On the Fly : November Dries to Icy Guides

A week ago today, the air temp was in the mid 60's, and fish were rising at both the Claremont stretch and the gorge. I fished the gorge in the morning and ended up only landing one brown on a disco midge. Another five were missed one being a rainbow over 20 inches. I spent the remainder of the day at the Claremont, and there was a couple fish around me that were feeding up top. I tied a griffith's gnat up top, and followed it with a green rs2 which ended up being what the fish couldn't resist.

Today was a different story. The air temp was in the mid 20's through the majority of the day, and I was hoping for a one or two fish day. I decided to head up to the Claremont after the heavy rain we received through the majority of yesterday. I figured I would try out my new small stream bamboo rod and Vom Hofe imitation reel once before resting it for the Winter. Walking down to the bank I saw that the river was higher than I had ever seen it before. I fished the normal hole that I fish with a large bead tail caddis attractor followed by a rainbow warrior. To my surprise I caught three wild browns in about an hour- an hour and a half all on the rainbow warrior. The water was very off-color, but the fish definitely had no trouble finding the shiny patterns. I went down to the gorge for the remainder of the morning and ended up only getting one brown also on the rainbow warrior. The first true day of Winter fishing this year, and a good start.