When you want to pack all the fun you can into one day, you schedule a doubleheader. That’s what we did. Fly fishing and fly tying all in one day. You say it can’t be done? Oh yes it can!
On March 5, Steve Baker, Sterling Short and Jim Craig set out from the Eureka park ‘n ride at 6:30 AM. We were long over due for a fishing outing and the weather forecast was about as good as you get for a day in March.
Evidently, we weren’t the only people with this great idea. We were the 35th car to arrive that morning and the fishermen were thick. But, we had a plan. We headed to the river first. That was a good move. We easily crossed upstream from the bend. We had the river to ourselves for most of the morning. The flow was 790 CFS and the gauge height was 2.7 ft.
Sterling had his first fish within 30 seconds. As he was pulling line off his reel to cast, he hooked his first rainbow of the day. We moved down to and around the bend, where each of us picked up several more. But, no browns were to be found. How strange. As we moved down toward the first riffle, the winds kicked up and the fishing slowed. Interestingly, we found the river water to be quite clear, but revealing very few fish holding in the river. Jim and Sterling fished 3-quarters of the way down the long run towards the next bend. For some reason, if there were any fish in the area, they were not as hungry as the fish at the bend.
We hiked back to the park for lunch, hoping the crowd had thinned out a bit. It had, and we enjoyed our lunch in the warm sun. In the afternoon, we set out for our favorite spots in the park. The afternoon fishing was slow. It could have been all the people in the park that morning, it could have been the bright sun, or it could have been the wind that made it hard to cast and to detect strikes. Nevertheless, we picked up a few fish and all agreed it was a beautiful day to be on the water. Steve gets special mention for his afternoon catch. He caught a nylon cord fish stringer that already had a fish on it—still quite alive. Lucky for the fish Steve is a catch, catch & release fisherman. There was no particular fly that worked all day. We had success with a chartreuse jig, blond leach, yellow egg, white wooly bugger, and cerise worm.
We met back at the car at 4 PM to wrap up the fishing part of our day. We had to allow time for dinner and the drive to arrive at fly tying by 6:30 PM. Since Sterling had previous dinner plans, we parted ways with him at the park ‘n ride. Steve and I enjoyed a hearty dinner at Super Smokers in Eureka. The food was delicious and the portions were generous. I have to admit, we cut our time a little close as we arrived at fly tying a couple minutes late. Still, we made it. That evening must have been our most well attending fly tying session to-date. Everyone was already busying tying and heavy into brotherly banter.
What more could you want in one day?
