This was an eventful day for sure. I had cervical spine surgery just over four weeks ago. After seeing the doctor last week I was given the go ahead to cautiously fish from a raft, no hard sides, no rowing, and no wading unless with arm support and great caution. I am healing pretty well. The major pain has subsided but the fingers are still experiencing numbness which is expected to hopefully heal with time. We planned for a short afternoon. It was nice and warm with light "W". Of course, more than once, Dan pulled his usual, while retrieving my fly, he caught multiple fish in the bucket I was working.
We launched at McAtee and finished at Storey Ditch. We had a great time and had plenty of nice fish on. The scenary was really nice.
I was not able to land the bigger fish without assistance from Dan. Normally, I would do both the landing and the netting at once but my strength isn’t there yet. I needed to be cautious about lifting too much.
We did see redds along the way, but the rainbows were mostly gone from the redds and done with their spawning. Fish were biting in the deeper waters and riffles and near the bank. Some were taking it in the middle river riffles where there was nice structure. The flies of choice for me were double #8’s using the Delektable Olive Hurless, Gray Hurless, Mega Pince Standard and Olive: Delektable Flies Gallery. Dan was getting good action on the #14 Delektable EH Twisted Wire in Chartreuse as a trailer fly with one of the #8’s on top.
We watched a huge Bald Eagle leave his perch and fly away.
I was very excited to get outside and catch some fish. It was fun and I am alive!
Nancy
