Rainbows with a Bit of Lightening

I woke up early to the patter of rain on the metal roof of the house, a quite drumming that quickly put me back to sleep, despite my intentions to get up early today. I find rain to be an excellent excuse to sleep in. Getting up late, I was really in no hurry, thinking that would be the only rain we would get today. I began to get my things together while talking to Cat and enjoying a lazy morning together, Adicus was getting excited, knowing that we were headed out.

Bumping down a dirt road, light filtered through the canopy of hemlocks and steamy haze, lighting individual shafts into golden columns. Anticipating a good day of fishing, my hopes were momentarily dashed when I got to where we were going to fish and there were 4-5 horse trailers and a tent city set up. Even finding a parking spot was difficult. After chatting for a few minutes while getting my waders on, Adicus and I started up the road next to the stream, jumping in at the first nice hole that was easily accessed. Things were a little weird at first, I had decided to use the 3wt, which is significantly heavier and longer than my 2wt. And I haven't used any thing but the 2wt for most of the year so far.

Fishing started out a little slow and that may be a bit a of an exaggeration, it was Real slow! Managing a fish here or there on an Elk Hair Caddis, no one even touching the pheasant tail dropper. The water looked great, seein as we finally have been getting some rain. A few pools were even unfishable due to flow. Sweet! Small, feisty rainbows were hitting my fly, occasionally even hooking one. For the most part, I only caught dinks, but a few decent sized fish were brought to hand. The best fish of the day was a solid 10 1/2" rainbow that hammered my dry in one of the larger holes. Soon after, fishing was interrupted by a short lived shower that was just a warm up for what was coming.

Adicus and I chilled on the bank under a rhododendron with the umbrella. I started carrying one 2-3 years ago to get out of the common afternoon showers that occur in the mountains. One of my better ideas. This initial shower was fairly brief, so we continued to fish for a few more minutes, snagging a few more bows before the boom of thunder discouraged me from venturing further into back country. I'm glad to see that common sense seems to be taking a firmer hold these days, 3 years ago, I would have fished on. Two or three close calls with lightening has taught me not to tempt fate. Which is good, by the time I got in the truck and up the road a bit, the skies opened up, lightening was cracking all around. Nice time to be in a warm dry truck!

Had the fishin been better, I might have stayed out through the storm, but gladly, I followed my gut instinct. Sadly, not all days can be awesome days with fish literally jumping on my flies. The old adage holds true, what works one day won't always work the next. I think we're getting into terrestrial season, which is a problem. I haven't tied any terrestrials yet this year. Need to get around to tying some ants, beetles, hoppers, and some inchworms. Yeah, I'll get around to that soon, I'm sure. A somewhat disappointing day, but not really. Still a nice afternoon on a beautiful stream with my best friend. Rain blew out the day, but that's OK since we need it so bad.