New Years Day 2013

I woke at four dark thirty, New Years Day 2013.  I have a full day fishing ahead and am very eager to feel every minute possible.  Sun up till down offers me a sense of life that no other experience can.  There is something cathartic for me and if I can throw in a few fish all the better.

The water gauge was up for the last month with rain and snow.  This is just the situation that pushes the salmon and trout out of the lake and spills them at our feet in the river below.  If the lake has had a good fall then the river should have a good winter.  I have been watching the gauge all week as it made a steady downward fall and then an abrupt fall to perfect.

Arriving on the river at 6:30am the cold that is on the way will hold off for most of the day.  Single digits are in the near future but for the morning a balmy 35 degrees greeted me and it feels good.  I decided to cross and start below the falls.

Two hand switch, 5 weight, 10' 4", ultra short 12' Skagit, indicator to swivel, 3X Seaguar FX, bead head olive leech with a black Ghost Finn Raccoon.

Normally I like to start off swinging but I decided to leave that rig in the car.  With the temperatures expected to decline through the day I also expected the water to move downward.  It that happens the fish will not chase.  I decided to dead drift and feed them.

Within the first hour and a half I had six fish hooked and four landed and released.  The best was twenty inches, a bit milky colored and must have been in the river for a while.  After the action died with that tandem I started to change flies.  This is January and meat is usually what works best.  Eggs, worms, spawn, roe, streamers.  I continued to take another two fish and resided to move up river.   The orange egg was on and in the middle of the pool the best fish of the day came to net.  Perfect and fat as can be.  She measured 21 inches and everything a deep shouldered beautifully colored trout should be.  We released her in the shallows and watched as she gently swam away.

A couple more here and there and the day slowed in tempo and was complete.  The wind was blowing, the temperature had dropped fifteen degrees and calling it a day after hooking eleven fish was joyful.   The very feeling I had been thinking about for two months was real and all I could have expected.  The very best way to start the year and the most important thing was I did it with friends.

Happy New Year everyone.  I want to thank all of you who have found this blog.  I can't believe the numbers of readers each day from so many countries around the world.  I never dreamed having a little fun could travel so far.

Always the very best,

William