What a difference a day makes!

Almost the opposite of yesterday! For fear that we will be invaded by another group of fisherpeople and have to vie for a spot on the river, I will say the fishing was tough, but fabulous! We just keep going smaller with the flies and today we went small enough. Although Rick did joke with me about catching the 'dumb' fish, I know he was very happy that I caught lots of fish. And they are not in any way dumb. They are smart and we just have to think like a trout, be a little smarter, and outwit them. I wish that we had a way to video tape the day, because it was pretty awesome - to me.

Three years ago today I had major surgery and a week long hospital stay, so today was an anniversary to celebrate. I've been healthy (we've both been healthy) and very thankful for the life we have together. The folks living in the gulf area are on our minds as this is also the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Our good friend Eric called us today as he was evacuating from his home in the eastern gulf area of Texas. Lets hope the current approaching storms goes easy on them.

I caught more fish today that ran and jumped and ran some more. Because we are using 5x and 6x tippet I've set my drag a little looser than normal. Usually I tighten up the drag and stand my ground, but with finer tippet and big fish, I give them a little slack. When the fish take the fly, and then realize they are hooked, they jet off upriver, downriver, and right back at 'ya. Today I had an equal number of brown and rainbow trout and I think they all jumped out of the water! I had a really big rainbow on that was quite an aerial acrobat and darted all around us. It started off downstream and I followed. I yelled to Rick that if I landed it he'd need to take a photo. I followed it a little bit and Rick continued fishing. I couple minutes later the big rainbow and I did a LDR = long distance release. Rick didn't miss a cast. What a great fish that was.

I moved around a little today, up and down stream (to give Rick a chance to fish where I had caught the 'dumb' fish). When I moved out, Rick moved in and caught at least 3 fish. Nearby there was a little cove with lots of grasses growing up to the surface, and there were about 6 fish that I could see rising. I hooked one, a brown trout, that jumped and ran upstream a short way. It shot under and through a couple of the underwater grass bushes that now grow to the surface and I was not about to lose my special fly, the only one like it I had. I followed my line under a couple bushes and the fish shot off downstream, under another river bush. I again followed my line and found my fish again. I was able to bring it to me and get back my fly. Of course I displaced all the fish that had been rising there.

I moved back closer to Rick again and hooked another hot fish. It darted towards me and then changed it's mind and headed for Rick. I thought it was going to go between his legs, but it veered off to the right. I was lucky today to land many of my fish. Rick hooked and landed a number of fish, but I know we both missed more than we hooked. Fishing is tough, but fun. And better than working.

We saw 2 drift boats today. Jeremy again and Tim Mosolf from Tollett's Frontier Anglers. Both of these guides are on the river almost everyday. Tim said he'd be guiding for another month and a half with clients. We talked about how cold it will get and hope it's not soon. We have 'weather' coming in tomorrow afternoon (and sticking around for a few days) so we're getting on the river early. Setting the phone alarm. Our friend Eric said he needs to see more fish photos so we'll try to get some photos -- if we can stop fishing long enough. Until then, here is one our friend Steve took about 3 weeks ago. Thanks Steve! Love your waterproof camera.