Troutman: Wild Browns, New Water, and Early Spring Weather

A buddy and I had the opportunity to fish a couple beautiful streams Monday and Tuesday. Since both streams are over two hours away, we stayed at his camp very close to one of them. I had been watching the weather for a few days before we left, and it was looking great for our two days. I tied up a bunch of small blue-winged olive nymphs and dries in sz 18 and 20 since there were many reports of them hatching already. The excitement was building by the day.
Sunday, two friends of mine fished one of the streams we planned to hit, and did very well on both BWO nymphs and dries. This was a promising report for both of us heading up. The only issue was low and clear water conditions. This did not stop them on Sunday, so it wasn't going to stop us...
We got to the stream around 8 AM and were pleasantly surprised to see only a few cars. The other good thing was that not all of these people were fishing. Some were hiking and running the trails, which made it even better. The stream holds wild Brown Trout and some Rainbows here and there and this particular stretch of water is incredibly aesthetically pleasing, and serene as ever. It was going to be a good day...
As we walked dowstream on the trail, we scanned every piece of water for movement, and holding water. After about a quarter of a mile we found what we were looking for... There were fish moving, and from what we could see, plenty of great holding water to nymph. We stayed back as not to spook them, and watched for a minute or two before sneaking into the water downstream of where we planned to drift. We crossed, and moved upstream like ninjas each to our own run. Within the first few drifts, I was into fish. Too bad the first few were all suckers! I laughed it off, and kept drifting there because I knew there had to be some Trout there as well. It paid off a few minutes later with a couple nice wild Browns brought to hand.
A half-hour or so later, we moved on, walking down the trail, and fishing upstream when we found a good run. There were many more fish brought to hand throughout the entire day, and nearly no one around. I walked a good bit down into the canyon and took a few minutes to taste an awesome new local IPA and have a bite to eat while taking in the scenery, no one in sight. The rest of the day was filled with great sights, and many laughs between us and the folks we met in the parking lot while waiting for some dry fly action.
The fish started taking BWO's, so we rigged up the dries. As soon as we got setup, and I got into the water, the wind kicked up fiercely. This completely shut everything down on the top. We nymphed for an hour or so more before calling it a day... And a great day at that. We spent the rest of the night at the fire with food and more IPA's, discussing the days events.
The next morning we got up (not too early) and went to another stream to check it out. It is a beautiful stream, and a large one at that. The section we went to was back in the middle of the woods, down a dirt road, near only camps and cabins. Another awesome place for peace and scenery. We fished for about an hour or two with no action, until I got into one very nice Rainbow drifting near a large boulder in the stream. We then both decided to finish up the trip at this point, and make the 3 hour trek home, considering we were both pretty beat tired. Regardless of the fish caught, this trip was a full out success. Met some new great people, including a new fishig buddy that I look forward to sharing water with much more in the future. We saw a ton of great sights as well as some new territory that looked very promising for future trips. It's trips like this that draw me back time and again to search both water and my soul, and get down to what really matters in fishing. Commraderie, laughing, good food, and good people sharing great times...