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.