Stream of Consciousness on the River - September

My goodness, Its another beautiful day on the Lower Yuba. Glad I'm not working. Sunny with a slight breeze, Going to be nice. Great to be on the river with good friends.

OK, time to climb behind the oars, I like this spot, my view of the river world from the rowing seat. Watching the river unfold its daily drama. Is it going to happen today? We'll soon find out.

Time to get at it. Hold that line now. Slow now, slower, quiet, no slapping the oars down. Let's see, should we fish right or left? I like that seam along the willows. Keep a decent distance now, keep it stealthy. Here we go, are you fish ready because here we come.

Casting big dries to the banks, to the dark seams, to the slack water, in the eddies, in front of, beside and in back of boulders, wherever there are boulders underneath us, behind the salmon, dark spots in the river, mid stream boulders. Anybody home? There you are! Stinks off the boat!

Drifting down the river throwing big drys, mesmerizing. One eye on the fly and one on the next likely spot. Concentrate on the next spot, wham there's a fish on the fly. Sometimes you miss and sometimes that slight pause is just enough for the fish to turn on the fly and you've got a good hook set.

Fish on! Better move over to the slack water, this fish is hot. Follow, follow, there we go. Keep that tip up. Let 'er run. Get that line on the reel There we go. Keep your rod tip to the bank. Looks like she's ready. Slide 'er in. Don't want to botch the net job. Gotcha! Way to go. Wow, look at the colors on this one. Beauty. OK, go get bigger. Nice Job.

My turn to fish, OK, if I have to. Concentrating on the fly drifting down the river, a small fish, tries to swallow that big dry and can't get it in it's mouth. Set anyway, but the fly's just too big. Concentrating on the fly, a nose pokes out of the water on the fly, set. Sorry, too quick, I just yanked it out of it's mouth. Concentrating on the fly. A fish pokes it nose out of the water on the fly. I count to 1 and 1/2 and set. Fish on.

There's a deep slot, tie on a dropper with a small nymph. Go a little deeper. Don't want to chuck lead, just drop off the back of the big dry. Where'd that dry go? Set. Bingo, fish on the nymph!

Tangled again, darn that dropper. Think I'll chop that thing off, just not happening enough for the hassle.

That seam about 3 feet deep looks good, throw some slack, use a reach cast. That's it, now we're talking. Wham! Darn, how'd I miss that one. Get it back in. He's back, Fish On! Man was that fun!

Sorry, my fault I should have waited for you to cast. Nice tangle we've got, I'll get yours free in a second. There you go. My fault I'm in the back, I'll pay attention, right.

Nice run, 3 feet deep with nice boulders, There's a nice slot. Get it in there, drifting, drifting, should be there, about now. Wham, Boy did that fish hit that thing or what. Didn't have to do anything, just raised the rod tip. Get him out of the fast water, OK there she goes again, patience, patience. She's ready. Thanks for rowing a bit and great net job.

Wow, nice fish, where's my camera? Got it. I think its time to get behind the oars again. That was fun. Thanks for rowing, bud.

Boy its hot, down another bottle of water. Man that tastes good. My brain's feeling a little cooked.

There's the take out. One last run. Let's fish the inside. Kersplash! Fish of the day. Nice job up there. Way to hook that thing. Nice way to end the day with a nice fish within site of the takeout.

Wow! What a great day. When can we get out again? Soon?