Fished the South Fork three days this week.

Temps in the low to mid 30's with windchill in the low 20's. Spitting some sleet on and off on Wednesday and some heavy snow late afternoon on Thursday. Lots of wind in the general area but the spot I fished is pretty well protected from the wind by a woods.

Tuesday was a brown trout and mountain whitefish day. Most of them took a size 6 brown rubber legs stonefly nymph and the rest took the trailing size 18 rust colored copper john.

Wednesday started with a beautiful cutthroat. After that it was browns and whitefish on the same stonefly and copper john combination.

Thursday was more of the same. Except .... the second fish of the day hit really hard and was obviously a big brown. He took off downstream, pulling really hard. I decided to put him on the reel. Just after I got the slack line on the reel and started handling him, I relaxed my grip momentarily just as he started another strong run. The rod popped out of my hand. I looked down and saw it on the streambed, moving away. Two or three quick steps and then I dove for it. Ended up on all fours in 12-15" of water - with rod in hand. When I finally got him close, it was apparent that he passed on the stonefly but got hooked in the tail by the copper john !! Foul hooked fish do pull hard - especially 22" browns in moving water. My biggest surprise was that the 4X tippet held him.

About an hour later, after a good number of whitefish and another brown, in one spot I hooked one brown and lost it, landed another smaller one, and then had two 17" browns on back to back casts, all in about five minutes. I decided that was a good way to end the day, and maybe the year, unless we get some more near or above freezing days.