Bright Skies

I had a very nice drive up on Rainy Mountain this morning. The low morning sun was lighting up the leaves of the cottonwood trees as I entered the canyon, and the air was warming up quickly. I knew it was going to be a bright sky day with no clouds. And, I don't usually have a good fishing day when there is a cloudless sky over the trout streams. But I didn't care; it's been too long since I've drifted a fly, and I needed some stream time.

The mountain received a lot of rain last week, and I was hoping the streams had cleared enough to catch some trout. The flows were great, but the water was very murky. Too murky to have an easy time fooling the trout with a dry fly, it turns out. Yup, there are times I question my decision to go 'dry fly only,' and today I was talking a little to myself about that. It was a lot of work, but I did get a few brown trout to hit my fly and find themselves in my net. So, by mid-afternoon, I stopped second-guessing my dry fly commitment. A pretty day with a few trout landing in my vintage net...what's to complain about?

Gear: Winston AIR 7'6" 3wt fly rod; Ross Colorado 2/3 fly reel; Winston Energy WF3F fly line; Simms sling pack; Brodin vintage net; Black Caddis and Brown Caddis dry flies.

Streaming: Watching The River Flow by Bob Dylan