Karen -

I wouldn't want to make that leap. The conditions were slightly different day one to day two, and that alone might account for the difference in results. It seems very likely that the commotion of the osprey flopping around twice in a matter of minutes on the prime part of the run might just have put the fish down. It is possible that they moved downstream, but that strikes me as less likely.

If anything, considering the rather subtle but definite difference in conditions, fishing should have been better on day one both on the "osprey" stretch and the hot spot. As it was, the hot spot might just have washed out with the slightly higher streamflow, while the higher streamflow didn't effect the willingness of the fishies to come up for the fly.

Dave -

Neat anecdote.

Most of the fish I caught yesterday in the "osprey" stretch were 15-17", were healthy and were really feisty. I was surprised at how big the osprey was ( were, if there were actually two of them ), but there is a huge different between your hooked up baitfish and the wild fish they were preying on, and I wasn't surprised that it ( they ) couldn't lift off with the kind of struggle and load it ( they ) had to deal with.

I actually started to feel worn out near the end of fishing that osprey stretch yesterday. One time when I had fish on back to back to back casts, the third time I almost groaned. Almost. But it has been an exceptional year so far, both with the quantity of fish and the quality / size. Over the past month, I've had several 19" fish, lots of 18" fish, and a huge proportion of fish in the 15-17" range. Very different than the past two years on this river, and better than '12 and '13 which were both outstanding seasons.

John