Top of the Morning

Sylvia and I decided during a dinner conversation last night to get up early this morning and check out the mountain's stream flows, and also some forest sites. Yeah, I did bring a rod with me. You know. Just in case we see a riser or two.

Early morning temps were cool with a bright blue sky. The first stream we visited had perfect water flows. I floated a black beetle through a honey hole of mine and was kind of surprised when I came up empty. After finding no luck, I went upstream to see how Sylvia was doing. She had a big smile on her face, and pointed up to where she saw an eagle landing in the top of a tree above her. She then blurted out an "oooh" and pointed to ripples in the water from a splash made by a trout. Yup, my fly then landed there quickly, and I had my first trout of the day. A cute baby brown trout about four inches long. So you know, I don't care what size my first trout in the net is on any given day. It's always a hero trout, and qualifies me for a "no skunk" day of fishing.

After immersing ourselves into the beauty of the area, we headed further up the mountain to check out another spot on this mountain. Sylvia found a nice shady place to sit and read while I kept trekking up the trail to an area where I love to float dry flies. When I arrived there were hatches popping off everywhere above the stream's surface. And although the sky was clear and bright blue, I felt this particular section of stream would reward me with some trout in the net. Why is that? Well, I stepped on a fallen limb and the crunch sent a trout screaming upstream to escape my intentions for him. There were ripples and water movement from the trout playing and feeding all about. Lucky me! I managed about eight trout in the net before turning around to hike back and check on Sylvia.

We found it to be a fabulous morning on the mountain, and stayed long enough to assess all the pertinent spots I tend to visit frequently in the area. I was happy to discover the area was in better condition than I was hoping for, and as long as I keep my fishing activity early in the day, or in the late afternoons, the streams here should be productive for me this summer. We're in the month when daytime temperatures are just starting to become too hot for fishing without harming the trout. Still yet though, there are many hours during the day where stream temperatures are in the safe zone for fly fishing up at the higher elevations.

Gear: Winston WT 7' 2wt fly rod; Bauer SST3 fly reel; Rio LightLine WF3F fly line; Patagonia sling pack; Wayward landing net; Dry flies all morning.