Fun at the "Secret Creek"

I got out after work today to see if the water had cleared up any around here. The starting point was Duck Creek in Garland which had some fish in it about 2 weeks ago. The water level had dropped back down a lot since the rainstorm earlier this week. The clarity was a different story though. It was still pretty murky and had very limited visibility. I decided to try my luck for a bit, but luck wasn't on my side.

From the height of the trash in the trees it appears the water was about 12-14 feet higher than normal from all the rain we had. They also have 2 areas of construction on the creek above this section which is putting a lot of dirt in the water. When it clears this area will be fun to fish. After about half an hour of trying convinced me it was time to move to a better area.

I thought about it for a bit and decided to go north and see what the story was there. I hit the freeway and made it there ASAP to see if it was worth fishing. I pulled up and had a good feeling about the creek there. I got my stuff out and headed to the creek and the water looked good. It was clear enough and not running high. I was on the opposite side from where I normally work this creek. I could see fish rising on the other side tight against the bank. Starting with some minnow imitations I didn't get a bite though I had couple of follows from the bass there.

I changed to a partridge and orange soft hackle and quickly found that the big bream were ready to spawn and hungry. I landed a large girl from the far side. I worked that fly for a while and then decided to try some poppers. That turned out to be the ticket. Casting across the creek to the opposite side and working it back would bring explosive strikes from those large bream. They had large bellies and and were ready to spawn. I spent about an hour and a half landing fish after fish and loving every minute of it. Life doesn't get much better than that!