Secrets don't make friends!

Someone once told me "secrets don't make friends," but secrets sure are handy when you have a favorite fishing spot, especially if one wants to trade secrets like fishing currency. I admit, I don't appreciate when the shoe is on the the other foot and I am the one being excluded by the good old boys in the know. It seems guarding ones treasure is a necessary evil.

I reached my little river at 2 pm today, leaving me just enough time to fish the short winter hours until sunset and make it home for dinner around 7 pm.

It's an all rainbow show as I crisscross the serpentine banks sight casting to rising fish. It's fall, 45 degrees and a light but continuous mayfly hatch keeps the fish popping the top water for more than 4 hours. On closer insecto-inspection, the mayfly was gray with a brilliant green sheen to the thorax. Honestly, everything I tried, (duns, streamers, stimulator's) worked to some degree but a simple Pink Albert seemed irresistible. I landed 40 fish, lost a few, and tickled some that splashed away. Most of the rainbows ranged from 14-8 inches but all were lovely, stout and great fighters. I did catch one that had a hint of cutthroat judging by the salmon-yellow slashes under the gill.

A special thanks to the rancher that I met last March on my secret stream. He told me to come back in the fall and he guaranteed results. I had a wicked good time flipping the fly on the foam lines and never saw a soul.