I was so excited about getting out on the river this past Saturday that I could barley think straight. I was acting crazy, like a kid anticipating Christmas morning.  But honestly, what avid fly fishermen wouldn’t be excited about amazing dry fly action in the middle of the winter?

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To make it even worst I have been spending all of my time lately chasing hogs through the ice on ice flies that I have been tying.  It has been awesome, but its not the pure dry fly fishing like love. The craziness all started the night before, I stayed up way to late tying countless amounts of Midges for every situation. I made sure I had micros in the 30s, emergers in the 20s and just in case, I tied up a couple dozen nymphs. Honestly, I could have supplied a whole group, but like every fly fishermen I still felt unprepared and not having enough. The next morning, I awoke grabbed my gear and was out the door at 7:50 am. I wanted to get there early for the morning bite, as well as the hatch and after sippers. As I got about halfway around Deer Creek I stopped to check out a little creek, but as I searched for my rods, I knew they were still sleeping in my garage. SUCKKKKKK!!!!!! I yelled 10 times…I couldn’t believe I did that. I was so worried about making sure I had all my other stuff that I had forgot the most important piece of gear. So I made the 30 min drive back down the canyon, grabbed the rods, decided to get breakfast at Mcdo and take it easy. I finally got to the river at 10 am to be meet with another bombshell. As I was pulling to the side of the icy road to park, my brakes locked up on the ice and I slid half way down a little hill in 3 feet of snow and ice, I was freakin stuck! After 30 mins of pointless attempts I decided this can wait, but the fishing can’t. Luckily, an awesome fellow fishermen and his ford came to the rescue. (If you read this, thank you again) So, after all that, it was now closer to 11 and I still had a little excitement left in me.  But once I got to the river bank, all that stress washed away after I seeing a trout sip a little midge.  It was the only riser in the area and he was my target. I tied on a asher and foam-head emerger, walked out on a beaver dam and made my first cast. Just like it should, the 16 inch brown slurped my emerger and I was hooked up. It was a great way to start off 2010 on dries. The rest of the early afternoon found me stocking the banks for lazy sipping browns. Late afternoon I meet up with my little sis and bro-in-law. By this time the fish were starting to notice to little bugs flying around, so I took them to my go to spot.  It didn’t disappoint either.  We all had multiple hookups on tiny midges and Greg  took home bragging rights with a couple awesome  hook ups and a big healthy brown on 6x.

In all it was time well spent. The weather was comfortable, the fish were rising and I was spending time with my best friends. What more could you ask for…It was a great day