Big Brother II

I was quite surprised at the relentlessness and vigor of the fight that this beast is ensuing. I can see the fish break the surface of the water twisting and arching its massive body toward me. The rivers lifeblood scatters. I become drenched as the cool water consumes my parched skin. Slightly shocked and wider awake than I was I perry's to meet this fish's exuberant lunge. The fish now realizes the task for which he is up against. A formidable foe, at last a challenge will befit this evening. The fish splashes down and within a split second reverses his course and begins to take off upstream taking line. My reel begins to sing that familiar tune known to those avid fisherman as the sweet notes of battle, a calling to arms if you will. I NOW understand what will take place this night as I mentally prepare myself.

Uncanny Fate

Caddis in unpresidented numbers were hatching all around me crawling on me. I would consider the Caddis one of the most gentle insects around. So soft as it brushes against you erratically fluttering, tickling your skin. Whats even better is when an enormous trout devours this insect wildly with reckless abandon. Then to top off the list is when an artificial tied unto some tippit, married onto a flyrod fools this trout.
It was literally non stop. As quickly as I could land my fly in the current and dead drift this artificial gingerly through the pocket, a fish would attack and the fight would be on. I had one break me off just as the skies grew dark. One that, surely for this area, would have been very impressive to have landed. He was hooked, but sadly to say, for this trout it wasnt good enough. This beast, with a vigorous whip of his body, had spit the fly out at me like an ol' cow ruslter hawk'n a juicy chaw into a brass spitoon. After tying another fly on and as quickly as it drifted another beast has its lips tasting the steel shanks of this fly. He was hooked good this time and really gave a good fight. After a few minutes of wild fighting the trout reluctantly meets his match. He was certainly eating very well.
I was very impressed at the size of trout coming out of these waters and the abundance of insect like. Just earlier this week I had noticed size 10 golden stone shucks on the rocks and massive cased caddis. Unbelievable the sizes.
To top off the evenings river events and schooling a few trout I was noticing some live music playing. I could'nt quite figure out what it was , I had thought maybe a vehicle, but it was live. I had left the river and drove toward the sound and it was some bands doing a soundcheck for an upcoming festival. What luck I had thought, to fatefully come across this great music and after a stellar day of flyfishing. Dancing caddis on the water, dancing hippies near the river.

Big Brother I

The caddis were out, fluttering, floating by. I cast and my imitation lightly touching the water, like a dancer pirouetting in the air and ever so softly touching the surface. A brisk wisp of wind, my imitation twitches on the water... a pause...
The beast from below spots his prey, focusing, he moves... following his prey. He rises forth to grab a closer look. Anticipating, he just cant resist ...he explodes...The still water breaks as liquid fragements spray out in a blooming array. Breaking from the surface of the water he devours his meal.
A quick reaction, an instinctive pause and lifting toward the horizon, the line becomes tight. Rod bent over, reel spinning, turning wildly. The beast, like a run-a-way train takes off in haste. He wants no business with me today. He lunges toward me and launches himself in the air.....

10 Minutes Part III

6 am I roll up to the house still stinking of food. I couldnt resist another trip up the canyon. One bummer is that I had noticed I lost one of my flyboxes friday. Not a super expensive loss but a loss none the less. I hate when that happens. Well saturday morning proved to be the best of the 3 day run. A handful of fish to hand plus a pig..well for this little water the 14" Cutt was huge. Its also nice trying to play a fish that size on a 2 weight noodle rod. I had perty much scoped out and watermarked the good holes. Time to venture up another canyon to test its waters.

10 Minutes to Paradise Part II

Well one good day deserves another. Today is my first workday so who says your cant go fishing BEFORE work. I stopped into my favorite flyshop to grab a few bugs and jo. I was'nt there to long i was on a mission. Day 2 proved to be better than the first. Light rain faded away giving room for broken sunshine. It was so peaceful in the canyon hardly anyone was there. This time I had driven a little further up the canyon to hit some honey holes I didnt get to yesterday. Eager fish around every bend and they were'nt shy. I rigged up my special tandem set up ...I swear my eyes are not what they used to be. I used a nice fat para PMX (indicator) and trailed a black ant off the back. Heck the fish were swatting the PMX as well. I got into a few browns right off the bat then it was slow going. I decided to drive down to where I was earlier yesterday.

My neighbor caught a nice brown out of this sweet lil pool and I wanted to see if he was still there. As I made my way down the bank I noticed a nice fat cutt sipping off the top. This cutt had some gorgeous color..I wanted him...I think he wanted to eat my fly too. I tossed out the rig it flows over his head he comes up, looks, and nada. SOB once again ...better drift this time...here he comes...bam!!!! After a quick fight and a couple pics it was back in the water.

10 minutes to paradise

I had been up since 6am studying for an anatomy exam. I dont know why but cramming right before the test always seems to help me in a huge way. Teach let us bail after we had taken the test. I was outta there in 15 minutes...what a cake walk. I had came home to eat lunch and to call a few friends to see if the would want to meet up. Got a couple hmms and ha's but nothing solid. The weather probably was scaring them off or something as it was windy and was trying to rain. I perty much waited it out looking at the weather channel radar it looked to blow over real quick. What pissed me off was it teased us and didnt rain at all. Its nice to look out the window now and see that the lawn is WET!!!
Well round 6 pm I load the flyrod and bag in the truck and start to take off when I see my neighbor cleaning the windows on her Xterra. Last time we went fishing was a couple years ago when we went to willow pond with her son. Well it did'nt take to much convincing she bolted in the house hollered at the hubby and told him she's going fishing. We took the quick 10 minute drive up a little canyon and parked in a grove of trees. The weather was perfect..overcast, nice and cool with no wind. Immediately as I walked down to check the flows and clarity the caddis were everywhere, fluttering and hopping by like graceful dancers. Well that was the ticket we rigged up and off we went.
Within the first couple casts the trout were eagerly taking the flys on the surface. I keep on missing hits left and right. Was I not waiting long enough for the set? I had switched to a smaller dry thinking that was it and had finally hooked up with a nice little brown. Not to long after, my neighbor hooks up. She had told me the last couple times she went fishing was'nt a good experience. So to see the excitement on her face was golden. We had fished until it started becoming dark with only one fish to hand each it was still enough to curb the addiction.

The Past, The Future, The Currant

Monday morning seen me leaving the workplace at 3;30 am. Earlier that evening I had texted my good friend Mike to see how the old fart was doing. Last week we had fished a few places...well Mike fished a few places. I on the otherhand, after working until 3 am monday,was napping in the Jeep. We had more of a scouting trip with a half day mixed in and a fish to hand each. We had both noticed on the way to our destination last week that this creek had some very nice water and was very fishable. The following monday had us meeting at our usual spot with Mike's son Jake tagging along. It was the first time I had met Jake so I had ribbed him, telling him he better have his game today .

The day was amazingly kalidescoptic giving us all of the colorful patterns of ...well spring really. I myself rather prefer fishing mostly to partly cloudy days and this was such a day. We did encounter few brief rain bursts but nothing that lasted to long while we were out. The wind cooperated with us all day just bringing us whisps of cooling and drying our heads. The air around us smelled a sweet sagebrush and cleansed from the rain.

We were into fish rather quickly and most of the initial ones were taken on the dropper. The tungsten beatis was the ticket early but as we were noticing more abundant rises we had concentrated more on risers. There were a variety of insects fluttering to and fro but more prolific were the caddis. Later on in the afternoon around 1pm I had noticed some Drakes on the water, I think they were grey drakes. I had switched to a cripple and had success landing one on that pattern but the caddis was the money fly for me. Around 3 pm or so I had noticed just a couple Golden's fluttering nearby. I had checked under rocks for larva and seen a couple but again mostly caddis casings, most small but a few larger ones.

The weather on our way back had changed into rain again. I am sure glad it had waited for us to leave before rearing its payload. As it is I havent watered my lawn but once this year and I have a bet that it wont be until the 3rd week in june until I have to turn the sprinklers on. All in all it was nice visiting my old friend Mike (From The Past),and meeting a new friend Mike's son Jake(The Future), and fishing an old friend (The Currant). Until next time.......