Another decent day with no wind to speak of. Someone was kind enough to take the path I made the other day through the woods and up the side channel and all the way to the water wearing snowshoes. Between the snowshoe tracks and the firmer snow because of the settling and some colder temps, getting to and from the river was quite easy.

Saw a cow moose and her last year's calf on the way in - at a distance of about 40 feet. Mama moose's with newborn calves can be kind of testy, but this one was quite calm, as was her calf. May be the same moose that watched me fish in this location for about an hour one day last March.

Also saw a couple eagles, at some distance. May have been the pair that nests right across the river from where I fished, but one was working a run some distance downstream from me and the other seemed to be out hunting.

Fished from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Quite a few midges on the snow, but no obvious hatch and no fish rising. Decided to go with a large brown rubber legs stonefly nymph trailing a midge larva. Took eight browns, most of them 14-15" with one pushing 18," all but one on the stonefly. Also had a dozen whitefish, most pretty routine but one about 16," again all but one or two on the stonefly.

It was cold enough for ice in the guides the whole time, but with no wind and some filtered sun, it was quite pleasant.

The place I fished today is quite different from last March. A nice, slow run off the main current that was about twenty yards wide and a hundred yards long completely filled in with small gravel during the high flows over the summer - completely. In the five years I've fished this section, it has only been the same two years back to back. Keeps it interesting.