First Trout Trip of 09

So I ventured out onto my first fishing trip of the year on the inland trout streams of New York. The target: Clear Creek, as it has been every year for me for as long as I can remember.
Conditions were perfect although there was a strange lack of bugs out there but the fishing was good. I managed to miss a couple and land these three fish. That's a few fish short of most trips to this stream but I wasnt complaining. No matter how many fish I catch here it never loses its effect on me. The fish is this river are wild and what they lack in size they make up for with their beautiful appearance as you can see. A recent survey by the DEC showed an extremely strong rise in the populations of rainbows in the creek although they also showed very few rainbows over 9 inches with the largest they found being a little under 12 inches. I guess they didnt find my first fish, 13 inches!

All of the fish except for one took small dark nymph patterns in sizes 18-20 and the other little guy took a size 16 mayfly nyph I whipped up last night, its visible in the third picture. It was rediculously bright and that most likely contributed to their unwillingness to bite today but expect it to only get better as we start to see more insect activity.