After last weekend, I had to get back one more time. Hot again, 100 ish degress. Being that I was the only guy on the river, I took a mid-day swim when the fishing turned off. That was refreshing!!! Sadly, no river cooled Budweisers turned up this week and I had to rely purely on my own stash. I left at 4:45 AM and was on the river by 7:30 AM. 13 hours of hard fishing!!! The fishing was pretty good, but turned off in the middle of the day. We stayed to fish the evening hatch. but it never happened. There were plenty of caddis and some mayflies on the water, but no fish rising to them. Only the beavers smacking their tails on the water.
I did have my personal best on a dry, 22" fatty that took a size 8 stonefly dry. It was exciting to see him come up and slurp that thing down. That's bigger than any Montana fish I've caught on a dry!!!! A couple of other big boys were landed in the 18"-20"ish size, as well as a number of 10"ish fish. It's great to see these smaller fish in the system and they already fight like hell. I had a 10" fish pulling line out on my 5 weight!!!!!
It's refreshing not see piles of auto glass at the parking area this year. I was talking to one of the Sherriff's Deputies who patrols the area and he said they nailed the guys doing the breakins. Some gang out of Olivehurst. It was great to hear.
