Since I had a week off from work and a serious case of cabin fever, I decided to get out of Dodge and hit the East slope of the Range of Light for a few days of fishing. Streams? Yes. Names…specifics? Nope, sorry!
Alpen glow, The Moon and Mt. Tom, a classic east slope vista
I flogged the water for a while with streamers until I was able to get this rainbow into the net. There were a few others, but it was kind of windy and this stream was a bit too crowded for my taste.
One of the days on another stream was overcast and no wind and the BWO hatched with a vengeance, rising fish all over the place, as many as you wanted to catch. Here’s the main menu item:
Lots of these…
…and these…
…with a few of these fish that got hit with the ugly stick repeatedly. No, they weren’t rising to the baetis, but they hoovered in the nymphs I was using before the hatch started.
Some of the locals that I shared the water with one day
On the way home I fished another stream further north and had to WORK for this brown. It probably took 45 minutes to find the right fly, present it perfectly before I was finally able to hook and land this 18” brown which was as thick as my arm. I think the common thought is that when browns get that big, they become piscivorous, but this guy was finally fooled by a size 20 BWO cripple right on the surface. Go figure.
The perfect way to spend a week without work, in a beautiful locale and some solid fishing to boot. Good times!
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