Yesterday Afternoon

Got out for a couple hours yesterday afternoon. It was a cloudy, misty
afternoon and my home river has started to rise but is still clear. The
conditions that helped the firefighters control our local fire also
seemed perfect for an Olives hatch.

When I got to the river, I found lots of Olives hatching but nothing
rising for them. The river risen several inches, but it had also gotten
much colder. Although the fish weren't feeding ontop, they were
aggressively chasing the nymphs. Fishing was VERY good and many of the
takes were aggressive enough to send my indicator streaking across the
current.

I had gone to the newly opened section of river that Charlie and I
fished a couple of weeks ago. (I think that one of the Rainbows was the
same one that both Charlie caught when we were there last time) This
stretch fishes very much like the section in town fished a number of
years ago. Maybe something like I picture in New Zealand in terms of
fish population - lots of dead water with not very many fish per mile
but all of them good ones. I hooked eight fish and landed 6 - one
sixteen inches the rest over 18 with one VERY fine Brown that threw the
hook on a jump. The jumping was unusual too. Several of the Rainbows
porpoised across the top but the two Browns I hooked were the only ones
that jumped.

With the influx of a bit of extra water, the fish have just started to
move out of their Winter holes. They are still concentrated in those
areas but have spread themselves out a bit. Gonna be a fun stretch of
water.

Willi