Bug Factory

Yesterday was supposed to be a beautiful day in Bozeman with temperatures reaching the mid 60s.  So what did I do?  Headed South to a spot where I had to hike through snow that was at times waist deep.  I know it doesn't make much sense...what can I say. 

I didn't bother taking a fish pictures, even though there were a few quality fish to hand.  Rather I just took a few pictures that I thought were more interesting.  The first is for all those who are seeing temperatures creep up towards 100F. 

This section of river is below a famous lake.  The lake is still frozen.  So frozen in fact that I saw two guys ice fishing yesterday.  Although I'm not sure you'd want to be doing that a week from now.  So far Spring has been late showing up.  It will be interesting to see what our run off looks like this year. 

The next pictures show just what kind of bug factory this stretch of river is.  I got a fly caught on this branch and when I waded out to get it off I couldn't help but take some pictures of the aquatic insects living on this one stick.  There were tons of caddis, mayfly and stonefly nymphs.  I'm not sure I've ever seen such diversity and density of bugs on one object in a stream. 

The last pics probably don't show it clearly, but I was literally picking up caddis larva on my caddis larva fly.  It was a bit disheartening to be fishing a fly that perfectly matched what appeared to be the most abundant natural insect in the water and not nailing fish.  I caught some fish on that fly but not like I'd have hoped or thought with such a perfect imitation.