Time: 11:00AM – 6:00PM

Location: Small island below MM12 up to fast water below MM12; tree rock and angled riffle

Fish Landed: 27

Frying Pan River 09/23/2013 Photo Album

Occasionally the fishing gods smile upon us humble fishermen, and Monday proved to be such a day, but before getting to that part of the story, more on the weather. While sleeping at The Green Drake in Basalt I awoke periodically to the sound of rain pounding down on the roof and as the morning drew near, these periods of heavy rain continued. Would we be able to fish in these wet rainy conditions?

We killed some time by paying for another night’s stay at The Green Drake and then proceeded down the street to Saxy’s coffee shop for some tea. After our morning tea we returned to the hotel and prepared lunches as we were optimistic that the weather would clear based on Jeff’s review of the satellite weather imagery. It remained quite overcast with ongoing periods of moderate rain and drizzle. Next we drove to Aspen to check on a medical issue and then returned and headed back up the Frying Pan River Valley to the upper 2.5 miles below the dam. Here we found a parking place in the large guide lot which only contained two other cars at 10:30 in the morning. Jeff overheard a guide saying that Frying Pan Anglers experienced three cancellations due to the rainy weather, so perhaps the morning rain would keep some of the fishermen off the water.

Upstream View of Right Channel Below Rectangular Rock on Monday

Jeff decided to begin fishing near the parking lot, but I elected to walk down the road to the small island just below MM12 where I angled on the path that meets the smooth pool at the bottom of the left braid around the island. At this point I proceeded down the fast water to the bottom point of the island and then began fishing my way up the right channel which contained more favorable volume at the low 115 cfs flow rate. I began once again by prospecting with a green drake and alternated between the size 14 parachute green drake and a size 14 comparadun. I used the parachute pattern with the easily visible white tipped wing post in the faster water and switched to the comparadun in smooth water.

When I arrived at the large pool at the top of the island with the large rectangular rock I substituted an even smaller comparadun for the one that I used previously, and this comparadun seemed smaller than others that I tied because it was not tied on a 2XL hook and it had a lighter tan wing. This comparadun produced far better than the darker winged version and the combination of green drake flies delivered eight fish to my net by approximately 12:30. Meanwhile it was quite chilly but the sky was brightening and the sun peeked through the large puffy gray clouds on a more frequent basis. The weather was changing but presistent wind and breezes were part of the clearing equation.

Nice Chunky Brown From Rectangular Rock Pool on Monday

At around 12:30 a BWO hatch commenced in the large pool and I was still positioned at the tail and continuing to prospect with my green drake imitations, but the fish were either wise to my fraud or had switched to another food source. Within a few minutes the BWO hatch thickened and the pool came alive with rising fish. The fish in the faster current along the main run down the center of the pool rose sporadically and I could see them underwater moving and perhaps feeding on subsurface nymphs and emergers. More of interest to me were two very visible brown trout that began sipping BWO’s along the smoother left side of the large pool where the current fanned  out below a large protruding rock. These fish were directly above my position so I tied on a CDC BWO and began making casts above the two fish. I was careful to shoot my casts high and check them early so the fly fluttered down with plenty of slack tippet. It took quite a few casts and patiently watching these fish snatch natural duns within inches of my fly, but eventually I duped and landed both fish, an accomplishment that I was quite proud of.

Rectangular Rock Pool

By 1PM the BWO hatch had abated somewhat although with the overcast skies it never truly stopped, so I used this period to quickly down my lunch next to the rectangular rock pool. After lunch I waded closer to the top of the pool where the faster water entered and I began to notice a larger mayfly mixed in with the BWO’s. As I looked on I observed a brown trout ten feet in front of me drift back sipping BWO’s and then a larger mayfly fluttered on the suface, and the feeding brown slurped that in as well. Clearly the fish were tuned into this larger mayfly in addition to the BWO’s, and this natural was larger than the BWO’s but smaller than green drakes. I spotted another one drifting on the suface toward me and was fortunate enough to scoop it off the surface with my net for closer observation.

The mayfly appeared to be a size 16 with a light olive/maroon body so I began searching through my fly boxes, especially the two that contain comparaduns that I tied for the many mayflies that hatch in Pennsylvania. Buried along the edge of one of these boxes was a size 18 comparadun with a body blended with light olive and maroon dubbing. The resultant color was a shade of cinnamon with tinges of olive. At this point I thought I had only one of these so I tied it on my line and began to cast it over rising fish. What a choice! Over the next hour and a half I landed twelve nice fish on the one fly wonder, and I was careful to not damage it too much with each release. Several of the fish were in the 14-16 inch range and the remainder were chunky twelve inch browns. At one point I felt abrasions on the tippet near the eye of the hook so I clipped off an inch of monofilament and reknotted the valuable comparadun with smooth line. I rarely pay this much attention to line damage.

This Brown Isn’t Missing Any Meals

I moved above the long narrow island and fished the pockets along the left side of the river, but because the flows were lower than normal based on past trips I was able to wade across to the south side and explore new water that is typically out of reach at higher flows. It was in this area between the top of the large rectangular rock pool and one of the larger pools along the right side that I experienced the success with the olive/maroon comparadun.

I Was Attracted to the Small Fin with Brilliant Orange Red Spots

There were two nice pools that formed along the south bank where significant current breaks allowed the water to fan out and provide nice feeding stations for hungry trout. The lower pool was smaller and had a branch angling upstream from just below the tail. Here I spotted four or five trout rising regularly and I managed to fool and land several on the size 18 comparadun, but the nicest fish cruised about the pool in a small circle and periodically sipped a fly off the surface. I worked this fish relentlessly, probably longer than I should have during a nice hatch when other fish were more willing to cooperate with my efforts. Unfortunately I couldn’t time my casts, avoid drag and predict where the fish was moving and eventually conceded and moved on.

Just above this smaller pool was the larger wider version and this also contained some visible fish. The most visible was a large fish that resided in a deep depression at the very tail of the pool next to a large rock that extended from the bank. The water in the pool funneled through this narrow deep trough before pouring downstream. I observed this fish rising occasionally, but my magical comparadun was not of interest. At this time I also noticed two green drake naturals on the surface of the water so I removed my valued comparadun (the wing had by now been reduced to a small cluster of five deer hair fibers), and replaced with the size 14 comparadun with the tan wing, and cast to some decent water to my left and above me and landed two medium sized browns.

My eyes returned to the big guy in the trough and again I observed a sipping rise. I ran a few drifts of the comparadun green drake over the large target, but they were ignored. Jeff had given me three green drake flies that he purchased at Taylor Creek Fly Shop so I decided to try one of them on this stubborn fish right in front of me. I nervously removed my comparadun and tied on the purchased version with a tall dark gray CDC wing and yellow hackle wound parachute style around the wing post. This fly looked quite similar to the naturals while on the water as it created the illusion of fluttering movement similar to the ones that floated by.

I flicked a short cast above the fish and as it drifted toward the target, the large fish drifted up and sucked it in! What a visual moment! Somehow I remained under control and waited for a second or two so as not to pull the fly out of the fish’s mouth. Now the battle was on and the rainbow charged up and down the pool and thrashed vigorously from time to time, but much to my relief it never attempted to escape the pool and swim into faster water. I carefully lifted the thrashing fish so its nose was above the water and quickly slid my small net opening beneath the long body and the net bowed out with the weight and length of an eighteen or perhaps nineteen inch rainbow. In addition to the discovery of an effective fifteen year old fly, I had now landed perhaps my longest fish of the summer.

A Green Drake Fooled this 19 Inch Rainbow

This pool was actually the last piece of good water along the right side so I backtracked along the bank and crossed above the island and fished the deep pocket above the island on the left side with the purchased green drake and landed a few more fish. At this point it was 4PM so I exited and walked down the road to “tree rock” pool, a nice small pool with a large protruding square rock at the center top with a small tree growing from it. I spotted two fish below the rock and made some solid casts with the green drake but they ignored it and seemed to be focused on smaller food. I acknowledged their preference and removed the green drake and tied on a CDC BWO and placed some casts over the fish in tree rock pool, but they were not interested so I turned my attention in the direction of angled riffle.

I was positioned in the middle of the river and to my right was a nice wide riffle where much of the river angled toward the south bank and then deflected and ran swiftly along the bank for twenty feet. From past experience I knew these riffles held quite a few nice fish so I began drifting my BWO along the current seams sequentially covering the water closest to me and then extending away. This search yielded a nice rainbow on the BWO but other visible fish were not reacting. After I’d worked the area for awhile Jeff arrived and began making downstream casts from the bank next to the road, and he experienced some success.

I was quite chilled and weary at this point with quite a successful day behind me, so I wandered back to the car and left the area for Jeff. When I arrived at the lot I noticed that Jewel Pool directly across from the parking lot was void of fishermen, so I decided to wade part way across the riffles and give it a try. I spotted small tan wing caddis on the water, so I tied on a light gray caddis and prospected with that for a bit, but it only generated refusals. Suddenly the pool came alive with slashing fish that occasionally broke the surface and I noticed some fairly large midges flying by. These natural insects appeared to approximate size 20 flies, so I tied on a Chernobyl ant as my indicator and then added a trailing zebra midge larva. This did not generate a response but the fish continued to slash and move subsurface for something. I clipped off the midge larva and replaced it with a griffith’s gnat, and once again my flies were simply treated like floating leaves or debris. Nothing was working and it was getting quite cold so I called it a day and retreated to the car and waited for Jeff who arrived fairly soon thereafter.

On this chilly autumn Monday I experienced some great surface action and landed 27 fish on green drakes, PMD’s and BWO’s. I discovered an old fly that was eaten like candy and I landed a 19 inch rainbow. It was certainly one of my better days on the Frying Pan River.

Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Above guide lot

Fish Landed:10

Frying Pan River 09/22/2013 Photo Album

Jeff and I spent Saturday night in the tent at Lottis Creek and although it was quite chilly on Sunday morning, we didn’t think it was as cold as Saturday morning. We were anxious to get an early start for the Frying Pan River and the drive entailed a trip over Cottonwood Pass and then Independence Pass, so we rolled up the tent in a damp condition and ate some quick breakfast foods that didn’t require any stove or cooking. As we traveled up the Arkansas River and then over Independence Pass we encountered some thick clouds and heavy rain.

The rain abated somewhat in Aspen and when we reached Basalt there was no precipitation, but the sky to the north and west was quite dark and foreboding. We stopped in Basalt for gas and purchased ice and then visited the Taylor Creek Fly Shop and then moved on and drove up the road that follows the Frying Pan River. The flows were at 115 cfs and the water was crystal clear. We quickly decided to park in a pullout on the opposite side of the road from the river .5 mile or so above MM12 and quickly prepared to fish while the rain held off, but with each passing moment the wind kicked up and the sky darkened.

My rod was still rigged with the nymphs that were on my line from the end of the day on the Taylor River, a beadhead hares ear and a salvation nymph. I walked down the road a bit until I was somewhere between the Santa Fe and the large “guide lot” across from Jewel Pool. Jeff continued on down the road a bit further and found some nice water with respectful distance between fishermen above and below him.

Almost immediately an eleven inch brown hit the beadhead hares ear on an upstream cast, but the nymphs stopped working and the water seemed a bit shallow at 115 cfs for this approach so I converted to a green drake and began to prospect. My first green drake was a size 14 parachute version and before long a 15 inch brown smashed my offering. At this point I was pretty excited about my early hot streak, but the sky was very gray and the air temperature hovered in the low 60’s.

A Nice 14 Inch Brown from the Frying Pan River on Sunday

Next I spotted some nice fish in a smooth pool behind a current break and noticed they were sipping something quite small so I put on a CDC BWO and after quite a bit of casting I induced a nice 13 inch brown to rise and take the BWO. As I progressed upstream I encountered water with faster current as well as slower smooth water so I continued to switch back and forth between the parachute green drake in the riffles and runs and then the CDC BWO in the placid water. The BWO got ignored in the next two slow water situations, however, the green drake picked up two smaller browns.

When I reached five fish landed a nice brown rose to the green drake in a current seam, but it broke off when it went into heavy current and needless to say I was quite disappointed with this turn of events. Another medium size brown slid into my net after slurping the green drake and I was now pleased to have landed six fish on the afternoon. Unfortunately at this point it got quite windy and began to rain fairly heavily so I crossed the river and returned to the car for 5-10 minutes until the rain subsided. I felt it wasn’t worth getting drenched when it was nearly impossible to cast in the stiff wind blowing across the stream.

After the wind and rain subsided I returned to my exit point and resumed fishing just below some overhanging tree branches on the road side of the river. The branches forced me to wade up the middle or south side of the stream and fish back toward the north bank. After covering this area with no success I prospected along the left bank by popping the green drake into all the narrow pockets between the bank and the heavy current. This approach yielded two more trout including a rainbow and a brown that probably measured thirteen inches. The last pocket before the raging chute with no fishable water contained at least four fish working in a small space, and when they flashed their sides they appeared to be rainbows.

A Rainbow Adds Variety

Unfortunately these fish ignored the green drake so I tried a light gray comparadun and that was equally uninteresting to these trout so I gave up on them and decided to walk back down the road to see if there was an open space with rising fish. Sure enough I found Jeff stationed in a nice riffle area and joined him. Fish were rising everywhere and just as I arrived Jeff began to have success with a quill body parachute green drake. Prior to this, however, he insisted that the naturals on the water were mayflies larger than pale morning duns, but smaller than green drakes and he was ill prepared.

Based on his description of the naturals on the water I tied on a size 14 comparadun with a yellow body and landed a small brown, but then Jeff began landing fish on the quill body green drake so I quickly clipped off the comparadun and tied on the parachute green drake that had performed admirably for me earlier while I was in prospecting mode. Unfortunately  the fish in this part of the river did not favor my green drake imitation, so I switched to a green drake comparadun and this resulted in a thirteen inch brown for my tenth fish of the afternoon.

At this point the hatch faded and the rain continued to fall steadily and it was 4PM so we decided to call it a day and returned to Basalt and found a room at The Green Drake. We draped our wet clothes on hangers in the bathroom and visited the Riverside Cafe for dinner. We survived some difficult weather conditions on our first day on the Frying Pan River, but did experience some decent hatching action and looked forward to Monday.

Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Pool across from large parking area .3 miles above MM12

Fish Landed: 29

Frying Pan River 09/06/2013 Photo Album

What did the Frying Pan River have in store for me on Friday September 6? Would it be another hot bright sunny day? Would I have to battle for prime space on the upper public water? Should I perhaps retreat to the water near the spring between mile markers 10 and 11 where I had a great day during my previous visit in August? The Frying Pan continues to amaze me, and Friday was certainly another different experience. How would Friday stack up against my other days on the Frying Pan River?

Thursday evening yielded several rain showers, one during my dinner, and then I retreated to the Santa Fe and listened to the first half of the Ravens vs. Broncos game. With the Broncos losing at halftime 17-14, I snuggled in my sleeping bag and fell asleep to the sound of the pitter patter of rain on the tent roof. I find this sound very relaxing and in a brief amount of time I was sound asleep. When I awoke on Friday morning the sky was blue and once the sun peeked over the hill to east of the campground, the moisture from the previous night’s rain burned off quickly. As I ate my breakfast and prepared my lunch I discovered that my ice supply was quite low, so this required a trip to Basalt to purchase more.

I loaded the car with my lunch and fishing gear and made the 14 mile drive to Basalt where I bought a 10 pound bag of ice at the liquor store and then stopped at Taylor Creek Fly Shop where I purchased five PMD imitations. My standby light gray comparadun did not seem to be producing as on previous occasions, so I decided to experiment with some locally recommended store bought flies. Next I called Jane to check in with her while in cell range, and she asked me to buy some M&M’s at the supermarket. Jane packed her car and drove to work and planned to make her departure from downtown Denver in the early afternoon.

By the time I returned to the upper Frying Pan it was 9:45AM but this was still earlier than my Thursday arrival so I decided to cruise the upper 2.5 miles in case there was prime open water. Sure enough the wide pullout just above mile marker 12 was totally open so I stopped there and prepared to fish. When I approached the water I discovered another fisherman on the opposite side who must have parked further upstream and crossed and waded down the south bank. The river is quite wide at this spot, so I began to fish next to the parking lot in the beautiful deep run and riffle with a Chernobyl ant trailing a salvation nymph and beadhead RS2. Other than a few refusals to the Chernobyl, I was unable to attract any fish in this attractive area, so I began wading up along the left bank.

In a short amount of time I arrived at another favorite spot where a large rectangular rock juts out into the river and creates a fifteen foot long eddy. I’ve fished this numerous times in the past by going above the rock and then casting downstream and allowing the eddy to bring the fly back toward the rock. I replicated this manuever, but initially I didn’t spot any fish facing downstream as is usually the case. However, as I observed I noted the huge nose of a rainbow sip a tiny insect very tight to the rock that I was kneeling on. I continued to watch the water and recognized another decent but smaller rainbow along the current seam four feet downstream of the large rock. I tried the three fly combo including some lifting action, but this didn’t attract any interest. Next I clipped off the flies and tried a parachute green drake and again no sign of recognition by the two rainbows. How about a light gray comparadun? Once again my strategy was thwarted. Finally having seen some tiny mayflies in the air, I tied on a CDC BWO, but the two target trout were apparently tuned into something different and I couldn’t unlock the code.

I tipped my hat to the fish and moved on upstream where I encountered two young men fishing the edge of the river in the stair step riffle area. The river was fairly wide here so I carefully waded across the bottom of the wide shallow riffles and began working my way up along the shadows from the branches on the south bank. I switched back to the Chernobyl plus salvation plus RS2, but after a brief time I swapped the RS2 for a BWO emerger. The emerger finally produced two fish; one as the flies began to swing at the end of the drift and the second as I lifted to recast at the tail of a pool. In spite of these two fish the action was quite slow so at 11:30 I decided to wade back to the road above the two fishermen working the edge, and I walked back to the car for my lunch.

Before making the walk, however, I noted that there was only one car in the large lot that is usually filled with at least six automobiles, so I decided to drive the .3 miles upstream and park in the “guide” lot. As I walked down to the river, two guides with clients did in fact pull into the lot and began preparing their customers to fish. I wolfed down my sandwich and the remainder of my lunch and practically sprinted back to the car to exchange my lunch bag for my rod and fishing gear. I made a bee line for the spot where I ate lunch and waded out into the river, and observed the two young men that I encountered before lunch thirty yards below me and another fisherman twenty yards above, but directly across from me was a very desirable pool that was open and beckoning my flies. I waded to the middle of the river where I was midway through the pool and standing in a 2-3 foot deep riffle that comprised the larger current of the river.

The river above me split with two thirds of the flow tumbling between the north bank and where I was standing. The other one third struck a current break and deflected toward the far side where it ran in a deep eight foot wide run along the south bank. In between these major flows was a sweet pool that was 25 feet wide at its maximum point near the top and then narrowed slowly until it tailed out below my position. The total length of the pool was probably 30 to 40 feet. This appeared to be one of the nicest spots on the river, but I was concerned that I was hemmed in by fishermen above and below me. I resolved that I would fish this attractive pool as long as I could see fish and then possibly retreat to the spring area for more space to wade and cover water.

The Chernobyl, salvation and BWO emerger remained on my line and in fact I now began to notice more of the tiny mayflies occasionally floating up from the surface. I tried dead drifting and then imparted motion to the emerger in hopes that this would imitate the small emerging mayflies, but the fish were having nothing of my overanalyzing ways. After a half hour or so of futility, however, I began to see a few fish break the surface and in short order I noticed some yellowish colored mayflies cruising on the surface. Meanwhile some larger clouds glided overhead and blocked the intense rays of the sun periodically causing the hatch to intensify during the low light periods and then wane a bit when the sun reappeared.

I clipped off the three fly combination and replaced with one of the store bought flies, a fly that had an olive quill body and a white poly tuft on top as an indicator. This didn’t draw interest so I tied on another store bought version with a light yellow body and again the fish told me my fly was a joke. What should I do now? Maybe my tried and true light gray comparadun would work on these educated fish today so I gave it a try. I moved up a bit toward the top of the pool and began relying on downstream drifts more and as I did this noticed several rainbows rising on a more regular basis along the current seam no more than six feet out and five feet below my position. I flicked some short casts to the seam up and across from me and then slowly raised my rod to take all the line off the water and then lowered the rod as the fly drifted below me. Smash! One of the rainbows tipped up and inhaled my comparadun and the fight was on. I quickly worked the rainbow back and forth and elevated it over my outstretched net and then carefully waded across the swift riffle to photograph on the bank while keeping an eye on the fishermen above and below me.

Nice Rainbow Landed from Upper Frying Pan Pool on Friday

It was now after 1PM and I was at the point of no return. Should I continue fishing from this hemmed in position or quickly adjourn to the spring area. Fortunately I’d just landed a nice rainbow, so I decided to give the jewel pool more time. I waded back to my same position in the riffle and observed more and more fish rising. In fact the scene morphed into one of those electric experiences where it was total mayhem. The clouds got larger, the light dimmer, the wind kicked up a bit, and the mayflies began to emerge and flutter and skip across the water. Trout noses appeared everywhere and I could spot at least twenty fish rising in the pool at any point in time. There were nice rainbows along the seam near me as well as several decent rainbows working the upper center area of the pool where the current created a small eddy. These fish were cruisers that worked in a small circle so it was difficult to judge where to place my fly. Meanwhile some browns were working from the midsection of the pool down to the tailout. Several fish rose along the current seam on the far side of the pool and a fine fish rose at the very top of the pool where the angled current fanned out toward the opposite bank. I would estimate that the jewel pool contained at least 50 fish if not more!

For the next two and a half hours I cast relentlessly to these feasting fish and landed twenty-two more beyond the initial rainbow described above. I was making perhaps ten casts and drifts for each landed fish, but there were so many flies on the water that I wasn’t surprised that my fly was often ignored. It was a matter of targeting a fish and making enough casts to finally match the feeding rhythm of the fish. I managed to land one of the cruisers in the eddy but never pricked the big feeder at the tail of the angled current at the top of the pool. Quite a few of my fish resulted from downstream drifts, and this was actually a suggestion from the sales clerk in the fly shop, although I normally use this approach on my own.

Dave Grips Nice Brown at Productive Pool on Friday

As this was going on two guides with clients moved in below me and another fisherman was fifteen yards above me. These fishermen landed a few fish, but I seemed to be eclipsing their productivity and couldn’t help feeling a bit smug after my guide encounter on Thursday. As this was transpiring my feet grew so cold that I lost feeling, and I felt like I was balancing on stumps. I tried to move only a step or two and almost lost my balance before leaning on my wading staff for support. When the sun was bright and adding solar energy to my body, I could tolerate the icy cold flows of the tailwater, but now the clouds were dark gray and the rumble of distant thunder rolled through the air.

The hatch continued but did wane a bit and the gaps between fish now extended so I decided to take a break and give up the jewel pool. I waded to the bank and placed my worn comparadun in the hook keep and returned to the car. I didn’t bother to look back to see how quickly the guides swooped into the prime pool. The wind picked up and some light rain began to fall as I stashed my gear in the car. I decided to  drive downstream to the area I fished on Thursday, but work upstream where the river splits around a long island. There were a few cars parked in the two pullouts but I found a space in the upper area and as I put on my backpacks, another white SUV pulled in front of me. Most of the fishermen seemed to be downstream in the area where I fished the previous day so I walked upstream along the shoulder to a path that angles down the bank and meets the smaller north braid between the island and the road. I added a fleece layer and raincoat to my attire and it was raining very lightly as I resumed fishing at the bottom of the long shallow smooth pool with my light gray comparadun.

I spotted a few dimples in the water and made some long casts and may have aroused a refusal, but experienced no success in the lower half of the north braid. When I reached the top area where the river narrowed and the velocity of the current increased I flicked my fly to the center of a small pool and a long rainbow sipped my comparadun. The sky was now quite dark and the rain was intensifying as I played and landed the surprise 16 inch fish to my net. I couldn’t end on this note even though some closer streaks of lightning lit up the sky, so I popped a cast to the left side and again at the lip a nice brown nosed up and engulfed my fly. Another brief fight ensued and I gently landed and released a nice 13-14 inch brown. The weather was now getting a bit scary as the wind kicked up but I managed to dry my fly and flick a cast to the right of the main center current and, wham, another brown mauled the money fly. I landed three beautiful fish within a span of 10 minutes in a fairly nondescript area near the top of the small left channel. Unfortunately the rain began to come down in sheets at this point so I retreated to the Santa Fe and jumped in the car, started the engine, turned on the heater and warmed my frozen feet. This all took place just before 4PM.

Meanwhile unbeknownst to me, Jane was able to depart Denver by 12:30PM and was approaching Basalt. She later told me that it was hot and 92 degrees as she entered the small town at the junction of the Frying Pan and Roaring Fork; however, as she drove east along the river she approached dark clouds with streaks of lighting and thunder and the temperature reading on her Forte plunged to 56 degrees. She scanned the parked cars along the river and when she passed mile marker 11, she located the Santa Fe in the pullout. This was just before 4PM and she claims it was raining hard with lighting and thunder everywhere and yet I was not in the Santa Fe. She became concerned and got out of her car in the pouring rain to look for me. As she did this, another fisherman emerged from the white SUV so she approached him and asked if he’d seen me. He responded that, “Yes, he’d seen me and thought I went upstream”. Jane then asked, “Why is my husband fishing in this terrible storm?”, to which the fisherman smiled and replied, “Because he has the DISEASE!”.

Jane Prepares Shrimp for Spinach Spaghetti on Friday Evening

I must have just missed Jane as I sat in the car and waited out the worst of the storm probably for 30 minutes or so. Eventually the rain slowed to a drizzle so I climbed out and geared up and returned to the top end of the left channel next to the island. At the tail of the nice run just above the point where the river splits, I landed a bright and colorful rainbow on the money fly to reach 29 fish on the day, and then had a shot at number 30 when I hooked a medium sized brown in the angled pocket ten feet further upstream, but the feisty fish managed to shed my hook.

I had now run out of decent water and it continued to rain lightly so I decided to call it a day and returned to the car and removed my waders and began to drive back to the campground, but as I approached mile marker 12 I spotted Jane in the oncoming lane. I pulled into the pullout at mile marker 12 and waited for her to U-turn, and then we caravaned back to the campsite where I was chastized for fishing in a thunderstorm. What a day it was on the Frying Pan River!