Larry and Matt joined me for their last day today, and we made it an early one. I picked the boys up at 5am to see if we couldn't get some better dry fly fishing (amazing what we'll do to get some eats on the floating bugs). We floated the city stretch as it has produced the best for dry fly fishing as of late. The day started off less then blazing as we were not seeing much for snouts, although the fish were willing to come up for the big dries if we got them tight enough to the structure. Larry landed a nice brown on the stonefly pattern tight to a log early in the float which was a nice start.
Matt had a few nice eats on the dry that we were not able to hook up, and also got snapped off by a big fish that took the dropper while it was drifting tight to a tree in the water. We ate lunch overlooking a dry fly bank that had been producing very well before the big rains and water fluctuation. I had watched this bank for snouts before lunch while Larry and Matt nymphed the corner run but there wasn't a snout to be seen at that point. Half way through lunch a gorgeous rainbow pulled into the shallow water to feed on the surface. Checking the water I could see tiny BWO's and really small caddis mixed in with the odd medium sized PMD's. First good drift over the fish Matt got an eat on the caddis pattern but we missed the hookup...too bad that was a nice rainbow and you wouldn't believe how soft that fish was managing to come up. When you get big fish tight to the bank they do everything they can not to give away their position.
Well for 3 days on the bow Matt and Larry had some really nice fish on the line and in the net but we really had to work for them this week with that freak storm and the big water release from the dams, but they promised they'll be back so hopefully we get show them one of those phenomenal above average days on the bow on their next days O.F.F.
