an angling revolution?

for all you non-fishing folks out there, i know you're probably tired of hearing about it. but i just have to write about last night, because...

i caught 8 fish from a spot where i'd only ever caught 2 before. a heavily pressured spot in town. in an hour.

now, it's fall, and fish are more active in the fall, so i'm sure that has something to do with it. but after this last week i really feel i'm beginning to process everything i've learned this summer. i fished water i had previously left alone because i just knew there would be fish there. that's called reading water, and i'm getting better at it. i fished a dry/dropper rig, and for the nymph i used a tiny midge imitation that caught 6 of the 8 fish (i'd never bothered with patterns this small before). and my presentation - how i delivered the fly to the fish - was just on. i put the fly wherever i wanted it on the first or second cast, and i cast to little pockets a foot to two feet wide.

all that resulted in my best night ever in town, and some beautiful fish. in fact, i'm pretty sure i fished "for the cycle": i caught several rainbows, a nice sized cutthroat, a very small brookie (i'm pretty sure it was a brookie), and i ended the night with a fantastically beautiful 16 inch brown in its fall colors. a little smaller than this guy, and waaaaay more brightly colored.

i'm taking friday off, since it's nan and gene's last full day here. tennis with nan in the morning, and fishing with geno in the afternoon.

speaking of tennis, i bought this racket - hardly used - at a garage sale for $5. i love going to rich second home-owner's garage sales.