September 22, 2023 Part I - Fishing In The Rain

I fished in two different locations on September 22nd, one next to the canyon highway and the second, further upstream and away from the road. I decided to fish this first section, as I had driven by it for many years, but I had not stopped to fish. Unfortunately, this was a Friday, so the traffic up and down the canyon was heavy. It's a busy canyon most days of the week, but weekends (Friday included) are particularly busy. I don't like the road noise, but I do like this river, so I just have to put up with the noise. 

This river has some challenging water and some nice sized fish. Down this low, it's mostly browns with the occasional cutthroat. Miles upstream, it's mostly cutthroat with the occasional brown. The browns are invasive and have been slowly moving upstream for the last couple decades. I don't know how the Fish and Game are going to protect the cutthroat population in the future, but I hope they do. As much as I love brown trout, I'd really miss cutthroat in the stream. 

Today, I decided to go with my trusty TenkaraBum 40. I love this rod. I love it's weight, rotational moment, swing weight, flex action and pretty much everything about it. I don't care for its handle shape but I've modified it with a little tennis wrap and now it's just fine. The rod handles these fish really well, and I can put the fly right where I want to on every cast. 

I caught browns and cutthroat, as expected. There's some deeper water in this section that would be fun to euro nymph. I'll have to come back this winter and try that out. But for today, it was me, wind and rain, browns and cutthroat, and of course, road noise. 

Here's the vlog: