This is the tale of two floats. I spent two days with two great guys and we ended up doing two different floats on two different days and had two very different experiences! On yesterday's float, it felt like we couldn't do anything wrong. The weather was phenomenal and we shed sweaters quickly and then enjoyed the northern California sunshine all day long. The wind was non-existent and the fish were willing participants all the way up to the late afternoon. Tom and Mike hooked a lot of fish and as is typical with a good day, we put some in the net, had some nice battles only to LDR (long distance release), and missed a bunch of grabs too. It was a really great day. Mike caught three fish in a row that were all around 18 inches and Tom hooked a fish literally on his first cast and two minutes into the float!!! All that is to say that yesterday was... well... awesome.

Today was a different tale. Though the sun was out and the temperature was really nice, the wind blew for most of the day and the fish were not nearly as grabby as they were the day before. It's always interesting how when it's great, it doesn't seem to matter what flies you are using and when it's slow, the same thing seems to apply. Tom definitely hooked two really good fish that we never saw but we know were heavy fish... but all in all the grab was NOT like yesterday. Theories abound about why the bite can turn off and since I've yet to interview a trout, I can only speculate. The good news is that Mike and Tom had great attitudes and kept at it the whole day... which is why we boated a couple fish at the very end of the float and ended on a high note! 

As far as what the fish have been eating... we've been hooking fish mostly on eggs, secondly on small midge type of patterns, and then thirdly on black rubber legs. The water is dropping down and is currently at 5,300cfs and it's starting to feel like the Fall / Winter river. I'll be back at it again tomorrow...