A word of warning: I’m beat, hungry and have a date with the L&T Nancy tonight, so this a quick and dirty report. I’ll save the literary pretense for another day.
Today’s dash downcanyon left me driving out of the clouds and into the sun. Essentially, I drove out of perfect BWO weather upriver into too-bright weather downriver. Brilliant.
Yet another rainbow in the net. Trout, that is. Today’s 14″ prior to release.
The Upper Sacramento canyon is a chain of microclimates, and a few miles south of Dunsmuir the weather often changes dramatically.
Today it changed for the brighter – the sunny weather that regular human beings find enjoyable, but BWO-chasing trouters find objectionable.
A few moments of cloud. Otherwise, the sun showed, so the fish didn’t.
Still, there was a light hatch and a few small fish working. It wasn’t going to be a great day, but still had the potential to be a good one.
The final tally was nine grabs, six hookups, four landed.
The Hero Fish of the Day was a 14″ rainbow, who sipped the fly so quietly that setting the hook was more an act of faith than certainty.
The good news (for me) is I’m falling back into trout hunting mode; the leader, tippet, and casting accuracy are coming around, and the drifts are getting better.
And after having my butt handed to me over fly selection the last couple trips, I stopped messing around and tied a few proven patterns.
Today’s Happy Fly was a #22 quill body RS2 emerger with a CDC wing. It’s an excellent fly for choosy fish, who seemed to eat it without hesitation.
It doesn’t float particularly well in rough water, but bobs acceptably in the smooth stuff. And ince there’s little to soak up water, a little Frog’s Fanny quickly re-floats it after you’ve caught a fish.
Fall hangs in there though the leaves are falling fast in Mt. Shasta.
[tags]bwo, blue winged olives, trout, rainbow trout, Upper Sacramento River, fly fishing, fly rod, RS2[/tags]
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