Fish or watch Nascar?

Fish or watch Nascar? No choice! FISH!

We walked to the river a little (just a little) earlier than usual and the dry fly action was happening! Marv from Darby was already there fishing to risers on the far bank. There was a man and woman fishing together upriver from Marv so Rick and I moved out to the middle in between, leaving enough room for everyone. We don't like to be crowded and we don't like to crowd others. I spotted a number of fish rising and Rick and I traded places. He then backed off to the home bank and fished behind me, casting to my back. I caught a few and moved to the far bank to release one. Once there I turned around and Rick and I faced each other and fished to the same place in the middle of the river -- only I was fishing for the ones on top and he was fishing for the ones on the bottom of the river. Rick continued to nymph fish most of the day, with a couple fish taken with a size 18 PMD dry.

The couple upriver fished for a while longer and then decided to move to another location downriver. It really is nice to see other women on the river fly fishing! When they left it opened up more water for me and I could move around to the rising fish upriver. The gentlemen I mentioned in a previous post, Logan from New Zealand, arrived and consulted with Rick about what he was using. He moved out towards me and througout the day caught a couple fish on nymphs.

By 2:00 the fish weren't taking bugs from the top, so it pretty much shut down for me. I'd see a fish on the surface here and there, but nothing consistent. As Craig Matthews of Blue Ribbon Flies said in their newsletter, "Never leave rising trout" and I didn't. We continued to fish until about 4:00, with only occasional success. Logan came over to talk with Rick and asked about spotting fish feeding on the bottom. Rick pointed out a big rainbow moving back and forth, up and down, mouth opening, taking mynphs. With Logan standing next to him, Rick cast and hooked the rainbow. The water is clear and you can easily see the fish. We wrapped up the day and we said goodbye to Marv and Logan. Just about the time we were done for the day another couple arrived and moved in upriver from us. They both caught a couple fish with nymphs, but then he moved away and left her alone to bring in a fish without a net. She was not as experienced as he was, but she did a good job casting. When she hooked the fish I was close by and grabbed our long handled net. She was happy for me to net it. I told her it would run when it saw me and to be sure to let it go. I could also see that she had her hand gripping the line to the rod. Well, it was a good size fish and when it got close to me it ran like I said. And when it did she gripped the line and the fish got off the hook. I told her it was a good size trout and she was happy that it was easily off and she didn't have to remove the hook. (I think I might do a posting about men trying to get women to fish. The tips I could give would translate to any outdoor activity that she might be hesitant to undertake!)

From the beginning, 32 years ago, I've loved to fish with dry flies! To me there is more of a challenge seeing a rising fish taking bugs off the surface and presenting an artificial fly in a natural drift and hooking the fish. Anyway, today was a good day of fishing for both of us. I'm glad Jimmie Johnson won the race, but being outdoors, in the water, watching the butterflies and birds, and catching fish with Rick nearby was a fantastic way to spend the day.

I'll try to make the next few posts non-fish related for anyone who is really not interested in our fishing adventures. But we are going to fish tomorrow, and I think we'll be on the river early to be there for the dry fly action! Early means 10:00 AM!