Buggin' Out!!!

I don't know if tonight was the full moon but it had to be damn close so I decided to go fish. I made it to the river at about 7:15 and slowly made my way into the waders while drinking a beer. I happened to notice these ants as I was doing so. They were ganging up on a larger bug and it was a free for all. Nature can be a real bitch sometimes. For a bit I felt sorry for the critter until I remembered why I was there. I was hoping that maybe some larger browns would be out looking for meat. 

On the walk in I was blown away by all the bug activity. The mosquitoes were unreal. I was wearing a short sleeve t shirt and when I slapped my arm, I'd kill 5 of those little vampires. I was really wishing I had my bug spray. I walked all the way up to the fence in the upper most portion of Beat 1 and started slinging a leech pattern streamer and just praying for a tug. I had a leader clipped down to 0X and was ready for "The One". I was getting destroyed by mosquitoes. Pitching really big streamers and using beefed up leaders usually means you're looking for quality and not necessarily quantity. I missed 2 in the first hour but I think they were really too small to get their mouths around it. I glanced over and saw the moon coming up.

This is one of my favorite spots to fish. This exact run. It's deeper to the left and gets shallow on the inside bend (you're looking downstream here). Just a bit up from here is where I literally get weak in the knees when I twitch a fat ass streamer. Just this past fall I wasn't ready and had my rod pointed downstream and had a monster (what I believe was a brown) break a 0X leader with one quick tug that damn near yanked the rod out of my hand. So every time I work that area now I am ready. I know that fish is still in there. Fish that big don't wander around. They're smart. That fish lays low all damn day and then comes out at night for bigger ticket items. It just has not wanted what I have been throwing. I worked that area hard with a leech, a Meat Whistle, and a mouse. Nothing. When I swung the mouse to the shallows I did have a large wake move in behind it quickly but whatever it was, it wasn't digging it. Not sure why cuz that shit was sexy.

The moon was amazing tonight. It was one of those nights where you don't even need the headlamp. You can see the line unfold in front of you and the wind was non-existant. I ran into 2 guys that had the same idea as me but also weren't able to fool anything. I have never seen as much bug activity up there. The Caddis were huge and they were everywhere. But...there wasn't much activity from the fish.

I tried to take about 10 pictures that captured the Caddis and this is the best I came up with. It sucks but just to the left of the grass...those are all Caddis. They were 14's and they were getting freaky. I stayed until about midnight and then started missing my pups (I miss Heather too but she's out of town so rushing home would not make her appear). Frustrated, I finally decided to hoof it back to the car. The flows are up and I needed to get across the river and waited too long to do so. So...I had to go back into Beat 1 (which is technically illegal to fish if it's more than an hour after sunset). But I didn't fish it. I just needed to cross. Once I got across, I noticed 2 headlamps way up in Beat 1. It was the two guys I met earlier. Like most nights I fish after dark, I checked the sunset time and tonight it went down at 8:18 which means I have until about 9:18 to fish. Every time I am up there, that white pickup comes screaming across the dam and down to the lot to check on me. I stood there and watched the keepers house for about 15 minutes while these guys fished with their headlamps on. Nothing. Not that I want them to get in trouble. I was just surprised. I got eaten alive tonight. When I got back to the car, the bug spray was in my pack the whole time. They even bit my bald head.