Standing in the Rain

I stood in the rain on Sunday, belly deep in a river, lacking a proper lunch and ignoring the rumbling in my belly so as to be able to taunt some trout and to allow them, as they often do, to taunt me.

The rain was a respectable rain. Nothing annoys me more than misty rain. That misty crap just swirls about and leaves specks of water on your glasses and generally makes things miserable without really doing anything worthwhile. If it's gonna rain, I want it to just get on with it and give me buckets full. Yesterday, the skies accommodated my wishes. And the trout didn't seem to mind.

I originally planned to fish the Deerfield but a variety of things, including the rain, conspired against that plan. With nothing in store, I reconstructed the day starting with a leisurely breakfast at a local restaurant with the family and the puttering about in a manner that is only possible on a Sunday. Eventually the water began to call me and with the tributaries beginning to fill with the morning's rain the main stem of the Housy was the place to fish.

This particular hole I fished is a great one. It is easily wadeable and the river is wide and relatively shallow across most of it's span. There's a nice channel along one bank where the majority of the fish hold but one can pick-up trout anywhere in the several acres that comprises this particular run. By the time I left there were eight people fishing it and there was still plenty of water.

The fishing was good. There was a satisfactory Caddis hatch that proved impossible to fish with a dry fly. The one trout that eagerly rose to my fly cleared the water in his enthusiasm and missed my fly by about three inches. So, nymphs were the order of the day.

I didn't have any Caddis Pupa with me so I decided to drown a rabbit's foot emerger by tying it as a dropper below a BH fly. Worked like a charm. Chartreuse seemed to be the color of the day though I bet I caught just as many fish on the Lightning Bug as I did on the emerger. As the day progressed the water got murkier which probably explained the success of the Lightning Bug.

Around 4 p.m. the rain picked back up after an hour respite. I had just managed to land three rainbows in fairly quick succession while a guy fishing the other side of the stream watched, fishless. With my expertise as a nympher of trout clearly demonstrated, I decided to quit. The chill brought on by the renewed rain would not be alleviated by more fish in the net.

Besides, a fishless hour, like the one before the guy showed up, would've harmed my reputation with the chap across the water.