The heat just won't give us a break, and frankly, I think everyone up here is getting a little punchy around it. That, of course, leaves us with two choices. We can ease across the line that separates the sane from those paint their bodies and run around naked, or we can fish.

Chris Raine and I - deciding that death by heatstroke was preferable to being seen naked (and I think the locals will agree with me here) - got up before 5 a.m., drove more than an hour, and fished a stretch of a local river I'd never seen before.

It's very different from the norm up here; a desert-looking river with stained water and highly altered, TVA-esque flows which change on an hourly basis.


Pretty. Not stunning, but pretty. The river I mean. Chris is kinda weird looking.

We basically sweated like pigs, fished in ways we'd rather not fish, and caught a handful of small trout. In the hottest part of the day, we stumbled on a small PMD spinner fall and - squinting through the rivers of sweat running down our faces - hooked smallish trout on dries. Aha! Mission accomplished!


Crumpled PMD spinner on the rocks.

We staggered back to the truck, fly rods clutched limply in hour hands and weight loss accumulating to double-digit levels. It was an interesting river, but one that I'm willing to bypass until it cools some.

The good news is that much cooler temps are forecast for this weekend, so anyone willing to risk seeing me naked should probably fire up the chariot and go fishing.

In other, less disturbing news...
We've got a great thread going in the "Who's killing fly fishing magazines...?" topic below. Be sure to add your two cents.

And lastly, in addition to finally upgrading his computer to the point that he can participate in online discussions (welcome to the 21st century, Ian), Ian Rutter just posted an entry on his fishing report about the arrival of his bouncing new Hyde Drift boat.

Sure, I would have bought a Clacka, but despite his drifter blindness, I still like the guy. Anyone who writes about his new boat as if his second child had arrived is worth reading. See you naked, Tom Chandler.