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3. Oh boy...what a week

Life decided to go a bit sideways on me the past couple of days. First of all, I must have been spaced out from a three-hour review session for my students. In 5+ years of living here I have never managed to do this, all it took was about 1-2 seconds of not thinking about what I was doing...WHAM, right in the garage door! Oh, the kayak is fine, so is the car, the door, well not so much. Of course, it didn't look this bad until, like a typical guy, I thought I could just "pop it back in" and then REALLY screwed it up...

Then, well, today on the Rifle both my waders and my left boot decided to blow out on me while I was WAAAAAAAY upstream in Klacking Creek looking for beaver ponds...not a fun walk down, the seam blew out at the crotch, and then I realized my wallet and cell phone were getting soaked...walking on cobbles with nothing under my foot but a neoprene booty wasn't pleasant either!

In spite of these disasters, I actually managed to catch a few trout (the largest of which is above) and saw a lot of beautiful wildflowers. So it wasn't all bad, and I didn't hurt myself or break a rod...

Time for a break while I search out a new pair of waders and boots. Well, there's always the kayak!

Jonathon

P.S. Not much hatching on the Rifle, either last night or this afternoon. Caught some fish on the #12 Royal Wulff, and some on a #10 cricket pattern (i.e., an all-black grasshopper with grey wings).

Jonathon, your lucky you didn't get hurt with the overhead door, last November at the hardware I work at I hit the door with the mast of the fork truck, thought I could fix it and ended up with my hand caught between two panels and lots of tension on it, took two other guys to get the panels a part and my looked and hurt like hell. I was on the rifle Tuesday,got a few in the morning in the park, in the afternoon I went down stream, and caught several smaller fish. Then cast a ehc into a shady fishy looking spot and caught a 17 incher, my best yet. What a cool sound that fish made, slurp!
Mike.

Yikes. Glad things weren't worse. As you note not getting hurt is a big plus, and not breaking a rod even better. Thanks for the wildflowers; even the white ones are striking.

Louis, perhaps we should create a separate category for "Wildflowers encountered on fly-fishing trips". As you can see, I live in a very wildflower-rich area, including around my fishing spots, and being a botanist I know where to find them all! Several of these will be required plants for my students in the near future, in fact starflower will be on next Tuesday's exam...hey, be sure to tell Marvin that white flowers DO get respect!

Mike, nice fish!! There are some big ones hiding in the Rifle. My personal best was an 18-incher on a White Wulff in September of 2013. The worm-drowners and hardware-slingers must have missed that one! The biggest one I got this week was 12" but I got several other 8-10s, and all on the 3-weight so they bent it over good. Plus some nice brookies up to 10" at [REDACTED] Pond on Tuesday night. So some decent fishing saved my week, I'm over the trauma now...door is to be fixed on Wednesday, and I will be shopping for waders & boots here in the next few days. Watching a nice rain come down today.

Jonathon

Just beautiful pictures of the wildflowers! Thanks for posting them. I've never seen such a catastrophic failure to waders in my entire life and it happens to both your legs. Were they old waders? I just can't imagine how you could have two 12" gaping seam separations on both legs at the same time.

BTW I just ordered a pair of very lightweight canvas wading shoes for my upcoming Montana trip. The brand name is "Caddis". I bought a pair with felt soles for $47.00. I Googled them and found most places were selling them for $55. I bought mine at Kittery Trading Post in ME. If you Google Caddis wading shoes you can view all their wading shoes, and waders, on their web site. Then shop around for the best price.

Thanks, Matt. There really are a lot of flowers blooming around here right now. With our latest rains, things are nice and green and lush-looking. Just gave my students a 36-plant practical exam today, all live material except for poison-ivy which they got a picture of.

The waders are either 3 or 4 years old, would have to look up the receipt. The initial blow-out in the crotch - it was a POP, from compressed air in the waders as I was climbing up on the bank - was about 3-4 inches long. (I had noticed some leaking in the form of a damp crotch for at least 3 previous trips.) The rest was created by a considerable distance of rough hiking and then a good mile of wading with legs filling with water...I actually had to slash two drain holes in the legs down near the ankles to drain several gallons out of each leg. At one point I was dreaming of a helicopter to lift me out of this freaking nightmare...thank goodness I did catch some pretty brown trout and the flowers were certainly beautiful.

Jonathon

Jonathan,

It does sound like a nightmare of a day. One you will remember, but would like to forget, for a ling time.