Bright Skies Today

 Whenever I'm driving up the mountain and the sky is bright blue without a cloud in the sky, I know it's going to be a day of spooking lots of trout. Those wild browns can see an angler coming their way from a long way, so days like this are usually pretty slow. And it was just that today. Oh, it did cloud up later in the afternoon, but too late to help us out with the catching part of fly fishing.

My buddy Neal was with me, and we both knew the fishing wasn't likely to be landing lots of fish today. However, the outdoors was in its full glory up at high altitude where we were fishing. Three things made the day pretty special for me: 

Bull elk were bugling from behind the tree line most of the day while we were floating a dry fly. Their music made the day pretty special.

Watching trout do their sexy dance was a lot of fun too. Yeah, it's spawning season for the brown trout in this beautiful setting, and they didn't even know they were putting on a show for us. For sure, they were totally focused on their mate.

And then there was a big healthy coyote suddenly showing up to monitor my every movement. A little too close to me I was thinking. When it wandered on down the valley, I found out why it was giving me the eye. I located a den near the stream. Nope, I didn't hang out there after that discovery.

We had a full day of fishing on the mountain and it was a great day. The wildlife that calls this big valley home was putting on a show for sure. And we were lucky to be there and experience it all.