It is very hot out. The whole Midwest is being hit by this heat wave. As I write this it has hit the North East also. Seems that you can hook a fish and have it poached when you get into you hand or net. That means that it is early in the day fishing. Temperatures are in the high 70's as I head out, but that's better than being 95 or more.

I first saw this pattern a number of years ago in Southwest Fly Fishing Magazine, without a tutorial. It is by Colorado tier Eric Pettine and the fly reminded me of some off-the-wall soft hackle that I had tied up for the water pictured below, quite some time ago. That one employed partridge for the hackle, a copper bead behind it, light olive thorax, rusty brown abdomen with a copper brown, wire rib. It was the only pattern that consistently took fish when the water in here was raging from bank to bank.

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When the angler returned to the cabin, he was immediately asked, "Did you catch anything?"

"Yes, I caught 5 rainbows," was his reply.

"Where are they at?" was the next question.

"Where they belong," was his answer.

I crouched along the little stream and gazed down into the bottom of the pool. The water was crystal clear and about 4ft at its deepest point. At the tail-out of the pool the bottom was covered with what looked like dead leaves to the inexperienced eye. But to the trained eye of a 10 year old, savvy to the ways of the wild I knew better. I stepped into the water and felt the ice cold grip as it soaked through my high-top Keds.

For fifty years Don Williams guided fly fishermen on the waters of Montana, Yellowstone National Park and many places around the world. There were many clients who had yearly times reserved with Don, and many others begging to go with him if a time slot opened up.

Actually I thought that was the title of a book on the stack here and I could steal it for a nice tie-in to our day-to-day life here. Well I was wrong, the title is "A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert" and the reason I mention it is the wonderful color photo on the cover. One of the most beautiful scenes in nature (so I am told not having yet seen it) is the desert in bloom. That is what the cover photo shows, and since it is fairly rare I thought it funny to use it to spark interest in the book. And probably not too honest either.

Raise the issue of catch and release in a mixed crowd of fly fishers and you are almost certain to start a debate. Debating an issue is a good thing if it leads to understanding, and I think that it's appropriate to explore the history of the idea of catch and release fishing.