It Was Great While it Lasted

Yesterday I headed up to see my love, hoping to finally be able to fish some dry flies and perhaps get another crack at a big Brown.  As I drive down the dusty road to the parking area what do I see?  Is that dust being kicked up from someone driving ahead of me?  Not only is it dust from a vehicle, the vehicle is clearly a douchebag mobile.  You know the kind, pickup truck with a lift kit, aftermarket wheels/tires that cost as much as a used car but are worth nothing, altered muffler specifically designed to produce so much noise so as to guarantee that everyone you ever come in contact with hates you.  As I saw this monstrosity I could have waxed philosophical about what things are wrong with a human being who would purchase such a thing or be the sidekick to the owner of this POS...how self loathing would any woman have to be to be with such a person...but I didn't.  Instead I thought of how I was going to defend the honor of my early season love. 

I got out of my vehicle (the anti douchebag mobile if you will) put on my driving cap and said good morning.  I alerted them to the regulations in force that I could tell they were going to try and violate by letting their dogs run wild.  As the sidekick reached for his waders, (the mercury reached over 90F yesterday, perhaps he died of heatstroke, or maybe I saved his life) the head duouchebag says, "Let's go somewhere else...I don't feel like fishing with anyone else today." 

Mission Accomplished!  I didn't even have to get creative to keep these clowns off my stream.  They drove off, probably sending every bear and moose within 5 square miles fleeing in terror at the sound of their obnoxiously loud truck, an added benefit for me. 

I geared up and headed down to the water.  I was able to witness by far the most prolific spinner fall I've ever seen as the water was virtually covered with PMD spinners.  The potential was there to have a fantastic day.  I watched and fished and watched and fished and never once saw a fish rise.  I switched to a nymph setup to see if I could pick some fish up off the bottom and found nothing.  I kept fishing and finally found a handful of decent fish along with some small brook trout.  On most other streams this would have been a good morning.  However, after what I'd experienced on this stream over the past two weeks this was sad.  Clearly the migratory fish have started to leave as the water is down considerably from just three days prior.  I suppose three days in a row of 85F temps has a profound affect on a stream like this. 

I could have kept at it and found a few more fish but it just didn't seem right.  Staying would have been Michael Jordan playing for the Wizards, still better than many but not what it was.  I chose to go someplace else and say goodbye to my early season love.  I might come see her again this summer or fall, I might not, time will tell.  When I got back to my car there were a few anglers gearing up.  My timing was perfect, if I had showed up later in the day there would have been a crowd and I would have gone somewhere else believing I was missing out on a great day.  Instead I got to fish her first yesterday and determine that her best days were behind her.  The guys who fished there yesterday might have got a few fish, might have gotten skunked but went away at best saying, "it was ok".  They probably won't be back in light of that. 

So as to provide something visually interesting.  Here's a sight from another river.  I saw this once last year on the same river, on the same bank but never got a picture of it, a garter snake eating a sculpin...enjoy.

Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime

Exact location of my assault

So yesterday I went to spend some time with my early season love.  On the way I saw my first grizzly of the year, a surprisingly big bear in light of the long, harsh winter we had.  Perhaps that long winter provided enough winter kill that the bear has already gorged him/herself and put back on the weight lost in hibernation. 
It's always nice to see a griz from a safe distance. 

Got to the stream and once again she wasn't cheating on me.  I'm sure that I'll break down and cry when I finally show up and either she's hosting other lovers or she just stops producing for me.  That day is coming (at least the day when she stops being so productive) but it wasn't yesterday.  Fishing was outstanding again and I had a fantastic day of fishing all by myself.  I didn't bother counting fish, but I'm sure I landed no less than 30 fish. 

Fishing got to be so easy that I started to feel like I was bullying the weak kid.  Of course the fishing universe has a way of evening things out when we get too cocksure.  At the next piece of good water I land a couple of average Rainbows in the 16-18" class.  I make a cast to the head of the run/bend (to the left of the water pictured) and hook up with a freight train that heads down stream towards a huge undercut that has some debris that has already eaten a few of my flies.  The fish rockets out of the water and shows itself to be no less than 20".  It happened so quickly I can't say for certain if it was a Brown or Rainbow...I think it was actually a Rainbow.  I tried my best to get it out of that area and had my rod doubled over.  It was still doubled over but there was no longer any movement.  I give it a tug and pull up a branch.  The fish had got into the debris and the second fly had caught the branch providing for the fish to get off.  Barbless hooks will do that, of course if it were barbed it likely would have been able to break itself off in the same scenario anyway. 

As  you can see in the picture the water is moving at a good clip in front of me but there is a back eddy on the far side under the willow.  I make a few casts into the back eddy but it is difficult to get any sort of drift.  I decide to go for it and put my flies into the willow and try pulling them back to drop right under it.  This is one of these casts that your expectation is either your flies can't be pulled out of the willow and you have to break them off, or you drop your bugs into the path of the best fish in the area as the water under the willow in the back eddy provides a conveyor belt of food and the ultimate protection from predators.  I hit the willow, pull the flies back and they drop right in, I lift as much line off the fast water as possible and get a couple of seconds of drag free drift.  The fish takes and I set the hook.  Out of the water flies a huge Brown.  As I've landed a couple in the 4-5lb class lately I'll say it was every bit of that size.  If I had to guess I'd say it probably was 23-24" and closer to 6 lbs but since he robbed me I'll never know.  As he flew out of the water out came my flies and the screaming began. 

I guess I should be satisfied to have hooked up on a fish that 99% of anglers could never touch.  Fishing barbless hooks gives a big advantage to a fish that can rocket out of the water 2' and shake it's head, so again I should probably be pleased that I did all I could and the fish was just better than me.  There isn't a damn thing I could have done differently, there isn't one mistake I made.  However, I'm not satisfied and I'm not pleased.  In fact I laid in bed thinking about that fish last night.  I'm contemplating how I might get him to take again.  I don't doubt he'll be in that spot but I do doubt he'll take any flies resembling what I hooked him with.  Perhaps a mouse pattern...or perhaps I hike my ass up to see him in a month with a hopper....if that doesn't work I'll have to make a hike in the fall and pitch a streamer under that willow for him.

As bummed as I am that I couldn't land what was a world class Brown, I can't complain as I've hooked up on more world class Browns on this creek in the past 2 weeks than I might see the rest of the summer.  Best of all, it remains the best kept secret around and is all mine.