Nick's Blue Winged Olives - Day 2

There was frost in the morning and the water still on the tent was frozen.  The water in the boat, however, was not frozen.  I was hoping we could just pick it up as ice and throw it out of the boat.  Instead we used one of our buckets to bail the water. 

As the first couple of fishermen floated by through the fog, one yelled out “the fish are still asleep, don’t worry about hurrying onto the water. “  It reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean, boats floating by in the fog. 

As the sun came over the mountains it burned away the fog.  The cows started mooing and we could see them on the other side of the river.  They all seemed to start mooing at the sight of the sun. 

We sat our wading boots in the sun to thaw out. 

We only had 6 or 7 miles to float to our next camp site so it left plenty of time for fishing.  We pulled over at every good looking gravel bar or feature of the river. 

By the end of the second day float, we had each caught cutthroats, rainbows, browns and tons of white fish. 

Up until now we were using stone fly nymphs that we had so much success with on previous trips.

Nick noticed fish rising near the shore in front of the eagle preserve and started using a Blue Winged Olive dry fly.  He started catching quite a few cutthroat and even caught a large brown. 

These were caught on flies he tied himself and he gave me one to use.  Further attempts with a dry proved successful.  This tipped the scale to finally catching more trout than white fish.   Also, dry fly fishing is “real” fly fishing.  When dry fly fishing is successful, this is the way to fish.  Dry fly fishing is very visual.  You get to see the fish rise and take the fly.  If you miss the strike, it is still fun to see the rise.

Our next camp site, Dry Canyon #3, was just past the eagle preserve.  Again we set up the tent to dry.  There was still daylight to burn so we fished some more.  In front of the camp site there was a deep hole. 

The trout thus far were all medium-sized so I put on a streamer to try for one a little more substantial.  I caught an even smaller trout at this attempt.  Nick caught quite a few more trout before it started getting dark and was time to start warming up supper. 

We traded sleeping bags every night.  The Cabela’s Alaskan Guide sleeping bag was rectangular and therefore more roomy and comfortable.  It is rated 0 degrees.  It did take longer for feet to get warm and each time you repositioned yourself your feet would feel cold again.  The North Face Dark Star sleeping bag is mummy style and my feet were warm immediately.