Early Morning Risers

[cheeler]

Usually by now I'm off in the mountains but with the high water and extra long weekend I decided to heed the advice of Mike @ Southbow and hit the river by 5 AM to try for my first one on the dry in this river.

 

The evidence looked promising. Shucks everywhere:

 

 

And stoneflies using my rod to try to pull themselves to spurious safety from the dangers that lurked below:

 

 

After a couple small ones on a PMD dropper I wasn't expecting much else; I switched to swinging a stonefly nymph through the run without any interest. Next I switched to using a stonefly as an indicator for the smaller caddis hitting the water. The flies were minding their own business over a few feet of water when a sinkhole opened up underneath the stonefly and a battle ensued - she didn't want to run but wasn't going to make this a walk in the park either. After some side pressure and a few expletives under my breath I finally I managed to tame 22" of brown trout:

 

 

 

One stonefly that did manage to escape the river in my vest:

 

 

 

[darrinhurst]

nice fish dude!

 

Sounds like the early morning fishing is starting....

[SteveM]

Nicely done, Neil; that's a chunky brown!

 

[gustuphson]

good stuff cheeler!