Bachelor weekend

Heather went back home to check on some things this weekend and left me all alone. I don't know that I've been living the bachelor weekend I might have done 15 years ago but I know I wouldn't have things any other way. I came home Friday after work and was beat. I drank a beer on the deck and then my skin started crawling. It was Blue Moon Friday. Things are cooling down and the fall Brown Trout spawn is just around the corner. Late at night, trophy Browns come out to look for bigger meals and these next 4-6 weeks offer the chance to catch the fish of a lifetime on ugly streamer patterns. I rounded up my gear and headed out to the Dream Stream. I got there at about 8 and found just one truck. I could see another headlamp every once in a while on the hike in and soon came upon another guy. He was working a real deep hole stacked with boulders and told me he had seen a guy land a 23 inch Cuttbow just a little earlier. We both giggled like school girls and I headed off to find deeper water. I was almost hyperventilating from excitement as I fished. The moon was so bright that I could see the streamer hit the water. The night was cool and quiet. At one point, I had 6-8 Coyotes come near and start barking at me. I love being out at night. I eventually got into 2 Bows but they weren't what I was hoping for. At midnight the wind really picked up and made things interesting and I started to get tired so it wasn't long before I hiked out and headed home. I think I got in bed at about 1:30 and then got up at 6:30 to get ready to hike down into a smaller canyon with a friend from work to fish some skinny water. 

The creek we fished flows out of a small reservoir. It's super small, very thin water, technical casting with dry flies to a brazillion small Brown Trout. This was actually a deeper run. Usually this is not my favorite kind of fishing (particularly in the fall) but I figured I'd go see what the buzz was about since he talks about it all the time. 

This is what most of the water looked like. It's only a few inches deep through here but every once in a while there was a deeper hole with several Browns shoehorned into it. They were all eager to eat though and, most of the time, would crush the fly as soon as it hit the water. It was rare that they would inspect it and then pass but I did have a few wiser ones go that route.

This was actually the first spot I fished. If you stood up, it was all over so I I spent a lot of time crawling or on my knees to stay undetected.

I have no idea how many I caught but it was easily in the 20's and I spent a lot of time looking for Elk, bears and Bighorns (which I eventually saw about 15 of). I'm also having some issues with my back now that only really become a problem when I'm fishing. It gets so painful that I have to lay down for a while.

It was a beautiful day and I got home at about 2 in the afternoon. I was hoping to do some night fishing again but my back was killing me and I felt bad about leaving the dogs again so we stayed in, had dinner and swapped stories.