Tenkara Fly Fishing at Valley Water Mill Park

Saturday morning, I had a few hours to myself and took them fishing. I was going to go for a long bike ride, but opted to break from MS150 training for a weekend.

I drove north of town to Fellows Lake, but at 7:30am it was already quite crowded anywhere you could plop down and fish the banks. From there I went to Valley Water Mill Pond/Park. I started out fishing the spring area, since the lake is already very weeded up. When I was getting loose a tangle, which takes quite a while in wind-blown 5x tippet, I had a muskrat surface just below the bank I was standing on. He noticed me and dove under, but the water is so clear that I watched him swim across the creek, make a turn and keep on heading up towards the spring. Kinda cool, really.

Not catching anything from the spring creek, I hiked up the hill and above the pond, working my way back to the parking area. When I got to the spillway dam, I decided to explore the creek below. Glad I did, that's where I caught 7-8 small fish, most of which were perch. I saw a couple of good-size bass in the creek, but they weren't interested in what I was throwing. I fished top water spider poppers most of the time. It's all I managed getting a bite on. The same nymphs that worked a few months ago in cold weather, were pretty much useless now.

Before I left, I saw another three muskrats swim across the creek just downstream from me, one after another. It's amazing what you can see just on the outskirts of town, if you're quiet enough.