April 29, 2010

Swarmed...

Spent some time by myself this last weekend on the Truckee trying to clear my head after a pretty brutal week. Lots of things going on right now, some good, some bad, but seemingly all at once. I try to stay positive as often as I can, but some days are harder than others. I figured a little alone time on the river would help slow the thought process down, and it did. No distractions, no hustle, and just a good time to talk to myself about things that I try not to think about.

Fishing wasn't all that great with the higher flows and all, but at least I didn't see another person the entire day. Only one fish in the net, but I hooked several others that promptly came unbuttoned, which was encouragement enough to keep at it.

My golden stone pattern was the trick... too bad I only brought one that I broke off at about 11:30...

Weather was AMAZING! The total calm before the storm...

Ever had one of those days where suddenly, without much of a change in flows/weather/temperature, a hatch miraculously starts to happen? Well, that happened to me this last Sunday; except, it was this unbelievably profuse hatch of bugs just swarming around me, landing on my sunglasses, all over my waders, and up the entire length of my rod.

All mayflies. I counted four different species but I'm sure there were more, all at once. Duns, spinners, emergers, and cripples everywhere. It was like someone had hit the switch and the bugs just starting popping like popcorn... I looked down and there were at least 10 mayflies hatching on my legs as the current splashed them off, replacing them with another set of hatching bugs every splash.

I was standing in about shin-deep water at the head of this eddied section at the bottom of a narrow riffle. The water and air were pretty calm where I was standing and the hatching mayflies were sort of swarming in the still air. I could see nymphs swimming and floating to the surface just as they came rolling around in the eddy, just about to pop through the film. The wind picked up and the mayflies started blowing up the canyon like a fog along the canyon walls. I could see the wind shifts changing the direction of the mayfly cloud like sheets blowing in the wind. It was really amazing to see; something I've never seen on this river before.

Not a single fish nose the entire time...

Still an amazing thing to see.

No comments:

Post a Comment