Still Waiting

We are still waiting for fall to truly arrive and bring the salmon with it. There are fish in the rivers, but nowhere near the numbers that should be here by now. Usually egging for browns is in full swing by this point but that won't start until fish get higher in the systems and get on the rocks. We are getting rained on right now and this weekend will cool off into the upper 50's so things should progress with some luck. Luckily grouse season has opened so the less than optimal fishing isn't as big of a deal. This past Wednesday was the opener and I planned to meet my buddy Jeff up north in the early evening for a few hour hunt before dark. Naturally I went up early to poke around one of my favorite rivers and was rewarded with a few decent fish. The river was low, clear, and cold and made the fishing tough. Even so, running nymphs through the deeper holes and seams produced some hookups. I started out with two small bows on my first two casts.

Naturally after a quick start things slowed for the next hour and I only missed one other fish. As I rounded the corner into my favorite stretch of the river I was reminded why I come back time after time. This is heaven for the trout fisher.

In my favorite run I switched to a large brown stonefly and immediately hooked this chunky rainbow. He fought hard and even jumped a few times before coming to hand.

Things remained tough and I missed another fish or two through that section. Up around the next bend in the deep run I planned to turn around at I landed my final fish for the day, and it was the nicest of the bunch. 14 inches and colorful as a fall day. He clobbered a black wooly bugger on a dead drift.

I figured that was a good way to break for lunch so I made my way back downstream to the Jeep. Everything tastes better when eaten along a beautiful river.

After lunch I only had about an hour to fish before Jeff would be there so I hiked downstream a few hundred yards and worked back up. This river bend always makes me stop and take a look around. On this day I saw two deer playing on top of the ridge and a river otter swim across the tail out. It's produced a few decent trout over the years but nobody wanted to play today.

I only hooked two fish on my way back to the bridge and lost them both....one of which looked like a solid fish. I finished with 4 to hand and as many lost....not too bad given the conditions. More than likely that will be my last time on this river before it closes at the end of the month, it was good to me this season and I will miss it until I return next summer.
Jeff showed up around 5 and we made the short drive to some coverts we wanted to hunt. We flushed a family of grouse not 5 minutes into the woods but with the extremely thick cover we didnt even see any of them. That was the way it went for the day, we flushed quite a few grouse and we even managed a couple shots but with the thick cover it was really tough. We flushed a few woodcock as well but they don't open until this weekend. We hunted again on Sunday a little farther north and it was similiar...plenty of flushed birds but only one shot which was missed. As woodcock season opens and the leaves start to fall chances will increase.
This weekend is shaping up to be alot of fun. Me, my dad, and Jeff are heading to the northeast part of the state for a couple days of cast and blast. We'll be floating some big water stripping streamers looking for some giant browns as well as hunting over Jeff's dog Lucy looking for grouse and woodcock. I have been at the bench tying up some big uglies for what will likely be the last streamer trip of the year. This is a combination of two popular patterns that I call the cotton candy conrad.

This is a Kelly Galloup pattern called a Fathead, basically an articulated Zoo Cougar.

And last but not least, my favorite streamer bar none, the black/chartreuse conrad sculpin.

We plan on heading up mid-day Friday so we'll more than likely get in 2 hunts and 2 floats. Here's hoping for a few 20+ inch browns and a pile of dead birds!