Meskel and I headed south out of Eugene to do three days of floats in the midst of the March Brown hatch. We got on the water Friday about noon and did a short float down to the house we’d be based at for the next couple of days. I was supposed to hit the pull out about an 1/8 of a mile up river from there, but nobody’s perfect. Friday brought a skunk as the weather was gorgeous and we were a bit high in the system and a little early for the hatch.
Satuday started with me solo on the stick and humping to meet the guys at he next pull out. After oar walking the Hyde through a couple of sketchy rock gardens without a sound, we put it back on the trailer and headed down river to start our next float. This day, timing and bugs were on our side. Huge hatches of black caddis came off and fish started looking up. The only problem was they weren’t looking at our bugs. We threw the whole box at large rising fish and only managed four. 6 hours on the water and 4 fish, not my idea of production but it was a nice day…
Sunday we did our final float on yet another stretch of the river. This one was significantly shorter and was far better springer water than trout. The rain came in that morning and almost caused us to pull the ripcord. We sacked up, suited up and the water though. Nada. Not a single fish in that float.
Overall not what I was hoping for, but it was a lot of time in the boat on the water which is always good. With the days of nice weather heating up the river and bringing off swarms of caddis, not March Browns, the fish had engorged themselves and gave us the cold shoulder. I’m all about just being on the water but can you throw a guy a bone? The Browns are still yet to come. We’ll get ours next time….
