Fish Before the Blizzard

As I type these words the first flakes are beginning to fall on the leading edge of what is clearly going to be a storm of historic proportions. As a meteorology nerd I have already committed to staying awake and vigilant through the duration of the storm, regardless of the amount of coffee it takes. But today (I'm sure by the end of this it will be yesterday) Rik and I went fishing. Knowing full well this storm would put us out for at least a few days we took advantage of the sun and moderate temperatures to get some time on a Class 1 wild trout stream,

The fish were sitting out in the sun, not moving much. I caught one stunning 8 inch brown on a Sexy Walt's. I had spooked it and two others in a shallow glide as I waded downstream. They shot under a cut bank. I got myself downstream from them and waited and watched. Eventually the medium fish came back out and positioned himself next to a triangular rock. I cast the fly directly upstream from the rock and allowed it to bump into it and then roll down the side. The fish responded by gently plucking the fly off the side of the rock. I set the hook and after a short battle the fish was at landed. I Had placed my bag down the bank so I could be more stealthy sight casting, so I let the fish swim and went to grab my camera. When I came back the fish and my barbless hook had parted ways. Ah well.

After a while of dealing with ice and slow trout we decided to find a TMA with no ice. We were successful. And I managed to get a handful of takers and land one. But Rik still needed his fix and I had heard through the grape vine that the perch run was on so we went for perch.

There's some perch in there....

We caught a couple in the short time we had left and ended the day on a high note. It is always crazy to see the biomass in such a small area when the perch come in.