Three small fish wouldn’t send most fly fishers into fits of ecstasy, but I’d have been happy with no fish at all.
I don’t want to go all dark and existential on the Underground, but there are days when hanging around the house for even one more hour is a one-way ticket to family discord, if not divorce court.
So instead of torturing the rest of the household, I went to the river.
Once there, I flogged the water with a weighted streamer (gathering data for my upcoming graphite rod review), but fighting the current got old, and I just laid on a sunny rock and listened to the river go by.
For about an hour.
For those who–like me–have been too long from the river–I reproduced that effect in a video:
No fish. No “woo-hoos” or high fives. No extreme anything. Just 12 seconds of zen.
Later, I swapped the streamer rig for a red brassie, and had four quick grabs (getting three to my feet) in a trio of pocket water runs.
The fish were in the 10″-12″ range, which suggests the little fish are waking up.
They’re typically not much seen during the winter, so the good news is maybe winter is going away.
Of course, that’s what I say every March, and it’s more an artifact of wishful thinking than reality.
Still reality is overrated, and I’m sticking with my words. The little fish are waking up. Winter’s ending. Report finished.
[tags]fly fishing, upper sac, upper sacramento river, trout[/tags]
