A Good Day

By the second week of May, I was becoming anxious about finding some fly hatches and some rising trout. I had continued gobbler hunting to put in some time, but I did not even go one mid-May morning when I saw the daybreak temperature was only 32 degrees.

My son, Bob, had been hunting for an hour or so before work each morning, trying to roust up a tom. On the 32-degree morning, he set up on a bird that gobbled incessantly from its roost. Bob let it fly down before calling to it.

"I had to call only a couple of times, and he came right in," Bob told me on the phone. "He weighed more than 22 pounds and had a 10-inch beard. He was a dandy."

I am proud of the way Bob hunts turkeys. He has become a real turkey hunter over the years.

The afternoon warmed up, so I decided to drive to Mt. Hemlock Run to try to deceive a few mountain trout. The water was significantly higher than I like it, but I managed to catch and release a number of lovely native brook trout and wild brown trout up to nine inches.

I had craftily stashed my big-water fly-fishing gear in my truck, since I would be driving past the BFO (big, famous, overfished) River on my way home. I stopped at a convenient pull-off; and despite the high water, I found a pod of rising trout. I quickly rigged up with a Sulphur dry fly. Despite a dusting of yellowish mayflies, the trout would not eat my Sulphur imitation. I took a closer look and noticed a number of small grayish flies on the water. I quickly changed to a similar fly, and during the next hour-and-a-half I landed and released a nice number of fish till they quit rising at 5:30 a.m. Several of them measured between 16 and 17 inches.

I decided to stop at another pool on downriver where I had enjoyed some success in other years during periods of high water. Again, I found rising trout. I could see these trout actually eating sulphur mayflies, and I clinched a fresh Sulphur to my tippet. Until I became chilled after 7:15 a.m., the trout kept me busy. I won several exciting tussles with strong trout, including another handful over 16 inches. The best of these was a hefty 19-inch wild brown trout.

However, only two days later, our outdoor adventures were 180 degrees the opposite of those we enjoyed on the cold day.