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3. A couple of little guys but at least they're trout!

After a very frustrating day on the Pine yesterday in which the water was just dancing with flies, but NO trout were feeding (quite possibly because the water was so darned high and murky), I took a drive over to my favorite old spots on the Rifle. At the first there were lots of flies, Hendricksons and some caddis, but just as I arrived a stupid thunderstorm boiled up and scared me outta there! A half hour of rumbling was enough to convince me that I had better not be standing in the water with a wand of graphite in my hand, though I did have a couple of little ones hit. Also, an older gentleman showed up with about a half-dozen grandkids in tow (danged tourists, though I can hardly blame them), so I decided to bag it and maybe at least go look at my other favorite spot. Well, just as soon as I left the skies cleared and back out came the sun, so it was fishing time again. Well, a car was coming out of the parking spot and another was already there (more danged tourists!), but I said what the heck, let's see what happens. Indeed, though high the water was considerably clearer than on the Pine - I could still see my feet while waist-deep - and a few little guys were rising, though there were next to no flies on the water. Still fishless a half-mile upriver, and able to see the one guy up ahead of me, I turned back downstream and tied on an olive, peacock, and grizzly Woolly Bugger in size 10 and swung it ahead of me. A nice little 10" brown struck it and provided me with only the second trout of my season (and first brown), then this little rainbow was feeding (on what I don't know but there was a variety of caddis flitting about) and he took a #12 Adams. Bet I would have caught more if I hadn't been following others...So now I am two for four on success and three for four on fish, and getting the kinks all worked out before things start happening for real. Still feeling a bit awkward at stream trout fishing having not done much for many years, but better to be awkward now than in the middle of some raging hatch with fish rising everywhere this summer! Saw some nice wildflowers too...

Jonathon

P.S. This post is partially to placate those of you who think I can only catch bluegill... ;oD

Congratulations on the trout!

Nice shots man thats what i like to see!

JM,
I've not been out fishing, yet, so I'd be very happy to catch those. The local waterways have been blown-out ever since the end of March. Every time I think the water is receding, it RAINS so heavy the levels shoot right back up. It's been way too wet, here.

Mark

Mark, we've had just too much rain around here too. The stream which is closer and more convenient for me, the Pine, seems to have a problem with silt, quite possibly related to some areas up in the headweaters of one tributary, in the Huron National Forest, that look suspiciously like recent clearcuts. Yet one more reason I hate clearcuts! Gotta go further upstream I guess...So I went over to the Rifle, close to an hour away, because the drainage seems more stable (no damned clearcuts anyway). The waters were high but still much clearer than on the Pine...

Good luck with your local streams - you have my condolences. Some climatologists are now saying that this chaotic crap for weather that we are having lately is "the new normal". At least we're not getting killed by it like those poor folks in Missouri! My heart goes out to them...

Jonathon