We interrupt our regularly scheduled post...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled post for a fishing report. Someone said we talk a lot about fishing on our blog, but that's what we've been doing for the past 6 weeks. That's what we love to do! That's one of our main activities. Fishing is our number one hobby! It's one of the reasons we retired! We love all types and methods of fishing, but especially fly fishing!

Rick & I agreed that we wouldn't take redundant photos of fish because they all start looking alike to others. Well, today was an occasion for a photo. More on that later. Back to the fishing report.

The river out of the reservoir is still running high, about 800 cfs. Today there were 5 fishermen lined up in the river when we walked down, spaced out within casting distance of each other, each out in the middle of the river fishing to the far bank with their backs to us. That was our break because we stayed near the bank and fished behind them. Right behind them! Rick immediately started catching fish and to his 3 fish, I caught one. We were catching lots of fish and we were quiet about it. The guys out in the middle caught a couple fish, but nothing like what Rick was doing. At first my thought was "look at us, catching fish right behind you", but then I knew what would happen. Something that's happened before. If someone sees us catching fish in a certain spot on the river, that's were they want to fish. Sometimes they move closer (too close) and sometimes they come back the next day to that spot. Some have even said, "now I know where all the fish are." But the fish are everywhere on this river. With the water level fluctuating it sometimes moves the fish around to different currents, but they are everywhere. Anyway, back to the fishing report.

Rick and I were fishing close to each other and we netted each other's fish, most of the time. Some I netted myself and some Rick netted by himself. We have a large net with a long handle. Rick also keeps a small net attached to his back for when he's out in the middle of the river. We both were enjoying nymph fishing and caught lots of fish, both rainbow and brown trout. I think the guys in front of us, fishing with their backs to us, were oblivious to what we were doing. I caught and netted a large brown trout and I told Rick "That was the fish of the day!" Sorry, no photos of it, but it was about 20" and very fat. It was longer than our net is wide. A little unusual for a fat brown. Very healthy fish this year. I say they're tall and thick. Back to the report.

Rick and I have hand signals and sign language to communicate when on the river because we can't hear each other with the riffle noise we create when standing in the water. Sometimes I feel like the Village People doing "YMCA", but most of the time it's just hand signals. I can do PT for "pheasant tail" and YH for "yellow head" and I tried to do BH for "bead head", but the B was not easy. We have hand signals for rising fish eating bugs on the surface, mayflies hatching, spinner fall, and others. It reminds me of the hand signals we used when we were snorkeling and scuba diving. Funny that we use the same hand sign for shark and mayfly! Now back to the fishing report.

One of the guys in front of us moved out and downstream so Rick gave me the hand signal for rising fish across the river and motioned for me to cross. (remember, it's still at 800) We know where the shallowest areas are and I moved out to the middle. Rick also moved out and was fishing downstream from me. He likes me to be upstream in case I decide to float by him, he can grab me. HA! I'd fished the middle for a while and signaled to Rick that I was going to the other side to more rising fish. There's a natural spring upriver that flows on the far side and the water other there is much colder. Brrrr. The fish like to live there because it is colder. It makes the rest of the river seem warm. Anyway, back to the fishing report.

There were numerous fish rising and I missed a few and caught a few. The guys fishing in the middle could now see me dry fly fishing and catching fish. A couple of them moved on down the river, leaving just a couple others fishing down from us. We were all spread far apart, with Rick and I fishing almost to each other. He was nymph fishing towards me (catching fish) and I was on the far bank fishing up, down and towards Rick. Rick has been having a blast with nymph fishing lately because he sees the fish feeding on the bottom and casts to them, and catches lots of fish! Almost like spotting a rising fish, but on the bottom. Anyway, back to the fishing report.

It was getting late in the day and Rick had already asked me a couple times if I was finished fishing and ready to quit. He said "don't you want to stop and go eat dinner?" I said "no, not yet." I could tell he was ready to stop, but I wasn't. The fishing seemed to be getting better. More fish were rising it seemed. I hooked a number of fish and landed most of them without a net. No net with me! Most were not huge, just 18" to 20" and the water was calm where I was standing. Makes it fairly easy to bring them close, hold them with one hand and remove the barbless hook. Now back to the report.

Rick ties 100% of the flies we use. It is such a pleasure to know that the fish are taking the artificial flies that he created. Today I fished some nymphs but on the far bank I fished dries - a size 18 PMD, a 16 Yellow Sallie, and a 18 Sparkle Spider (looks just like a Humpy). Sometimes I used a PMD emerger as a second fly, a trailer, that also caught fish. I knew it was getting late and we'd have to stop soon. I was just about ready to tell Rick to meet me half way and help me back when I spotted a fish rising right next to the bank and directly downstream from me. Casting downstream can be tricky; actually casting is easy, hooking a fish directly downstream can be difficult because it's easy to pull the fly right out of their mouth. Casting across the river is easier for me and I usually hook them in the side of the mouth. Anyway, back to the rising fish down stream.

On my first cast to that rising fish I hooked it. And it was just as surprised as I was. It ran out to the middle of the river and I looked at Rick who was giving me the "silent scream" face. Another signal we use is the silent scream - mouth wide open, but no scream. Anyway, the fish! I was able to gain line on my reel and it ran again. Probably 4 times, but by then I figured if it hadn't gotten off yet I had it hooked well. I moved into the calm water and brought it close to me. I could see that it was big, very big, and motioned to Rick that it was BIG! He was still out in the middle so I knew he couldn't help with his small net. It wouldn't have fit very well either! And we don't carry a camera into the river, so "no photo" I thought. I thought it would be good just to get a hold of it, get my hook out, save my fly, and show Rick. If I was lucky that is. Well, the BIG brown trout decided to cooperate and I brought it to me, cupped my hand under it (my whole arm really), held it out of the water a little, and so easily removed the hook. Amazing how easy those barbless hooks come out when you take the pressure off the line. I held the fish in one hand and showed it to Rick, and the guys down river saw it too. Rick was the only one interested though, bless his heart. From the middle of the river he said "Want a picture?" Of course, but could he get to the other bank and get the camera out of the pack before the fish decided he'd had enough and wanted to swim off? It was loose and I wouldn't have been able to stop it. I held the fish calmly with both hands and it just stayed there while Rick focused on us from across the river. Thank goodness for the powerful zoom lens on our Nikon P80. I held the fish up and Rick snapped a number of shots and I held the fish against my rod in the water to get a measurement. My rod is marked at 16" and 20" and I could see that the fish was well beyond 20". It was almost to my first ferrule, just about 3" shy of it.

I held the fish in the water a couple seconds more and it decided we were finished. It swam off upriver and I waded across the river to the home bank. Rick met me part way and helped me through the strongest current. When we returned to the motorhome we measured to the first ferrule and it's 30", so the fish was about 27". I'm going to end this very long fishing report by saying "that was the fish of the day!"

Thank you for reading and visiting our blog. I'll try to keep our postings shorter, no guarantee, and I'll try to talk about something other than fishing. Again, no guarantee.