Doubles

On the North Platte river, when we would come to a good run, either where we were catching fish or we could see a distinct drop off in the water, the guide would row us back upstream so we could fish the run again. Rowing upstream in a river is of course, hard work. By the end of the day I could see the blisters on Ryan’s hands. He would use a landmark, like a tree or bush to indicate where the start of the good run was and how far upstream to row. On one occasion, he must have rowed us back upstream 7 or 8 times. Each time either Nick or I would hook a fish. During the course of the day we had many doubles, meaning that we both had a fish on at the same time.

One thing for which we had to be on constant alert was debris on the line. With the high water, plant growth was constantly being washed downstream and would get caught on the hooks or knots. With each cast we would glance at our terminal rig to check for weeds. Even the slightest vegetation would require us to stop and clean it off.

One of the first fish I caught was a brown trout. I thought nothing of it because I usually catch quite a few browns. Ryan told us this was unusual in the Grey Reef section because only 3 % of the fish in this stretch are browns. I felt fortunate for having caught a brown since these are my favorite trout.

One of the fish we caught pooped all over the boat. From this we could see that the fish were not only eating worms and midge larvae, but also snails. Another fish we could tell had been caught before as its jaw was able to open further than usual and looked like a monster jaw fish with a super wide mouth, like a snake.