Trout Source

WTF? (Au Sable, MI)

Devil’s Breath (Au Sable, MI)
The Mist.  Devil’s Breath.  The Killer Fog.  For the first Midnight Derby, there was lots of it.  And on a normal night, perhaps more folks would have quit.  …Night fishing is voodoo.  We are descending deep into the psyche of the biggest brown trout.  Meeting them on their terms, in an environment that would be impossible for us without waders and wool hats and good flashlights.  The best anglers find a way not to think like a trout, but instead, to think about learning something new.  The fly becomes their hypothesis.  The trout not a success, or a conclusion, but a trend in an otherwise long and enjoyable DEET-slathered experiment. 




 

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Snake’s Ass (Dunsmuir, CA)
Holy melting popsicles part 2 ...... it's been hotter than a snakes ass in a wagon rut and so hot the chickens are laying hard boiled eggs.

”Leviathan” (Truckee, CA)
Robert got this baby on his third cast today. Sometimes the Truckee River kicks some monsters out. 30 inches of brown trout. Robert put the wood to this monster and we landed him before the fish took off into fast water. Good job Robert.
First comment regarding the post on Gilligan’s: “holy shit!”

Fall Cometh (Au Sable, MI)
And now, just like that, it seems to be fall.  We hit 31 degrees for a low three nights ago.  That’s cold.  We’ve had several small flights of flying ants.  Olives are hatching at dinner time instead of at dark.

King of the River (San Juan, NM)


I still stay in limited contact with a few friends of mine from those days of working in the big cities up and down the east coast of the U.S. and from time to time they comment on their envy of my trout-bum, seemingly carefree lifestyle. I never really bother to point it out to them, but what they don't see is the less glamorous side of my way of life and all those vicissitudes I must daily endure in the pursuit, thereof. It's easy to say you would gladly give up being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for the opportunity to be standing knee deep in the crystal clear rushing waters of a world-class trout stream, under a big bluebird western sky, tossing dry flies to big rising fish. But would you really trade in your chilled- gazpacho- and -rare -ahi- steak- with- garlic- aioli- and- Pellegrino- water- lunch in a comfortable, air conditioned downtown restaurant, for my cold- ham -and- cheese- sandwich- and- lukewarm- water- from the tap at Abe's, if you had to hurry and  wolf it down on a little goose poop covered island while swatting mosquitoes in 100 degree heat, because the fish are rising to PMDs out there and you can't waste time on something as trivial as food right now?  Would you be willing to give up that double-pump-mocha-latte at Starbucks and swap it for the last remaining dregs of yesterday’s coffee from a 20 year old stainless steel thermos, because you drove all night over one of the most treacherous highways in the lower 48 and the nearest form of a coffee shop is at least an hour away, just to fish? Be careful what you wish for my friends--"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

The Rise (San Juan, NM)
this was one of those deals when the fish took the fly with more conviction than a Baptist preacher at an old time tent revival. The kind of take that looks and sounds more like a toilet bowl flushing, than the rise of a trout.

Calendar Shuffle (Catskills, NY)
Over the last few days I have rescheduled most of my Trout trips for later in the Autumn. Right now the conditions are hardly worth traveling a long way to fish. This will not change until the current trend of hot humid weather breaks and some substantial rainfall occurs. This will most likely happen in early September.

Hatch Omelet (Montana)

CIA? (Yellowstone, MT)
There are many midnight stones out and dropping a small girdle bug off a Fat Frank or chubby has worked well.

Mutant Subculture? (Yellowstone, MT)
… has been good with hoppers and chubbies.   Bring a Barrett's Mutant Stone or chubby in purple or red and skate it across the water pretty quickly.

Ozark Fishing (White, AR)
Mike works part time at Feather-Craft Fly Fishing in St. Louis.  We fished ants, midges, SJ Worms, Planaria and Scud.

Rise and Fall Of The Yellowstone

“Cheap Beer And Dusty Love” (Yakima, WA)
Rest of the day fu-git -about-it too hot ,too bright but there is always cheap beer and dusty love.Just sayin'

Heaven?  (Upper Delaware, NY/PA)