About talked myself out of going fishing on Saturday since I knew it would be crowded and busy. Then went anyway since a cold day on the river is better than.. well, most other things..
This is a less famous stretch of a famous river. There aren't many fish here and they aren't very big, on the plus side
sometimes you can have a whole pool all to yourself on this stretch,
even on a weekend. On the famous stretch you have to take your place in line to rotate through a pool.
At first the line was icing up in the guides, so well below freezing. Lots and lots of people, including a number of those ridiculous overlander rigs camping in the pullouts, and the Douglas County Search and Rescue running a big training exercise. Dippers (water ouzel bird) for company, always a good sign as that suggests there are bugs to be found - two of them in pic, on rocks at lower L.
I was fishing the Colonel's reel, on a split cane rod that had given me some trouble to repair.
According to the box, Colonel Stacey Marks in Stratford-on-Avon paid 3
pounds 19 shillings and sixpence for this reel. I paid rather more than
that on ebay.. but it's a fine old click/pawl reel.
Missed the
first two takes due to slowness and sheer astonishment that I was
actually getting takes, then a nice 13" brown on a #24 red tube midge.
Bumped
into other fishermen and walked around for some time looking for open
water, found a hundred yards or so and a matching cuttbow took the lead
fly, #16 beadhead Partridge and Orange.
Ran out of river again below a covey of fisherfolk. Back to the car then clambered down into the chutes where flyfishermen fear to go, with a finesse spinning outfit and 3lb line. A plump little cuttbow at the top of the pool, then lost a good 16"+ brown in the tail of the pool.
Drove
down to the confluence of the N Fork to see if there was anything in
the lower river. The N Fork was coming in strong and cold, the lower
river looked glacial, nothing but green water and rock. No dippers,
kingfishers, weed or bugs. One sad and lonely 11" cuttbow, survivor of
last season's stocking, was all.
On the walk out a large boulder the size of a small boulder had fallen into the trail. Glad I missed that..
Yet another good day on the river, then. Almost nothing happened and that's just the way I like it.
