Comments: Got a solid day of fishing in. Arrived to the stream around 9:30 AM. Not much surface activity. Went straight to nymphs. Stream is very difficult to fish because of the tall grass and other growth (this is a much more inviting stream in the spring). I concentrated on 4-5 different stretches where there was limited access to some casting lanes. After a couple hours of no strikes and no fish seen, I made my way to my favorite hole and tied on a grey scud. Wham. First cast I got a real nice strike which of course I missed since things had been so slow to that point and it caught me off guard...I then missed 2 more fish to the scud, one of which was sizable, but he got off. The fish quickly grew tired of the scud, so I rested the hole and threw some other things at them. Caught a solid 12-13" Brown on a beadhead caddis emerger pattern (size 18). I then broke for lunch.
After lunch, I tried a hopper in different spots but had no luck (there were a lot around). Went back to my favorite hole and put the caddis emerger back on. After 4-5 casts, I hooked into a real nice brown. This 14-15" fish was one of the largest I have caught at Vernon. Beautiful and strong. Also caught a smaller fish from the same hole on the same pattern. Headed back towards the car and picked up another small brown on the way back. Left the stream around 7:30...no visible hatches of note...there were a lot of tiny white flies around...looked like small moths.
On my way back through the tall grass, I felt something on my hand and looked down to see a HUGE, fury spider...black with white spots (or maybe the other way around)...anyway, I was a bit surprised to say the least...shook him off in a hurry....any idea what that thing was? Is it poisonous... Vernon keeps you on your toes in more than one way!
Denis Underwood denis@buyersutopia.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------