Fishing - TR: my saturday out

Decided to see if the Hendriksons were still going, given the wierd
weather around here.

Drove out Saturday at about 11, hit the parking lot about a quarter till
12, drove in just as some raindrops starting hitting the windshield.
Weather forecasts called for spotty rain, with a chance of late boomers,
but what's late??

Got into my trunk, and started looking for my raincoat, which I never
found, but the rain seemed to peter out. I spent a few minutes arguing
with myself about whether I should string up a 3wt or 5wt, and then down
to the water. Went with the three weight, and hoped the breeze would
stay down.

Water was a perfect level, around 56-58 degrees, about ten degrees warmer
than the last time I fished it, three weeks earlier (with leaky waders,
no less!). The banks were starting to green up pretty good, and in
another three or four weeks, the nettles will be annoying, but smooth
walking so far. Mostly overcast. Water was pretty stained for this time
of year. Got in right where I keep telling Greg that I catch all my
fish, and put on a nymph that fairly well imitated the Hendrickson.

During around an hour and a half of fishing, I pulled in two fish from
that pocket water with lots of deep holes, one of them about a foot long,
which is OK for that water.

Headed upstream for more fun. Found a nice throat to a pool that wasn't
taken up with any fishermen, with a sweeper on the side of the bank I was
on that caused a lovely seam and eddy. I waded in with the intention of
nymphing the far side of the throat until the hatch came, then fishing
the seam and eddy. Not much going on there. Then I saw a fish rise to
something. Two years ago, I would have re-rigged with a dry fly for a
sporadic riser like that, but now I consider this situation to be a fish
that was nice enough to tell me where he was so I could catch him
subsurface, and I did just that. He was a little 8 incher.

Then, some idiot wading downstream walked into and fished the eddy I was
saving for the hatch. He couldn't have been further than 10 yards from
me, on a mostly empty stream! Hooked a fish, too! I really should have
told him to beat it, but I figured an argument on the stream would be
worse for my peace of mind than not arguing. He left right after the
fish he hooked got away, anyhow. I think the stares I was giving him
clued him in to how rude I thought he was.

Around 3, the hatch still hadn't gotten going. The sun was coming out
intermittantly. I saw a fish rise, and I hadn't caught anything
underwater in about 45 minutes. I thought that the hatch might be
starting, and it might be all the chance I get to catch fish on top, so I
flipped over to a CDC Hendrickson emerger that I had whipped up with my
new magic tool. Then I realized I had left my brand new Frog's Fanny
home. I fished it anyway, and on my second drift, I took a nice thirteen
incher. No action after that, except for a pretty dramatic refusal of a
Hendrickson Dun. I cashed in around 4, not wanting to try for a spinner
fall (all my flashlights were back in the car). The hatch never came
off. As I was walking out, one of the regular old-timers told me the
water was stained because of some upstream construction of the bank.
Strange time of year to be doing that-- you think they'd want low water.

I was pretty happy. The patch I put on my waders after my cold, cold,
leg soaking three weeks ago held (how come every time I open the
aquaseal, my hands get coated with the ****??). I caught four fish on a
tough stream with no real hatch coming off. My woven nymphs seemed
quite sucessful, especially the bead heads, and the ones where I wove in
a strand of Krystal Flash along with the embroidery floss. This CDC
stuff is better than I thought (thanks, Willi) on emergers, though you
need to swap it out after a hookup. I landed every hookup (at least the
ones I knew about), which was a big improvement over three weeks ago
(where I lost two out of five fish), so I guess I'm getting used to
fighting with my 3wt. You have to be a little more aggressive setting
the hook than with my five weights. I didn't get caught in the sudden
downpour that happened around 6. It would have caught me for sure if I
stayed for the spinner fall. I don't know if the Hendricksons came back
or not.

Scott