Streamer Season is Here

If there is ever a time when streamers are the key to good fishing, it is autumn. Brown and brook trout and some strains of rainbows prepare to spawn, the water levels come back up, and hatching insects turn towards smaller species that the big fish are less likely to eat. By bigger I mean 10lb plus, even a 24 inch brown will eat tricos if they are available in large numbers. Whatever the reasons, this is probably the best time of year in this part of the country to lob the heavies. Before a mountain biking outing this afternoon with Dalton and Tyler, I was out looking to see if I could get some summer holdovers to eat some flies I just got from my friend David. He had used them on his recent trip to Montana and thought I might like the. I do. The biggest of the three is a beast. It is all flash and marabou, it jigs like a crazy bait fish, and it is almost impossible for big browns and brookies to resist. I found that out right away when I briefly hooked up with a 15-18 inch brown, and later hooked well a couple of brookies. I'm happy to report that the rivers are in dramatically better condition, and surrounded by new color. I LOVE THIS SEASON!

Mountain biking went well. Dalton pushed his peddle into a log as he was going over it and flipped, and I screwed up a couple of sharp curves and ended up busting through brush off trail, but the real "oh shit" moment happened after we finished our loop. The three of us were hanging out in the parking lot and chatting for a bit. Tyler got on my bike and started riding it around, so I hopped on his. He already knew my brakes were a lot less responsive than his, I had said that outright, but he didn't know how to handle my bike like I do and I was brought to out of my looking over his bike by " Oh shit, oh shit!"... I looked over in time to see Tyler hit the guardrail at a decent speed and go sailing down the embankment. Then there was no noise. Dalton and I ran over not knowing what horrible scene we were about to see. Their was Tyler, 15 feet down the hill with almost no physical damage but very shaken up. My bike had no damage, Tyler had a scratch on his nose but had not hit his head, and the guard rail now had a big rubber smear and a scrape where Tyler's shoe went over it. 15 feet and he only bounced once, barely a scratch on him. He is one lucky kid!