Root River, water running around 3.3-3.35 feet. 38-ish degrees (air temp)/Partly Sunny. Water: dirty but slightly visible. Patterns: Orange Egg and a Bass Pro Beadhead nymph (I call Christmas for its red and green flash). Later, others were having success on Pink Eggs.
Today was a good day, as good as Saturday was bad. Saturday was a wash, and since we had no rain, today's water levels were considerably down, and less folks on the water. I headed to a spot that I've wanted to grab fish from, but I never had any luck. I got there, and the only other person on the river was at that spot. I watched as he pulled in a nice coho and knew that I guessed correctly in knowing that the spot I wanted was holding fish.
I stayed calm in my spot, and about 5 drifts later, I got snagged. Nope. Not snagged. A fish was on. I knew it was a really nice-sized brown as it came up, showed itself, and headed back under. My net was downstream, and a passer-by with dog in tow retrieved my net for me. Just as I was working to net this brown, the guy who caught the coho came down and voluntarily netted it for me. The fisherman, Tyler, was in town from school break, and he and I exchanged some on-the-water pleasantries. He offered up his spot and moved downstream. Thanks for the net job. See you out there again. This was an orange-egg hookup.
I moved upstream to where I wanted to be, and after 3 missed hookups, I was on for my second fish. Once again, my net was too far away. I needed to play this fish gently, making my way upstream to my net. After I got it, I made my way back to the fish, and netted it myself. It turned out to be a nice brown hen. This one was caught on the Christmas fly.
In the sunlight, I caught the flash of 2 red cohos parked slightly under an overhanging tree. I had a hookup, then lost one. Then I fouled the same one. Then, I hooked up with the second one. It was on long enough for me to see that the coho had taken the trailing Christmas fly. I played this one too hard, and I lost it. This was my last action.
At 3pm I needed to take a conference call. My riverside office with a driftwood desk would've made anyone jealous. During that hour, I watched a guy bring in 2 brown beasts (those pics are here). I also talked to his buddy, and netted 2 fish for him after my call was up. Nice to meet you Dave and Chopper John. I took some pics; it was the least I could do to stay involved as I was taking an hour-long call.
By 4pm it was getting too dark, and after a stumbled in the water and 2 wet gloves, I called it a day. Not a bad way to spend a vacation day in mid-December.
Enjoy the fish pics! ... Date stamp is not correct.