I’ve had some time outdoors with friends and family lately and in between other activities, some small trout have been harassed.
Last week we did a big group camp out for the Fourth. I don’t think I had ever actually fished this river before, only the one it flows into, but I had fished the confluence. I vaguely recalled a local guy telling me gets ‘em there on Prince Nymphs, so that’s what I fished. You could say I didn’t Tie A Ton of flies for this. I used an 8’6” 4 wt with an indi and one size 8 or 10 prince nymph. It worked for fish up to 12” around camp. One hot afternoon I crossed the river in just swim trunks, sandals with a rod and the one fly tied on, nothing else. That was pretty fun. I was prepared to swim because it was dang hot and it’s a rather slick river to wade. I thought I’d swim back down but I chickened out. The water was 48 degrees, which makes me gasp to near incapacitation when it hits my chest and I didn’t want to impose my stupidity on my fly pole and break it. I can wet wade that cold cold water all day but I am not much for truly swimming in it.
I got my octogenarian pops visiting. I might have nearly killed him yesterday dragging him up to a mountain stream and hiking him up the trail, because the 5” fish a mile up are waaaaay better than the ones by the trailhead.
Okay I admit I just like it up there and forget that my abilities and comfort zone are different than others. Anyway, we did both survive, I didn’t have to drag his butt out or call SAR and we caught a bunch of pretty little jewels. The fish were not completely suicidal, especially the slightly larger ones; we cycled through some dry fly patterns and even droppers to see what worked best. We used a pair of 2 wt Redington CTs (one is 7’6” and one has been customized to 7’4” 
).
He said he had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful water and plentiful, pretty, willing little fish. But I think our future PNW fishing adventures are going to be MUCH more low impact and/or boat-based!
Grateful for this time with Pops…and that I didn’t kill him!
Last week we did a big group camp out for the Fourth. I don’t think I had ever actually fished this river before, only the one it flows into, but I had fished the confluence. I vaguely recalled a local guy telling me gets ‘em there on Prince Nymphs, so that’s what I fished. You could say I didn’t Tie A Ton of flies for this. I used an 8’6” 4 wt with an indi and one size 8 or 10 prince nymph. It worked for fish up to 12” around camp. One hot afternoon I crossed the river in just swim trunks, sandals with a rod and the one fly tied on, nothing else. That was pretty fun. I was prepared to swim because it was dang hot and it’s a rather slick river to wade. I thought I’d swim back down but I chickened out. The water was 48 degrees, which makes me gasp to near incapacitation when it hits my chest and I didn’t want to impose my stupidity on my fly pole and break it. I can wet wade that cold cold water all day but I am not much for truly swimming in it.
I got my octogenarian pops visiting. I might have nearly killed him yesterday dragging him up to a mountain stream and hiking him up the trail, because the 5” fish a mile up are waaaaay better than the ones by the trailhead.
Okay I admit I just like it up there and forget that my abilities and comfort zone are different than others. Anyway, we did both survive, I didn’t have to drag his butt out or call SAR and we caught a bunch of pretty little jewels. The fish were not completely suicidal, especially the slightly larger ones; we cycled through some dry fly patterns and even droppers to see what worked best. We used a pair of 2 wt Redington CTs (one is 7’6” and one has been customized to 7’4” ).He said he had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful water and plentiful, pretty, willing little fish. But I think our future PNW fishing adventures are going to be MUCH more low impact and/or boat-based!
Grateful for this time with Pops…and that I didn’t kill him!
, near the tailout. I was hiding behind the rock out of view, couldn’t see my fly and was watching the leader but set when I saw the fish splash on the take, a very affirmative one. 
