February 09, 2009 was a great day on the North Fork. Me, Randy Hanner, and Tommy McKee spent an entire day casting into eddy lines in hopes of large colorful hungry trout. Though there were more casts than fish it was a great 70 degree February day on the river.

We each caught our share of rainbows and Tommy seemed to catch the sickness that is fly fishing. At the end of the day Tommy fished longer than the two seasoned guides and when I say sickness I mean the passion of hunting for that next perfect rock that has a feeding trout behind it. Tommy scoped out the far rocks of the rock garden and was the first to cross the river flowing at 1000 cfs, Determined that the big one was behind that nice sycamore root wad on the far bank. It was great to see that fresh determination in his eye and eager anticipation of a strike at each drift, that is what makes guiding so great.

The river began to rise on Saturday night and continued throughout Sunday. This I’m guessing was from the groundwater influence of the show and ice melt, because there was no rain that night. The fishing was best the first half of the day when we all landed the majority of our catch. Caddis larva was the ticket this day and scored the majority of the fish. The stonefly and mayfly nymphs coming in a close second on catch rate. As Brian Wise always stresses “DEEP” was the ticket and in the high water it was difficult.

At the end of the day we had landed 10 between us and performed long distance releases to that many more. Though any day on the river is always much more than how many fish you catch, it is about the time just hanging out, laughing, and enjoying the freedom of the outdoors.