Ice fishing sucked, so I went to the river.

[TroutBumDave]

The Strawberry River, that is. Starvation was a bust and since I drove all the way out there I wasn't about to leave without a bite. I drove into town and talked to a local and he put me on 'em. It looked like a beautiful place to spend the last two hours of daylight, so I got my gear on and headed out.



First thing I did was pull up a submerged stick/bog to check for bugs, and wow, I have never seen scuds like that before. Massive and plentiful. I tied on an olive scud and a small yellow nymph that came in a feebie box from Rainy's (I love those guys) and went to work. Nothing happened for the first 30 minutes and I started to wonder if that local guy and his buddies weren't home laughing their asses off at the guy they sent to the irrigation ditch... Then I finally saw a fish rise. Phew.

Got my first fish on the yellow nymph:


and then it pretty much died down again. I caught one more on the scud and had pretty much run all the river I wanted to, and headed back to the car. As I was approaching my Chick Magnet Prius, I thought to myself, "Self, only a sissy would go home while there is still light." So I went back to where I started. I had about 40 minutes of daylight left, so what the hell. The next 40 minutes were some of the best fishing I've had in recent memory. I took off the little yellow nymph and put on a grey scud. Bingo.



This dude actually ate both flies. They were both jammed into his mouth.





Even caught a few whities -- man, those guys fight like Mike Tyson.







I know, I know, we've all seen pictures of Browns... Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I've been such a carp/bass-a-holic the last 12 months, that this was only the second time in a year that I've fished for trout. It felt good. Real good. I fished on into the dusk and caught a bunch more, and then it happened...



This tip broke last winter and I did a decent (not pretty) repair that held up pretty well. So . RIP knock-off piece of crap rod, I'll miss you.
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