Time for some fish!

It's been a while since I've shared some fish photos. None of these fish made it to the dinner table. They were all safely released to live another day and re-populate the river.

We also think the fish become smarter and wiser after being hooked once, making them more difficult to catch. More of a challenge.

We decided to fish yesterday afternoon, sort of late, maybe 1:00 or so. There were 3 guys there fishing and a couple guide boats drifted by. The skies were cloudy with the promise of a Montana afternoon shower. We didn't plan to stay long.

We knew one of the guys was from a local town who fishes here once in a while. The other 2 were brothers from another nearby town, but we didn't know them. The river is running at least at 800 cfs and it's tough to wade, so Rick and I made our way out to the far bank together and after a few minutes the first guy took a break to rest from battling the current. I was fishing dry flies and Rick was set up to nymph, so Rick was looking for rising fish for me to cast to. It'd been about 5-10 minutes and I spotted a fish right in front of me, a short cast about 20-30 feet away. I hooked it as soon as I cast to it and I brought it back to the home bank to net and release it. The guy was now getting ready to go back out and said to me "I told these 2 guys that you'd catch a fish as soon as you started. And --- you just caught the fish I've been trying to catch for the last hour and a half." I didn't say anything, just smiled. If he wanted to think I'd caught 'his' fish... oh well. I hadn't even been casting where he'd been fishing. In fact, I'd caught the brown trout from where he'd been standing, not from where he'd been casting. That's OK. The 2 brothers asked me what fly I was using and I took a look at the size 12 stimi-like, caddis-like, very bushy flies they had on. I showed them my size 18 sparkle dun and they were amazed at the difference, especially the size and shape. Rick ended up giving them each a similar fly and even tied them on the tippit for them. I went downstream a bit and hooked 2 more fish, but they were both at the very end of my cast and they were off the hook in short order. I had them on long enough that Rick came over with the net. Long distance release or LDR. The 3 other fishermen were nice and we all realized how difficult and challenging this river can be. Not to sound erogant, but I think I was the only one who landed fish. Lady luck I guess.