Healing

"The solution to any problem -work, love, money, whatever -is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be." -John Gierach

Today may not have been long enough. And that is saying a lot. I got on the river at 8:00 a.m. and left after the sun had set. I pounded the pools with streamers and big Atlantic salmon dry flies. I didn't give in to the temptation to put on a smaller fly, I just kept going. And it payed off. I didn't catch any really big ones, but I got a number of really awesome takes on dig streamers in REALLY shallow water. Nothing like watching a nice rainbow plow into your streamer in four inches of water! Big wake, nasty swirl, and gnarly deep gurgle on the hook set....

The most productive streamer was a white Heifer Groomer. I have not fished it for trout before and was pleasantly surprised when they ate it while ignoring smaller, deeper swimming, heavier flies. It was basically like fishing a mouse except that most of the takers got hooked. Second best, but only working in a few spots, was Steve Coultan's  Deep Threat. That took the best fish of the day, a chunky hen early on in the day.

I had chats with a few of the many other anglers that were out for the holiday. But I was a bit surprised when I met fellow blogger TROUT1 (The Farm River Angler) He had been doing darned well in the pool bellow me using wet flies. He recognized me and we chewed the fat for a while. I'm glad I stayed as long as I did, I had been planning to leave about an hour before that. It was nice meeting you Pete, hopefully we'll run into each other again soon.