A friend gave me a tip about a spot on a local river currently producing
rising trout. Bob knows I have a WaterMaster and suggested I take it, "You
can't really get a fly to the fish as the banks are willow lined and the
water 8 feet deep after the first step off the shore. It's been frustrating
the fly fishermen." When I got there. I saw where I "thought" I had been
sent and it didn't seem to inviting, deep "frog water" no fish in sight, so
I went exploring leaving the raft in the truck.

I fished a riffle or three using a bobber, split shot, and beadhead, without
success, which surprised me as there was obvious hatch activity. There
were rhithrogena and baetis on the water and I felt they had to be "the
menu" ... but where? I walked around some more, bushwacked through some
thick willows at risk of rod breakage, and finally found the spot I had been
sent to.

There was a rock island surrounded by fast-ish water, too fast to allow
safely holding in place with my boat. Seeing it from a distance I hadn't
connected it with "kickboat." But after I saw the rises in the water
surrounding that island, I realized I was supposed to use the boat to get on
the island and fish from there, not fish from the boat.

But, now I was watching fish rise to March Browns and BWOs, a mixed hatch,
and it seemed a long way back to the truck. So I practiced my roll casting
and various Spey-like linewhipping contortions , as well as my "pull the fly
out of the willows" techniques, for an hour ++ until the hatch stopped.

I managed to fool several very handsome, strong fighting, foot long or
slightly bigger, Rainbow Trout ... the first of 2007 for me.

And after a little time on a beautiful piece of water, my head feels much
clearer, my attitude much brighter, my body more vigorous, and my spirit
soaring.






Larry L ( who thinks it is amazing how the effects of real fishing, on the
human soul, are so nearly opposite the effects of "Internet fishing
forums" )