Big Dry's = Big Brown's

The anticipation of the day to come was running through my mind. I had heard that guys were taking some big fish off the top- (18"- 20" is considered "big" on this river) Although, I know this area is more notorious for its nymphing action, the thought of the "what ifs" kept me awake.

This time of year large Stoneflies are beginning to hatch. Now these fish are more accustom to tiny, and I mean tiny insects as their main staple for most of the year, so when the Stoneflies are hatching anything is possible... yummm steak diner......

The morning started off slow, really slow. I went to a dry dropper but quickly switched to my go to rig for this river... the bounce-rig. There are many native Rocky Mountain Bone's here and I figured that some action is better than no action. After switching from fly to fly I began to really wonder what is going on. I had a big strike on a dry but swapped out again for the nymph rig. One of the guys finally hooked up, ON TOP! Wow, maybe it will happen. I kept dragging the bottom while Cheech started to pick a few Bones up. What area you using I asked, to my surprise some stonefly nymph imitations. A rather large fly for a bottom lipped whitey to eat, I did not clue in on this until he had about a half dozen of them. So, I rigged with a similar pattern, aftera short time I was about to give up when.... I finally got one, a whitey, then another and another. I quickly caught a few and then things began to slow so I decided to find the others. After I reached them I discovered that another had been taken OFF THE TOP. Cheech had switched to a dry and I kept with the nymph rig.... Mistake on my part....Bob and one of his many monsters

Some great fish were taken that day, Bob stuck with his plan of dry fly fishing and it paid off big time. Cheech switched over and picked off a few brutes as well. Meanwhile, I am STILL hucking lead and have almost gone through about every size shape and color of nymph in my box and found nothing that is really sanding out.... SO .... I finally began looking for something that resembled the same shape and color of the dry flies. I had a choice between a black cricket with a slender profile or a hopper with a dark green under-body, oops should have thought of that LAST night!! So, I put the cricket on... got a hit... set the hook... felt the tug... snap... the line broke, @#*% ^ bleep bleep ^ %$@$!!! That only leaves the hopper. Well, I finally got one after many strikes. It was a great day! Bob caught tons of great looking fish Cheech cleaned up as usual and I pulled it off at the last second. I will be more prepared next time
and I think it is going to have to be sooner rather than later.

Me to the left and Cheech right both fish taken on Drys