Small water is not the easiest to fish but places like Bear Creek offer a small trout fix a bit closer to home. I find that these areas receive sustained pressure during the summer months but much less so in the colder season. When weather conditions are at their worst an angler may find such water all to themselves.
Once again this is not easy water to fish and the snow will often hide holes or rocks that love to send an angler tumbling to their backside. Believe you me there were many times that I stumbled and nearly fell down. Small creeks such as this do not provide the best access. Fishing holes are small and spread across a lot of shallow water. Casting at the edges of trees and behind rocks along the way. I didn’t see anything in the way of fish action right away but that was typical. Further upstream I expected better results.
Reached one of the better holes meaning it had more depth and width and started casting. There was a small tug and I had hooked into something. A small brown trout leapt from the water spit the hook and vanished from sight. It happened so suddenly that I froze for second in anger.
“Dangit!” My voice cringed knowing that bites were hard to come by on Bear Creek.
Casting through the same section I get another tug. This time I try to land the fish quickly. This fish breaks the surface. It is a 10-inch brown with dark coloring, a prime example of the quality fish in this stretch of water. I reach down and the fish is gone.
“Sonofa!” I mutter again with taste of defeat twice in my mouth. “That was better than the first one.”
Cast, cast, change up, cast, cast, cast…nothing. I moved up to other areas and action was nil. Cast, cast, cast…nothing. Some areas took real work getting into. Cast, cast, cast, Nothing. Then I bushwack into a wider section of the stream and throw upstream at the base of a rock. The lure is run quickly downstream through the pool where I expected to get bites. Nothing. But an eel-shaped shadow is following the lure out of the pool. Over the small sandbar and through the riffle a 13 maybe 14-inch brown nudged at the lure and was gone. I had just got a good glimpse of the fish as it turned to strike and then jet away. My heart jumped in my chest as I frantically search cast for the fish. Nothing.
It may sound silly to get excited about a 14-inch brown but for Bear Creek a 14’er trout is like a 2 or 3-pounder on the South Platte…at least for me anyways. Regardless I had lost three opportunities and untested water was running thin. Moving back down I did my best to work every scrap of water that untouched on the way up. My mind had already started consoling myself about taking home the skunk with mantras like; “Not everyone catches fish every time they fish.”
Well past the best sections I was finishing up some of the shallow water sections in pure desperation. Picking apart every riffle, eddy and undercut bank I get a solid hit and land a beauty 10’er brown. Not the biggest brown trout you will ever see but downright respectable for Bear Creek.
My name is Matt and I’m a fishaholic
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