Chapter 58 Day 60 - Trout Season

Long But Fulfilling Day

Eight hours on the river is about four hours past this anglers limit anymore.  At the end of the day that tired feeling had definitely set in - but it was a good kind of tired. 

Early this morning, upon pulling into Scotty's, I finally got to meet Wyatt.  Wyatt was headed to the south wilderness.  I wished him luck and told him he might run into John Haney up there. 

From Scotty's I went to see if I could find Charlie at his campsite... but, Charlie was already in the river catching trout.  I snuck up behind Charlie and took a couple of pictures of him capturing trout fishing off the sandbar and then I slid into the drink myself. 

Charlie had made a good choice in selecting the sandbar because the fishing was very good this morning.  I don't know what Charlie was using, but for me it was the brown bugger early, then switching to an olive bugger. 

About an hour later, Merc shows up and he slides into the drink also armed with one of his ugly flies - a soft hackle pheasant tail and he begins to capture trout.  Charlie and I both have to get out of the water to relieve the numbness for a bit and while on the bank surface activity begins off the sandbar.  On the bank I rig the three midge offering and go back to the water.  The three midge rig captures one trout on the middle fly - a midge pupa.  Not long will pass until I completely destroy the rigging with a terrible cast, which I am prone to do.

Texasflycaster and a friend of his join us on the sandbar.  Once again, numbness begins to set in and I leave these two to the sandbar while Merc goes downstream. 

After warming I fish Ted's Pool and capture four trout here with the brown bugger, olive bugger, and that ugly Bird's Nest I tied last night. 

By now it's time for lunch and we meet at Scotty's.  It's during lunch we meet John Haney.  John had fished the south wilderness early and done well and was going back after lunch.  So...  we all went to the south wilderness.

I don't know how John did, but, for Charlie, Merc, and myself... it was nothing for the first hour.  Then Charlie gathers some intel and we head for the Ancient Boulders.  It is here that we finally capture some trout, especially Merc with a magic fly of which he does not know the name.  He gave me one and I'm going to try and duplicate it.  The fly that brought me best results at the Ancient Boulders was a Disco Midge.  This pattern had to be presented with little or no drag however, or the trout weren't going to eat it.

We walk out and discover John has already called it a day.  Charlie breaks out the Belgian beer and all of us have a swig or two.  Chimay was the name of this beer and it is definitely distinct. 

In our conversations today the One Fly Event was covered and we made some good progress I think.  Hopefully, more solid details will come in the next several days. 

Here's some pictures of the guys from today.

Charlie with morning glory trout.

Merc fishing ugly pheasant tail soft hackle

Charlie's kickback campsite.

Charlie's hammock was mighty tempting after lunch at Scotty's.

Charlie searching for trout in south wilderness.

Merc fishing some usually trout rich water.

John Haney in the south wilderness.