Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Sojourn


Washing away the daily grind...

The middle of March has two faces, Winter and Spring. This manifested itself in the latter half of the month when I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops. A few days later, I was shoveling 12+ inches of snow and enjoying the benefits of a day off of work. These climatic variations show themselves on fishing trips too. March finds the angler layering and delayering clothes in order to stay warm and cool on the water.  Despite this, March is a great month for fly fishermen and women as its usually when the fishing starts to get good, the bugs start to hatch, and the fish begin to rise. Katie and I planned a short weekend trip to take advantage of the good weather but it ended up being even shorter than planned. It wasn't due to a poor fishing and/or camping experience but due to the constraints of work and school. The day and half on the water proved to be a stress reliever that we both needed in order to head back into the real world and the daily grind of adulting. 



Day one was cold...

On this particular sojourn, the water levels were really high which made it difficult to effectively fish the deep pocket water. Usually, the river is best fished in the deepest slots utilizing small, heavily weighted tungsten nymphs. Combined with a tuck cast, these flies plummet into the zone allowing the angler to effectively fish each little seam with great results. On this outing, the water was so high that the usual techniques were no longer working as well as they should have.


A nice pool...



Enthusiasm


All it takes is one fish...





Although I hate to admit it, I found the solution to our fishing conundrum with the heaviest fly in my box. A jig head mop fly that resembles a thick and juicy crane fly larva. Tight line jigging through the seems of the whitewater produced some nice fish including a 16 inch brown that I caught while wading precariously in the middle of the river. 


Fly fishing? Yes...


Camping life...


Zoey looking a little tired...


The following day produced the other side of March. It was a beautiful warm overcast day with little to no wind. We only got in a brief morning session but we used the lessons from the day before to snag a few fish. 



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