I like float trips. They are not my usual way of fishing, but my friend
has a boat and sometimes we travel a river together. The float trips are
a good way of getting to places one might not normally be able to access.

The trip we took yesterday was on a new piece of water for me. I had
fished various areas of the river over a number of years, but never on
this one stretch.

We got the boat in the water about 10:30 am, after a bit of driving and
setting up. We moved on, and had fish rising to our flies in matter of
minutes. I fished using a hopper-dropper combination all day. I used a
mojo hopper (foam-bodied fly) and a prince nymph for the dropper. We
pretty much caught fish all day. Species caught were rainbows,
cutthroats, and a couple of whitefish.

For me, the highlights were the scenery. At one point, a shadow crossed
the boat. We looked up, and saw a golden eagle about 20 feet above.
Later, I saw a bald eagle fly into some trees. There was one point on
the river where there about 10 golden eagles flying above us. That was
pretty spectacular, as the sky was clear blue and cloudless.

Later, as the river flowed into a reservoir, and then stopped flowing,
we saw a flock of pelicans. There was also an ospry nest with a fmaily
of ospreys at home.

Overall, the trip was about 8 hours long. It was an excellent day.

For those of you with FLICKR accounts, I have a small set of photos at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/troutsk...7600648790194/

Tim Lysyk