I'm spending my days beating up on the stocked trout here. Today I got on a stretch of rising fish I could not catch. For 3 hours, I saw small gray mayflies, big cream mayflies, dark caddis flys, little black stoneflies, and everything else float by. Trout were rising. Most were cruising rainbows. 3 hours, I caught 1 fish. I decided to call my friend who was supposed to be working! He was fishing up river from me with another friend. Well, cheating that is! I called and he beat on the fish down our little pond and a big trout dove and swacked his Sage rod on the gunnel and broke the tip in two. He was fishing the river with a backup. My other friend went to pick up his rod and the tip was under the bow carrying handle of his canoe and it went snap too. He turned a 9' 6wt Temple Forks into an 8' 8wt by taking a foot off it. He blew all 5 fish he hooked up. Probably too much rod!
On the way out, they stopped by where I was and threw me a little Mustad hook box of mercy with a few flys. I didn't get anything on them, but they were dark red. Like Hendrickson! I got some of those! I put on a size 16 and tossed it out twice and got a trout. My next cast, another one. I got maybe a dozen fish in the next hour. I got home and tied a half dozen more for tomorrow... My buddies both have busted rods. I live to fight another day.
