"Larry L" wrote in message
...
I think of my fishing as divided into three seasons.

The first starts on New Years Day on my local rivers. For a month or two
they will provide reasonable flows and decent fishing. This is 90% nymph
fishing, not my favorite style, but it's still nice to get out in Winter
and enjoy trout fishing.

Season #2 starts in late May and goes until early August. This is the
classic season of the fly angler. It provides naive fish, and big,
famous,
bugs. One of the biggest problems with second season fishing is that so
many places are fishing so well, and there are too many choices. Where
to
go? Every angler has a few spots dear to his heart in June and July, mine
are the Firehole and the Henry's Fork.

As August rolls around I roll back home to be with my bride for a few
weeks.
I seldom fish in August and the break always makes me hungry for my third
season of the year.

That Third Season starts immediately after Labor Day.

This is often the most difficult, and therefore, rewarding fishing of the
year.

On the waters I prefer, it is marked by always picky fish made extra
tough and hyper wary by months of heavy angling pressure. And, they will
be
feeding on some of the years most interesting hatches.

Tuesday morning I leave for Montahoming for the 2007 Third Season.

From then until mid-October will find me fishing tricos, callibaetis,
caddis, Mahogany Duns, at least two species of baetis and midges plus
terrestrials. Many days will have multiple, overlapping, hatches and
provide the kind of mentally challenging fishing that demands close
observation, precise patterns and perfect presentation. This is the
type
of fly fishing I've grown to find most rewarding.

Especially when different baetis species varying from #18s to #24s are
on the same water at the same time as emerging midges, it is possible to
find different fish within casting distance each totally locked on to a
different stage of only one of the bugs. Each will refuse to even look
at a pattern one of the other fish eats with relish.

Each angler has his own type of favorite fishing, and that is as it should
be. Most, quite naturally, seem to prefer the times and places where
trout come with ease, and in great numbers.

During Third Season on one of my beloved spring creeks , if you get
things right you can catch "enough" trout and some large ones, but not
one,
not a single one, will be easy.

For me, that is what makes it so wonderful.

.................................................. ..................................................

ROFFians,

The rancid posts so common here often cast doubts, but, I still assume
that
some of you are here because trout, fly fishing, and those very special
places we go to fish, have their hooks sunk deeply into your souls.

PLEASE get out there this Fall and enjoy a day or two of "the quiet
sport."

To my mind, it should be called "the healing sport" as it seldom fails to
improve my mental health.

Cast a tiny midge pupa or a big streamer, it's your choice, but find a
fish
and cast.

You deserve it, you need it, so go.

( ah, but, maybe you should go alone, or go with someone you won't
begrudge
a beer, "Internet fishing gangs" seem way over rated g.)



As for me, I'm heading East to get to some of the West's most lovely
fishing
holes.

.............. gone fishin'



One of the very few things that restores peace in my soul is being alone in
the middle of a river just after the sun has come up. Most times it doesn't
even matter if I catch a fish, the therapy of the river is often enough to
make it all worthwhile. Thank you, Larry, for reminding us what this sport
is all about.

Jeremy Moe