The day was really sunny but that silly grad school work got in the way of my fun AGAIN. About 2:00 I finally got to a point where I was comfortable with stopping. I decided to fish some smaller streams that were West of town. Normally I never see anyone out there but today the crowds were in full effect. The first spot I was going to go there was a truck parked just past the gate. No problem. I moved down the road about a 1/4 mile to my next spot and there were 2 vehicles there. What a sausage fest. I finally decided I'd head further upstream but then found a spot out in the meadow I wanted to try. I went to turn the van around on this dirt road. I backed up and went just a tad too far and got stuck. Luckily it wasn't bad and I was able to rock and roll it outta there. A storm was moving in from the Divide so Heather and Dharma decided to stay in the van and read a book.

This is some skinnier water but there are some deeper undercuts around the bends and a few holes and pockets here and there.

I usually start out fishing with a nymph rig and today was no different. I used a #14 Pheasant Tail and dropped a #20 Mercury Black Beauty off that. I didn't give this more than 10 minutes though before I decided to switch to dries.

There weren't any hatches goin off so I tried a hopper pattern and fooled several right away.

This little stream has a lot of deep undercuts on the bends as it winds it's way through the meadow and there are bigger browns that hide in there. Sometimes they'll come out for a dry if it's placed just right.

With it getting later I switched to streamers. I really like pitching big nasty streamers. It's such a contrast to dry fly fishing where things have to be so delicate. Streamer fishing can be violent. It's perfectly fine for a big mouse pattern to crash into the water on the far bank or to rip a Sculpin or leech through the water. I didn't get any of the larger ones to come out of their hiding spots today but I was amazed at the little guys that were standing in line to get at the streamer.

This fall I am definitely going to do a lot more fishing during the spawn. Two years ago I spent some time streamer fishing at night and it's a blast. No one else is out there but the critters and every once in a while you can hear a crash that sounds like someone is throwing bricks in the water. Sometimes it's the bigger browns thrashing about and defending their territory. Sometimes it's the Salmon. The females will bust up out of the water and crash down like a whale breeching. I've heard they're trying to loosen up the eggs but I don't know that it's true. Sounds good though. This year I'll be able to sleep in the van and then start fishing at midnight and sip whiskey and catch big trout until sunup.