Season's Changing

You can always tell when Fall is here when those little f'n pseudocloeons are the only bugs on the water and that's all the fish will eat. The big browns move from their seems and if you're lucky, all the stars align and hoppers and ants are the soup du jour. But if you run into a pod of fish up, you better do your best, "Hey look at that eagle to the left," as you row by the fish on the right because you know you ain't gettin 'em.

Up until yesterday, they were still piping the worm and the other big stuff. I'm not sure what was going on. Maybe it took a little while for it to warm up or maybe it was the sun...we did have a North wind. Hmmm...

A few days ago I had the most mind numbing day ever. A father and daughter duo came out and they only wanted to fish with spinning gear. I can handle inexperience and constant coaching because at least there is interaction and as long as they can get it out of the boat, you can put them into fish on most days. But watching these two cast over and over again with a spinning rod and then taking the time to pluck the weeds off the hooks each time and then chucking it fifteen feet again to start the ritual over was just about enough to make me jump...if they didn't catch a fish they caught weeds. They caught about ten fish so that means watching this over and over and over again for roughly 1480 times. What we will do for money.

They were pretty cool, however. They were from Australia and it was interesting to get their perspective. Let me just tell you, Australia is another country full of people that think our health care system is crazy.

The next day was another father/daughter duo to whom neither had ever fly-fished before. They actually did come to learn and in just a half-day, they also caught ten fish. And that's after starting from square one with casting and mending and all the little intricacies.

Yesterday I took my 100th trip for the season and booked number 120. My goal was 120 and with still a lot of open dates in September and October, I might hit 130. It is bow season though and I've been getting into a lot of elk so maybe I'll take some time for me.

Keep 'em where they live...