Lunch Hour Chronicles

[KeatonsDad]

Well I have to say I really enjoy this Fishing Report forum and all the great reports put up here by you guys, so I figured I would try and participate. I hope I can keep it up to date.

I am lucky enough to work a half hour from a great Brown Trout river and have enough flexibility with my job that I can get to work early, take a two hour break a couple times a week and get a couple hours of fishing in. I have also gotten to know a couple stretches of this river like the back of my hand and have been able to gauge the best time of the day to take my breaks based on the weather forecasts and when the mid day hatch is going to come off.

Today when I left my office it was partly cloudy with a light breeze blowing and about 55 degrees. I arrived on the river and the wind was blowing between 15 and 20 mph and the rain was falling sideways and the temp had dropped significantly. So much for hitting it at the best time of day. With the hatch killed by the weather I tied on a streamer and made do.

Then suddenly the squall was over and the river was calm. I figured the baetis could be popping at any moment so I clipped off the streamer and started getting rigged up with a BWO pattern. Sure enough noses started showing and I spotted a consistent feeder along the near bank.

Twice I missed the fish as he slurped my fly. I gave him a little break after each flub and finally 15 minutes later he took it the third time, and this time the hook point found lip. Soon this guy was in the net:



As I released him another strong gust of wind along with some pelting rain drops blasted me in the face. I was glad I hit that 20 minute window between storms.

Just another [wet] day at the office.

[JohnScott]

.... and my compliments to your photographer and pixel manager !! Really cool effect.

Beautiful fish, and on a dry fly. Way to go !!

John

[KeatonsDad]

Thanks John.

I keep a little point and shoot camera on a tiny tripod on the bank near me to snap these pics on timer. I can push the button, lift the fish, snap, and it's back in the water for the fish. Then off to photoshop for the effect. The rainy day ment a couple water spots and fog on the lense but to me that is what the day was so it is all part of the picture.

The big downside to these short lunch time outings is that I don't get to spend as much time photographing my surroundings, and turning over rocks looking for bugs as I would otherwise.

[Sasha]

Glad to see that you have joined the "continuous" report thread group That was an awesome report, and that pic is just killer. That brown does look familiar though So how busy has it been out there? The other river east was busy as heck last Tuesday.

[kglissmeyer]

Sweeeeet! That is a truly great fish, even for that water. The photo is spectacular. Wish I lived closer. Thanks for sharing.

Kelly.

[KeatonsDad]

Thanks guys. Sasha, the river has picked up alot of traffic no doubt but I have had no problem going up there mid day during the week and finding one of my favorite spots open. The weekends? Forget about it...I won't even try anymore.

[KeatonsDad]

I made the mistake this morning of uttering the W word. As in "at least the wind isn't blowing very hard." Bad bad juju. But I should have known better, it is spring time after all. By the time I arrived at the river for my lunch break I was dealing with 30 mph gusts. Wind seems to usually put the kabosh on dry fly fishing here for the most part but there were a couple sporadic rises across a deep channel I was fishing so I stubbornly stuck to a BWO Sparkle Dun. The wind again made it virtually impossible to place the little fly where it needed to be so I finally gave it up and started blind casting a Skwala adult pattern with a midge pupa dropper. After fighting the wind with this outfit I was about to give up when I noticed a subtle feed in a foam line. I punched the big fly through the wind and landed it upstream of the feed. Sure enough as the Skwala drifted over the fish it dipped down. Fish on the midge...finally. Another nice break and glad the wind didn't completely shut me out.

[JohnScott]

.... I almost didn't read this because I thought the reference to the W word was gonna be work !!

Glad it was only the wind.

Brown trouts and midges - lovely combination. Way to go !!

More great pixels, too. Pretty neat.

John

[MSD53X]

Nice Fish !!!! And great report. I really enjoy these fishing reports from the left side. I rarely see any sizes like those, and different coloring is beautiful.

[FishnDave]

Great reports, and superb pictures, KeatonsDad!