In keeping with the Underground's mission of educating fly fishing's huddled masses, today we're looking at the effects of "Atmospheric Rivers" -- those meteorological events that turn your nice, dry, Indian Summer into what could be the wettest week of the year.

Like what's happening right now:



The information page says a strong Atmospheric River "transports an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to 7.5–15 times the average flow of liquid water at the mouth of the Mississippi River," and while I'd suggest Northern California needs the water, we probably don't need it all at once.

Naturally, when I first saw a week's worth of cloud icons on the forecast, my mind dropped into BWO mode, thinking I'd be casting tiny dries at dimpling trout in a BWO-friendly drizzle.

Which is not quite what's happening:

1400 cfs? So much for the BWOs...

 

Shockingly, this isn't the first time the Underground's perception has not engaged fully with reality. Some even suggest the fault lies with the fisherman and not reality ("No!" you shout, but...).

It's the nature of hope; even if I don't expect a world-record trout on every trip, I'm not above expecting conditions to be at their best all the time, apparently forgetting "best" lies pretty far outside the middle of the bell curve.

Hope, it seems, not only drives fly fishermen forward when things look bleak. It's also capable of driving us insane.

See you drying out somewhere (but not until next week), Tom Chandler.