The Heights?

For me, these special two weeks were the ultimate days and nights of the dry fly season. There were different opportunities, events, each time I wandered along a stretch of riverbank. Those were the days of wonderful hatches; different days.

I drove out yesterday evening, knowing that some of Sunday’s crowd of visiting anglers would have packed up and headed home earlier. I expected some would remain, though I found one soul as I walked softly down the edge of the great river, the scene belied the impression of the full parking lot.

I stepped into the edge where the shade of the high mountain kept the bright sunlight from my eyes and watched the wide, shallowed expanse of the riverscape. Just here and there, a bright spec told me a very few of the seasonal yellow mayflies, sulfurs and Gray Fox, appeared and drifted unmolested downstream. I had should have visited this water nearly a week ago, but that still adjustment to my increasing activity is limiting my time on the water. I felt good last night, vigorous and hopeful to fish the special hours when day turns to night. It was a beautiful evening.

Nearing the earliest moments of the witching hour, the sky was filled with thousands of Psilotreta caddisflies. A few good trout rose out there in front of me, though none established any feeding rhythm. Gray Fox, sulfur and an appropriate caddis had drifted through these lies ignored. I had not found the secret it seems. In the low flow, the current appeared a vast moving sheet, barren of the wonderful subtly active darting microcurrents which can give action to the right fly. Life I believe was the secret, the missing unseen player. Whatever insect prompting the erratic rises provided it’s own movement, it’s magic of life drawing life to it in turn!

No matter prepared for this first evening, I realized late I had forgotten my un-tinted glasses. Cannot see a fly at distance, nor drive after dark without them, so I walked out as the vast numbers of those caddisflies still swirled above my head, accompanied by my dreams…