--Yiddish Proverb
I only had four or five hours to fish on Saturday and decided to head to a location at least 45 minutes away. I went as the sky was fairly clear and I was hoping to spot trout. The two pools I wanted to fish are below bluffs and are about a 30 minute hike from where I park. I knew I would have only a couple of hours to actually fish. Not a lot of time but I know the spot fairly well and felt that with the mid day high sun I might see some good fish from the cliffs, and maybe connect with one. I had been on the river last week in the evening and knew the water was just about as clear as it ever gets, and that the flow was good for dry fly angling. You see, I had a plan.
 |
| cottonwood trail to pools |
 |
| trout spotting from above |
So off I went. Normally I'm pretty good at obeying speed limits but I flew at warp speed once I was off the main highway and onto the rural prairie roads. I kept imagining a fellow with a heavy Scottish accent saying, "Captain the Dilithium crystals just can't take it anymore at this speed" (Star Trek). Hawks eyed me whizzing by from their hay bale perches. There were two trucks parked at the river and I could see anglers wading nearby. I thought, "Hopefully no one went way downstream?" I geared up and quickly hiked the faint trail to where I wanted to fish. At the first pool it took me a little while to start seeing fish even from up high. There is "looking" and then there is actual "seeing". The two aren't the same. Sometimes you "look" for your car keys but fail to "see" them right in front of you on the kitchen table. It is easy to look but harder to see. I seem to be able to make the shift to "seeing" when I stop moving and do even better if I kneel or sit down. Eventually I spotted three trout. Two were roaming around in fairly deep water but every once in awhile one would rise and eat from the surface in a soft spot where food was collecting. It looked good. I was confident I had a chance to fool one. I dropped down from the bluff and fished it from an upstream position. After one cast I started second guessing my strategy and was considering circling downstream to cast to it from behind. In the middle of that "thought" the fish took my offering and I landed him...a rainbow.
 |
| 18" rainbow on dry |
I walked to the next pool and watched the water from up high as I went. I located another nice fish on the bank between pools. It was sipping on the occasional PMD in very shallow, slow water. I hiked down the embankment and fished it from behind. I hooked but did not land it. Another nice rainbow.
At the second pool I spotted a good fish rise in a subtle, slow flow with a narrow bubble line. Then the trout disappeared. From my perch I watched the area for 20 or 30 minutes. Some high white clouds appeared which made spotting more challenging. Eventually a head poked up and it started feeding fairly consistently. I fished to it upstream. Another rainbow. After that it was time to go home.
 |
| 20" rainbow on small dry fly |
Not all angling outings work out as hoped. Most don't. Today it did...I made a plan and God smiled on me.
No comments:
Post a Comment