So I almost thought I was hallucinating when I rounded a bend and saw five or six rises in quick succession. I rowed to shore, anchored the boat and waded out , then tied on a comparadun (my go-to pattern for hendricksons) and cast to the nearest feeder I saw. It struck on the first drift and throbbed on the line a few times before throwing the hook. This happened with a couple of other fish, and when I finally did land one, it was hooked at the tip of its lower jaw. Usually when trout are solidly taking dry flies they will be hooked deep in the mouth. So I knew for sure that they weren't really interested in the pattern I was throwing. I tried a parachute version of the hennie and it went ignored altogether. Looking more closely at the rises, I could see the fish were porpoising when they fed, their backs rising slightly from the water; they wanted something just underneath the surface. I tried an emerger, which usually works when trout won't take a dry hendrickson. This also went ignored, so I tried a low-riding foam parachute version which had never caught fish before (that was a a trend Monday), and it did the trick. In the next half-hour I caught four more browns (up to 15") and one brook trout, my first ever on the trophy water, breaking off or otherwise losing some along the way. I'm sorry there are no pictures, but when trout were rising in flurries after I'd endured a fishless afternoon, I wasn't going to screw with the camera. If you would in that situation, you're clearly a dilettante unfit to share waters with trout. Go to the nearest DNR/MNR office and surrender your fishing license immediately.
Let's face it, I'm a fisher who blogs, not a blogger who fishes.
I finished my float around 7, and after packing up my boat drove upstream to one of my favorite spots to wade the big water, hoping to hit the spinnerfall. About five minutes after I took up my post, fish began rising. There weren't that many, but they were hot for my hackle-wing spinner. Most took on the first or second pass. I landed three rainbows, including one that reached 14". I lost a couple too, not surprising considering that the ones I landed spit the hook while in the net. I suppose it wouldn't have hurt to pause and hone the hook. My rational side deliquesces in the presence of rising trout.
The action lasted only about 20 minutes, and occurred when there were relatively few spinners on the water. When the bugs became heavy, the feeding actually trailed off, and the risers that remained wouldn't hit my fly, probably because of all the competition it was getting from the naturals. But after the day (or at least the evening) I'd had, I couldn't feel disappointed as i left the water.
During the long, sleepy drive home, I did find myself pondering if the trip had been worth it. I decided that if I could choose with the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn't do it all over again--actually, I'd leave the boat at home, fish the Rifle until about 3 then wade-fish a few spots on the trophy water to catch the peak of feeding on the hatch. But if the choice was doing it again as opposed to sitting home, heck yeah I'd do it. I've barely got the willpower not to go do it right now.
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