Went out to the south fork to hit my usual wet wade adventure stretch. First cast of the day caught the biggest fish of the day at 14"(picture next to size 15 wading boots). Came out of nowhere on the log I was standing on and hit my spinner 3 feet from my rod tip. Wasn't expecting that at all as this particular area gets fished very hard and I always just make some practice casts to get dialed in for the day.

Caught 38 fish this afternoon and probably missed at least that many. Always prefer single barbless for easy catch and release but it can be frustrating. 35 coastal cutts, 2 whitefish, and my first ever brook trout in this section of the south fork. Most caught on my go to spinner, #2 copper blue fox vibrax. Lost it on a log and caught the rest on a gold mepps size 2. Fish averaged 8-11" with several around 12" and several small ones. Saw some bigger fish but they didn't cooperate and spit the hook. Ran into the resident elk herd at the very beginning as well.

One thing that I noticed is that the water temperature on the south fork is much cooler than the middle fork. I record water temperature several times throughout the day just because and the south fork ran about 61 degrees at noon and only rose to about 64 degrees at 5 when I finished. Much cooler compared to the middle fork which is usually mid 60s in the morning and rises to 70 or 71 around 4 or 5pm. Fishing doesn't really get affected as the trout are still aggressive and feisty and seem to do just fine despite these record low flows for this time of year.

---