Late Again

This season I've been dubbed the "late man" because I'm always late getting to the river. This is due to several reasons which are mostly intentional - heh heh. Saturday, I wasn't in much of a hurry to get the river, because the night before the weather honks were calling for rain. That warning would be enough to keep a lot of people at home and with gas prices hovering below $4.00, most wouldn't make the long drive. I hoped the honks were wrong and sure enough they were. I had a window of opportunity to get out and I took advantage of it. A couple of friends were already out east and I declined to go since it was so late, plus the price of gas has been killing me too.

I fished the Grand as a little birdie told me they were crushing them on the lower section for that past couple of days. I arrived to see only three cars and the wind was gusting mightily. I was raining lightly and the wind made it feel harder. I arrived to see one other pinner working the head of the run and couple of fly fishermen stumbling about looking for fish in the murky depths. I fished the long run and the wind roaring like a mother making drifts very difficult. By then the rain machine started to crank it up. I managed one fish and thought to myself that these fish have been pounded hard over the past week. To add insult to injury, some loser in a pontoon boat with an outboard comes around the bend chugging upriver. The loud whining of the laboring motor was another reason to bail. I watched him go by as the other angler looked in disgust and flipped him off. I watched him still chugging upstream waiting to see when the motor bottomed out and hopefully damaging the prop, but I guess he knew the river well because he stopped short of the gravel bar.

Well I got the phone call and my heart sank - "we're killing them over here" The first thing to pop in my head was homos and I should of drove there. But since his brother made the long drive up and doesn't get to fish that often, I was happy for them. Well after that call, I found the fish hiding out in the fast water. Many anglers usually past this spot up because A - they can't see them, B - they can't see them and C - they still can't see them. They were all fresh skippies and I'll take a little fat skipper over some beaten up male fully decorated with flies.

The fishing was starting to wind down when the sky turned black and I mean it was black, like one those massive thunderstorms we see during the summer. The wind gusted as I was crossing over and then the monsoon started. It felt like somebody dumped a truckload of water on me. It poured so hard that when I arrived at the lot, my Jeep was in the middle of a small lake. What ever waterproofing was left on my wading jacket was completely annihilated as it was water logged.

Good thing I got out because several hours later all of the streams blew out big time. I still believe we'll have a late run this season or the fish will stay in the rivers for a while, depends on the weather.