'Winter Dry'
Snow falls lightly. The temperature is well below freezing, yet the river babbles on. Three miles upstream of me rises the dam. I come to this this time of year for two reasons; the outflow of the dam is 42 degrees year-round, and the winter midges. It is one of the few places that large trout will take a dry fly in the dead cold of January in the West. Small rising fish, mostly rainbow trout, break the surface as the flakes of snow land around them. I am looking for one fish in particular. I saw him last week, a 24” brown trout under an overhanging willow on the opposite bank. He is there again today. The well camouflaged fish looks like a dark bullet in the flat light of the snowstorm. One cast is all I get, as he spooked easily last time and fled downstream. Using the bow and arrow technique, I line up my shot. He moves. Rises. Takes! A hookset later, and he breaks the surface explosively, disrupting the quite peace of the winter afternoon.
Snow falls lightly. The temperature is well below freezing, yet the river babbles on. Three miles upstream of me rises the dam. I come to this this time of year for two reasons; the outflow of the dam is 42 degrees year-round, and the winter midges. It is one of the few places that large trout will take a dry fly in the dead cold of January in the West. Small rising fish, mostly rainbow trout, break the surface as the flakes of snow land around them. I am looking for one fish in particular. I saw him last week, a 24” brown trout under an overhanging willow on the opposite bank. He is there again today. The well camouflaged fish looks like a dark bullet in the flat light of the snowstorm. One cast is all I get, as he spooked easily last time and fled downstream. Using the bow and arrow technique, I line up my shot. He moves. Rises. Takes! A hookset later, and he breaks the surface explosively, disrupting the quite peace of the winter afternoon.
Snow falls lightly. The temperature is well below freezing, yet the river babbles on. Three miles upstream of me rises the dam. I come to this this time of year for two reasons; the outflow of the dam is 42 degrees year-round, and the winter midges. It is one of the few places that large trout will take a dry fly in the dead cold of January in the West. Small rising fish, mostly rainbow trout, break the surface as the flakes of snow land around them. I am looking for one fish in particular. I saw him last week, a 24” brown trout under an overhanging willow on the opposite bank. He is there again today. The well camouflaged fish looks like a dark bullet in the flat light of the snowstorm. One cast is all I get, as he spooked easily last time and fled downstream. Using the bow and arrow technique, I line up my shot. He moves. Rises. Takes! A hookset later, and he breaks the surface explosively, disrupting the quite peace of the winter afternoon.