I made it up two days in a row on my lunch hour this week. Yesterday was a bit of a disappointment because I got into fish big time but failed to hook and land even one.

I drove up the canyon looking for heads up but all of my usual places were either occupied, very muddy because of some recent melt off, or simply dead. Finally I parked the truck and did a little exploring on foot and found a very nice flat with a bottleneck at the head in which there were several fish feeding regularly. I quickly jumped into my frozen waders, and boots, grabbed my rod and waded in just below the pod of midge sippers. Quickly it became evident I had the fly these fish wanted but the takes were so soft setting the hook without pulling the hook out became the problem. Over the course of the next 45 minutes I had at least 6 nice fish sip my fly only to have the hook pull free on the set, no matter how soft. It was discouraging and exciting at the same time. Suddenly at about 2:30 things just shut off like a switch was flipped and a run that had just had more dimples than a golf ball was smooth as glass. I packed up and vowed to return today.

So today I arrived at the same run at the same time of day, but things were a lot more sparse. In fact so sparse it was difficult fishing to find a fish that was feeding more often than once every 5 minutes. Finally I decided to hit another spot I like a little lower down on the river. I arrived at my new location and snuck in between the thick willows along the bank and peeked into the run to see what, if anything, was happening here. The first fish I spotted was 20 feet downstream of where I waded in and it was feeding regularly. I knew this was a player I could get if I played my cards right. I floated the #22 Harrop's Transitional midge over it's head and like clockwork watched it disappear into a big swirl. I brought the rod tip up to heavy pressure, then gone. Same problem I had yesterday. Not to be deterred I turned my attention up stream and quickly spotted a subtle feed next to a big boulder. This was not a very regular feeder and it took a couple fruitless casts to get the rhythm right but finally we connected, and this time the hook held. The cold water made for a bit of a sluggish fight but It was clear this was a heavy fish. Finally I slid another nice December dry fly fish into the net and felt much better.