A Beat Down of Biblical Proportions

Lets's see, 2 1/2 hrs of driving, 6hrs of fishing and many photos of all of jon's fish before i even moved one. WTF?! oh well the one that i finally hit and landed was a stellar 24" brown. that was it for me the whole day. on the other hand, even though the day started off slow except one splake that jon caught right off the bat, eventually jon started roping fish after fish. a bunch of handsome 'bows' including one with one eye and a brilliantly colored hefer of a brown. jon landed about 10 fish but i would still say it was kind of a tough day. there was way to much sexy water that didn't even give a glimpse of anything swimming, throw on top of that the brutal winds and it was, at least in my eyes, a tough day of fishing, but hey i'm just happy to be able to get some pics of quality fish.

Instead of Musky

I was gonna throw some big flies today after work but dbone offered me to meet up with him and his friend brad for some streamered trouts. i took him up on it since he said he had done so well there yesterday. i think i was stooped cause today was a bit slow but it is what it is. dbone took a solid fish and i did as well and a few others were missed. i probably wouldn'thave done any better with musky anyways.

Late Start

got off to a late start do to a fantasy baseball live draft. met up with scott at 1/4 to noon and we drove to fish the higher flows. we fished a stretch that i did pretty well in a week or so ago and today it sucked. 3 fish between the 2 of us and didn't move a whole lot either.

Fish Friday

After work i headed out again. the private section i wanted to fish was running really high and wading/crossing would've been a real chore. the water is still a bit stained as well so with high water and not being able to see where i was stepping i chose to go elsewhere. i went below the diversion and the water was low and clear. a lot lower then i prefer but still fishable. today i had a much better catch rate then recent outings. i think with the clearer water the fish's depth perception was better and they were able hit the fly just right to get hooked instead of constantly missing it. the action started quickly and never really tapered off. i fished up to the diversion to find just a trickle coming out of the barrier and above the barrier the river was full with the water being diverted. this is not irrigation season so i'm not sure what the purpose of diverting is. kind of pisses me off actually. on the way down i hit a few more spots and got railed by a nice 20" hen. unfortunately this fish engulfed my articulated streamer so deep that by the time i got the hook out a gill came out with the streamer. the fish was fixin to be dead so i bleed it and brought it home. i don't keep but matbe 4 fish a year and never keep fish of that size unless i have to. i prefer to keep fish in the 16-17"class but it was either me or the hawks/eagles so it is what it is. bummer!

Talking to the Almighty

So after work i ventured to the reever to see if it was cleared up enough to chuck meat. it was, so i got geared up and worked up stream. it started slow but i was optimistic that it would be just fine. i finally started to move some fish and for a few hours that seemed to be all i did was move fish. in about 3 hrs time i could only muster a 13" cuttie and lost a couple of others, one of which felt really heavy. the fish kept swiping and swiping and it seemed like they just were either not committed or because of clarity issues maybe their timing was off when trying to eat my fly. not really sure. it was getting frustrating so as i do quite often i started to talk to the good lord above, complaining to him that he could probably fix this lack of aggressiveness or depth perseption problem the fish were having but i told him that i didn't think that he would. not more then 10 minutes later i finally got railed but a respectable 17 incher. 3 casts later, tucked above and to the shore side of a big root ball was a small eddy about maybe 3x3 ft. wide. i plopped my yellow/olive streamer in that small eddy and before i could get a strip in the water exploded. moments later i was taking pics of a really nice 20 1/2 inch buck. the next hole up and it was a 20" hen. shortly there after it was time for me to head back to the jeep and head home. at least today, complianing to the right person, entity or whatever you want to call god, seemed to pay off.