On Saturday, January 5^th, the FATC Stream Team took advantage of the fantastic weather, and accomplished our fall survey of Calvey Creek a little later than usual.  This creek borders Robertsville State Park in Franklin County. The participants were myself, Mike Bisaga, Miles Meyer, Scott Dougherty, Steve Horst, Paul Schneider, Don Varner, and Sid Aslin.  This was the first Stream Team experience for four of these guys.  On this trip we tried a little more direct route through the woods to the site, which is about a third of a  mile walk, and found it to be a little easier than the route we had been using.  This site is remote, and the only trails are game trails.

We found the site and creek to be in very good condition, seeing as how it has been recovering from a large dirt bank collapse about a year ago.  On that previous trip we found a lot of mud, silting, and very few bugs.  The bug count still wasn’t real high this trip, but was better than our previous trip here.  The new guys all commented as to how they’re going to have to reassess the fly sizes they’ve been using, as most of the bugs we were picking were in the #22 size or smaller.  When you think about it, the adults might lay hundreds or thousands of eggs, and of these, maybe only two or three will make it to adulthood.  So what happens is that as the fish are looking to eat these bugs, and the bigger the bugs get, the easier they are for the fish to find, so for every bug size increase there is a smaller population of them.  Consequently therefore, most of what the fish find and eat are the very smallest sizes.

The new guys also got a good look at what the bugs really do look like, which makes it a lot easier to understand fly appearance, colors, the sparse use of materials when tying, and the action to try to imitate while fishing them.  Everybody seemed to enjoy the experience, and we finished up with a good lunch at Super Smoker’s BBQ in Eureka.  Our next outing will be on January 26^th, and we’ll be meeting at Babler State Park at 9:00 AM for that one.  Please do let me know if you can make it!