Streamside Report

Rush

Pierce

9/30/99

Weather: Sunny/ Windy
Water: Clear - Low
Hatches: BWO
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Comments: Arrived at the river about three miles south of Martell on the last day of the regular season. Several vehicles parked along the side of the road suggested this was not going to be one of those mid-week days when the only other angler is probably a mile or two away. After pulling on my neoprenes and wading boots I crept as close as I could to see what the fish were taking. Baetis was on the menu.

Tied on a size 18 parachute Blue Wing Olive. Leader was 6X and about 12 feet long. First few casts dribbled in front of me as I tried to find my rythm against a pretty strong head wind. First fish was on after about 10 minutes - nice 13 inch brookie that leapt out of a nice pool three times before I landed it. Despite the parachute pattern I found it pretty difficult to follow my fly as it drifted back to me on my upstream casts. Wind was a major issue as it blew my casts off their mark on nearly every other cast.

I decided to walk down stream of this stretch which I had never fished. Bluffs and dense vegetation (despite the fall temprature) cut back on the wind factor considerably and made the rest of the day one filled with brookies and browns in the 8 to 14 inch range. Have a good winter.

Fred f_owusu@yahoo.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------