Northern Trout Of Blue River

Sometimes it's rather nice just to listen to the rhythm of the river. 

The holidays put a kink in my fly fishing schedule and as of today it has been almost three weeks since I've been to Blue River. 

This morning I caught a ride with my buddy and fellow fly fisher Van and we headed for the northern part of the river Blue.  This season I still have a tendency to go north.  Van had never been to this particular stretch of water and I was eager to show it to him. 

Van was armed with new fly line and a nice selection of hare's ear patterns and it was my hope that he would get into some trout. 

We were expecting light winds of 5 to 10, but was greeted with a steady southerly wind of about 15 to 20.  With the temperature still below 40 this morning, the comfort level was far from pleasant. 

We walked all the way to the end of this part of the river and took position in the shallows above the downstream falls.  Van would take the first trout of the day with a flashback hare's ear with legs.  I was striking out fishing below him, so wading back across I went upstream and took position on a rock where there was also a wind break.

 

 

Here at this place the hare's ear I was fishing begin to take trout, but the fish soon grew pattern weary.  Switching to a size 16 pheasant tail I would find the fly that proved to be most favorable to the trout today.

 

When the action slowed for Van he moved upstream from me and begin fishing upstream above a falls and quickly took a couple of more bows.  When he moved back downstream, I went up and fished downstream from the falls using a bugger.  Missing the first three trout on three casts, I slowed the retrieve and took two bows on the bugger. 

When action slowed for both of us we walked the upstream road to another stretch.  This stretch is one I have fished several times and not found a single bow, but today I ventured out and down and it wasn't long until I found a community. 

The wind was giving us fits and I must have missed two dozen strikes and only brought four or five bows to hand.  Van was standing on a falls and found a pocket of trout that also liked his leggy hare's ear. 

Four and a half hours later my back was done.  I wasn't done, but the old back was so we decided to call it a day.  I think Van could have stayed much longer but he could see I was pretty well done in.  We left the river with a dozen and a half bows to hand.  Not a banner day, but still a good day.