When the warm weather comes, it's time to fish mornings and evenings - but it's not time to give up on good fishing. This morning - with Dave Roberts in town and Steve Bertrand looking to fish - we ran downriver to a couple of secret big fish spots that we guard jealously enough to rule out posting any too-descriptive photographs. And besides, it's indicator nymphing - which friends don't let friends do - but the fish can be big, and if you fish small, fast-sinking flies, you don't have to sling a half-ton of lead.


Dave Roberts highsticks it through a run. Sure, it's nymphing, but he gets style points for using bamboo.

It wasn't a wide open bite, but the grabs were steady and hookups only slightly less common, and none of the fish we landed were smaller than 13". Big fish of the day was Steve's first - he lifted on a pig that caught some serious air and then hit the water like a fat man at a belly flop contest. We estimated it in the 20" range, but sadly, he came off.

My biggest was 17" and as a group we saw a lot of strong 14"-17" fish. It's interesting that this spring was largely a bust for me, and now that we're hitting the "Dog Days" I'm suddenly a big-fish meister.

Ian and I were discussing it the other day, and he suggested that after my bad spring I was "regressing to the mean" - not a term you hear a lot in casual conversation, but wholly accurate, once I figured out what the hell he was talking about.

Steve Bertrand: not the first guide to pretend he can walk on water...

There's a lot more fishing heading the Underground's way until early September, when the LT Nancy and I hightail it for Maine, where it's basically smalllies on tap, chased by a couple mugs of landlocked Atlantic Salmon and maybe even a shot or two of Brookies (assuming I can convince Nancy to take a long canoe trip).

About the time I'm getting on the steel bird for Maine, Ian and Charity Rutter will be heading for a couple weeks on the Madison, and I've gotta say it'd be fun to be there. Maybe next year. Until then, see you where the fish are... Tom Chandler.


Oy, pretty. Here's a rainbow worthy of the name...