Mayfly Musings

After dinner my friend Tim and I taught our compatriots the in's and out's of the great game of Euchre.  I hadn't played in far too long and winning felt quite satisfying.  After I gloated a bit, (don't worry, we lost the next two nights. #karma) we called it a night and drifted off to dreaming of abundant midge and mayfly hatches...or at least I did. It was cloudy and cool on the morning of Day 2 and although breakfast was fulfilling, I was hoping to fill my net with some trout as quickly as humanly possible.  I shared an Evil Olive pattern with the 4th member of our crew, Chris.  I told him to give it a shot in the faster water as I had done the day before and I once again headed upstream.  Since it was too early for surface action, I wanted to nymph the water that was covered in midges and mayflies only 18 hours earlier. The water there was slower than down below so I was not surprised to have less takes on the flashy olive pattern and more takes on my bo...

Preparing for a multi-day fly fishing trip gets my heart pounding.  In life, if an ample amount of time is spent preparing for something, the results typically yield the effort put in.  This trip was no different. Several work friends and I decided to hit the Eagle River and the famous Fryingpan during our much needed Spring Break from school.  While we were there I learned a new word; glamping.  Essentially it's glamour camping with all of the amenities you can imagine.  In our defense, the temperatures dipped below freezing every night so sleeping in a tent would not have been near as comfortable as sleeping in a warm camper every night.  Plus, we put in our time on the water each day so it was important to be properly rested each night so we could wake up, eat a hearty breakfast, and start fishing. The Eagle is a freestone river that can rise and fall due to melting snows or heavy rain.  Luckily, we didn't have to worry about either of those thi...