trip was a skunk, waddling out of him home in a giant pile of logs and branches.  An omen of what was about to happen... or was it? After suiting up and lining my noodly 4 weight rod, named Mr. Whippy Pants, I noticed something was not right.  The water resembled the chocolate milk of a second grader after they drank it and then spit it right back in the cup, it was completely muddy and foaming with bubbles.  I was not going to be able to catch a fish here... at least not with the almost microscopic midge pupa I was planning on using.  Time to retool.  I grabbed my 6 wt.  and a bright yellow streamer and commenced casting into the muddy discharge.  The visibility was so bad that I gave up.  The skunk was an omen.  I decided to head up stream toward the headwaters of these creeks and coulees.  I eventually got of my car at a stream that I could literally jump across, in waders.  This tiny creek was not blown out and looked right for a streamer, slightly stained and possessing some good deep holes and runs.  Just as the sun was setting I finally hooked my first and second fish in a week.  One on the way out made it a triple.  I was happy to have washed off the stank of the skunk.

A day later, after closing on our first house, my wife had to go back to work.  So, I decided to celebrate with a couple of cans of Sierra Nevada and hopefully some nice brown trout.  I found a magic hole and with a Milwaukee leech, pulled 8 fish out of the run on almost consecutive cast.  A great way to celebrate.