Trout Outwitted

The first snows of the season have arrived here in the Powder River Basin. I’m afraid this may spell the end of the camping season, or at least the “camping in comfort” season. Last weekend I made what may be the last camping trip of the summer and thought it best to stay out of the mountains and keep to the lower elevations of Sand Creek.
Those who have followed this blog will note my persistence in trying to catch the big brown trout that inhabit the stream. I have tried many times throughout the spring, summer and now fall to catch them on the fly rod.
In this time I have offered them every type of fly in my arsenal, from #22 nymphs and drys, fished both on the surface and bottom and everywhere in-between, to every attractor pattern including the usually successful adams and royal coachman, as well as many types of mayflies, pale morning dun and caddis flies. I even resorted to the terrestrials, ant and bug-like things called letort hoppers and atomic ants. In desperation I even once tied a live grasshopper on a hook and offering that to the tranquil trout.
Humpfh!
They ignored it all.
All the more frustrating because I can see the fish through the gin-clear water with their expressions of arrogance and indifference.
This time of year there is more night than day and after dinner while sitting around the campfire, I decided to do something I’d not done before. Fly fish at night.
Ahaa! Boom! Splash!
Obviously what the fish were waiting for. I caught three fat trout in about a half hour. In the moonless night they could not see me, nor could I see them until they splashed to take the fly.
Although challenging and especially tough to be aware of where the line and fly is in the darkness, I have finally found the secret of successful trout fishing on Sand Creek.