06/25/2025
Early spring had the river roaring with snow-melt, the water hovering in the mid-30s and the trout almost glued to the bottom. I spent hour after picking apart different types of water with a dry dropper rig, a tiny size 20 tungsten midge and front end loader caddis, designed by , coaxing nothing but refusals. Just when I was ready to call it, I reached a fresh run guarded by a newly fallen tree. I side-armed a boomerang cast beneath a tree limb and the fly barely drifted a foot before this brute slammed it. That single, broad-shouldered lunker made the whole day of grinding against cold, high water absolutely worth it.
