Before I Wake

  All of those that know me will be very tempted to call BS on this blog post. Not because of the huge numbers, or even the huge size of the fish but because my alarm went off at 5:45 A.M. and I got out of bed and went fishing. Yep, everyone knows not to call Connell before 10:00A.M. because Connell is not a morning person. Don’t really know why I decided to try fishing this early but I am glad I did.  I got on the river at a little after 6:00 and after about a step and a half into the water the cold shock reminded me that the water is a little cooler that early in the morning. Second cast hooked and landed a beautiful and feisty 14 inch bow, next cast a 12 incher. There were no visible hatches going on and I really saw no bug activity at all but the fish were munching all the same.

  The first half an hour was very peaceful, the birds singing, the fish rising and the wonderful sound of a running river was all I heard. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and I watched a big doe cross the river about fifty yards above me and shortly after one of her fawns followed. After about an hour or so I started seeing people showing up. Some type of small may fly hatch started coming off and I switched to an Adams and a dropper rig. Picked up several on the dry and finally I had worn out my welcome.  I switched back to my Nymph rig of a FOD, RS2 and a black Ninja and started working my way down river. Every stop would hook up a fish or two and then it would be time to move down. I got into the Peek-a-Boo run and could see it was full of feeding fish. Caught several there and moved down and saw the biggest fish of the day feeding. I fished to them for about a half an hour and could not get them to take anything. I moved down and caught a few more and moved back in to try the big fish again. I got rid of the indicator and ran just the weighted nymphs through and they hammered it, only problem was, it was a 17 incher and not any of the piggies. Another cast and this time it was a 16 incher. I am not whining, just wanted to hook one of the pigs. After landing the two, I could see that the big fish had spooked out and so I started fishing my way back to the car. It was a great day in all, landed probably 20 or so and lost another ten or so, makes me wonder why I waste my mornings sleeping, jkjkjk.

  Some observations from this morning. The grey FOD in a size 20 was the best fly of the day; a size 22 Ninja was a close second. I tried different blood midges but was not able to take anything on red today. I noticed that the larger fish were a little indicator shy so try fishing without one. 5x Fluorocarbon did not seem to spook the fish but with these low flows 6x may be better. And last, the Froggs Fanny and Loon Dust really seem to be making a difference. If you are fishing a nymph rig and put the powder on you last couple of flies it brings them up right into the feeding zone. Experimenting today I found I was getting twice the strikes when I had fresh powder on the fly. As always, thanks for reading and I hope your days on the river are memorable, Connell