Well, I decided to hit a couple new (to me) streams today, sice I figured all my regular haunts would be packed with trout season opening up yesterday. The first one I tried was fishless-no rises, and no ripples/other signs of fish, and no real hatch to speak of ,although I did see a huge (probably sz 6- golden stonefly on a rock as I was leaving. The next seemed to be about the same, but then I head a plash and looked over to see a little (probably 8-10in.) trout leap out to grab something on the surface. So, I look around for any sort of bugs/hatch, and there's none that I can see (a few stray golden stone, and a couple really small tricos(?), but no real "hatch"). I tie on something that SHOULD look appetizing to a trout in a little overlooked stream (griffiths gnat, sz1, and cast it just PERFECT. Nothing. So, I keep casting for a good hour or so, and still nothing, and I wasn't seeing the fish rising anymore, so I figured I'd move on to another spot. Just as I'm wading off, I hear the splash again! So, I look around to see if there's some sort of hatch going on that I might have missed, and there still doesn't seem to be anything hatching in any great numbers. Well, I figured maybe that trout was going after the odd golden stone I saw drifting past, so I tied on a little pattern of mine (sz12). Again, fished that spot for a good hour and still nothing. *sigh* Basically, I spent the better part of the day going after this one little fish, and didn't even get a strike. At least I got some good casting practice......

Joe Martin
Salem, OR