Well, we're slowly figuring out bits of this river....We started down by the bridge, about the only spot on the river I can swing a decent fly with my spey rod and of course hooked a big old sucker...Rick got a couple smaller fish with his new little spinning rod set up but FINALLY switched to the fly and nymph fishing....He hooked into three nice fish but couldn't land any of the monsters...
We headed up to our hotel to check in around 6pm and then up to one of now "favorite spots"....Rick was using his little spinning rod again and hooked into the biggest trout we've seen.... It was bigger then the 8lb'r caught last weekend and went nuts....jumping numerous times and running hard straight at him.... He just about had it landed and was whooping it up when little cheap a$$ spinning reel's drag locked up....Fish took it's final run....and before Rick could throw the bail open the line went tight and snapped.... Man was he bumming..
I stubbornly stuck with my spey and was trying to entice a bite on the dry as a huge hatch was happening and the fish were a jumpin....and got skunked...
We did get to enjoy an Osprey that was fishing allot better then us....As we walked out we could hear him chirping and we called back....He took off with a nice 12+" fish that was giving him trouble rising with...but finally made it back to the nest with momma and babies happily awaiting him...
We got up bright and early the next morning and headed way up river to another spot we had heard good things about and found like last sunday there was really no decent water yet to fish....So back down we went...We happened upon a couple other FWR members getting ready to go out and had a nice talk with them....Thanks a bunch guys for the help and swivels...( I forgot my split shot in the truck)
Rick decided to finally stick with the fly rod and was nymphing behind me as I tried one last time to swing a minnow pattern with the spey...Just didn't work in soft back eddys that line the T. where we were fishing...I hear almost immediately a hoot and Rick is into the first of many fish for the day...
and...
I finally decided to give up with the spey and as Rick was using my stick we took turns and I was immediately into fish as well...We fished our way down as far as we could and Rick was 4 or 5 fish to my 2....all nice 1-2 pounders that fought like mothers and were jumping like crazy...Was so cool..
We were going to head over to a spot that we decided to do next time and while doing some exploring and listening to Rick tell me I had to go down first as there were big fat marmots around...
We stumbled on another little hole.....Rick cast in our magic fly and is into another big fish....This one is ripping up the water and jumping like mad...My reel is singing the song of big fish and he eventually brings in a super fat 5lb bow....Damn nice fish....Rick is reaching for his camera as I'm attempting to get a grip on this fat sucker and just as he's about to take a pic. it flips up and out of my hands and rips off, breaking the leader and taking our last ( we thought ) magic fly!!! God, I was so bummed....that was such a nice fish and I blew it....Thankfully Rick was happy and said, "Who cares, we landed it and not every fish needs a hero shot"....Still, I was bummed but glad the fish never left the water and was off to spawn more fat trout!!!
We decided to head down river after catching about a dozen nice trout and one white fish out of this spot....We scrounged around and found we were down to only two flies that actually worked....So off to more water!!!
We got down river and the wind was howling....We fished hard for a couple hours but lost our flies almost immediately and they weren't interested in any thing else...Good day, nice drive home and planning another trip....
Was really glad to see the boys from FWR up there and nearly no one else...incredable!!!
Sorry this takes so long but I don't know how to post the pic's without closing each time...so it takes a bit...
OOps almost forgot the best one....