Rough

I got a bit of a late start today but I decided to head to the river after a late lunch and see what was up. The crowds sure weren't. There was like 2 cars there when I pulled in. After about 30 minutes of walking and glassing the water I found a decent Rainbow. She wasn't the fish I was looking for but I decided to stop. She took a legitimate Black Beauty on about the 5th cast but quickly came off. Stubbornly, she went right back to the same spot. I knew she wouldn't be having that fly again so I re-rigged but she was hip to the game so I moved on. It's post-spawn now by a week or so and a lot of the bigger lake run fish have slid back down the river but I still saw plenty of decent fish and I was hoping there would be some bigger browns still coming out to play at night.

It was cold. It wasn't as bad as it was a few weeks ago when the sun went down but I still had to break the ice off the guides every few casts.

Dinner.

I switched from midges to a streamer just as the sun went down. As soon as the streamer hit the water on the first cast, it was demolished by a bigger Rainbow that came out of the water. I don't know that I've ever had a trout throw a streamer before but this one did and the line all came back to hit me in the face. I stared at the river for a second and then moved on. A short while later, I saw a big brown come all the way out of the water about 25 yards upstream from me. I had line coiled up in my hand and immediately dropped it and false casted 2 times and laid it just upstream from where I had seen it. Nothing. I couldn't believe it. I was breathing heavy. I thought, for sure, that thing was gonna get hammered. I worked that spot for 30 minutes and got nothing. I even rested it while I ate dinner. I never got any action.

Beautiful night to be out on the river though. I may do it again tomorrow night.