After a 4 hour drive I arrived at my first access point to find a party of 4 flyfishers--decked out in Orvis and Sims--with all sorts of jingle jangles hanging off their bodies. It appeared that each was geared up, ready to tackle a Lake Erie tributary steelhead, a White River Brown, a Frying Pan Rainbow but hardly ready for a small wild rainbow from a Missouri stream. At least they were prepared for anything. Not trying to be judgmental but why would you carry all the equipment, flies and tackle for such a small stream? Doesn't it slow them down, making it hard to move through the tight brush? After this week I'll be wet wading to improve my mobility--though there isn't a lot of wading necessary on this stream---mostly just stream crossing.
These petty thoughts raced through my mind as I tried to come to grasp with the possibility that I might have to share the stream banks today, after a 4 hour drive. One reason I travel to this stream is to fish in solitude. I'm selfish in that regard. Once a run is fished on a stream with trout this spooky it will often take hours before the rainbows resume their normal routines.
I quickly moved on to another access point and again found 2 vehicles already there. I talked to myself about sharing such a great resource and being a good neighbor. But the good thing about this stream is that a lot of locals come out to just walk the trails along it and that was exactly the case here. As I was gearing up, the hikers showed up and left--leaving me alone with about a mile of stream--something to cherish. Woohoo, the only vehicle in the parking lot.

Normally, I like to walk downstream a half mile or more and then fish back up stream. Today, I did the same.


One of the benefits of the walk is spring wildflowers--especially the woodland ephemerals like spring beauty, rue-anemone, and trilliums.







Flyfishing, for me always forces focus. I focus so much on the here and now that the passage of time slows. After fishing what seems to be all day, I'm always surprised that only a couple of hours have passed.



Patience is also forced when fishing this stream. Many flies are lost--left in trees above and below the water. Some folks talks about catching fish on consecutive casts. One this stream I've caught brush on 4 consecutive casts. I am accomplished as a brush catcher. There is a lot of brush to catch.


Later when I started seeing these I switched to dries to catch more trees. (Hey, that rhymes.)

The fishing can be challenging:

But fish were caught:




Saw no other fishermen until late in the afternoon as I was leaving. I ran into a guy trying out fly fishing. Talked a bit, offered some suggestions, went home with my fishing needs sated for the day.
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