First fishing trip of the year.

Spring- no Summer seems to be here. The cold nasty weather held out as long as it could, and then all of a sudden it was 92 degrees. Of course I got an immediate case of reumatis and didn't seem to be able to get anything done around the house. There is only one cure, so I rolled out Dart and took off into the blue to see how high the river was.

https://vimeo.com/65971366   The password is owyheeflyer

The winter although very cold, was dry. There was little snow in the mountains that feed the Owyhee River, so I expected it to be a lot less than flood stage. You can generally tell by how many rafters gather at Rome, what the flow of the river is like. We have seen very few people on the River this year.

My flight revealed that the river is no more than a foot higher now than it gets in the full summer. I intended to go yesterday, but I had not gotten permission to go to my favorite spot, so I decided to wait until today to go.

I gathered up as much of my fishing stuff as I could find this morning and headed out. I had to turn around again to get some sunscreen. ( I haven't needed it before now and I am out of the habit.)

 When I arrived at the field that borders the River, I found it full of White Faced Ibis, and Pheasant.

I waded across the river and rigged up my line with some Berkley Crawdad rubber lures. I had never used them before and was a bit skeptical as to whether they were too big for my hooks, but thought I would try them anyway.

The water was actually quite warm and not at all unpleasant to wade in. I began to get some hits on the Crawdads, and finally got the hook situated so that a fish could actually get the hook. I began to catch Bass.

Although the one above was caught on a plastic worm, after I caught all the fish that were biting on the Crawdads.

There was a fast water riffle that I was fishing the edge of and was getting hits all the time. I finally cast right into the middle of the fast water and immediately a fish slammed the lure. I was quite surprised to catch this Trout, and another one just like it that spent as much time out of the water as in it. It jumped eight times before I was able to subdue him.

It didn't take long to catch a limit of Trout and Bass. It is apparently a bit too early to catch Catfish. The Trout do not stay in the middle part of the River very long. I am not sure if they go up the River or back into the Lake. I just know that Bass and Catfish are the norm for the part of the River that I fish.

Unfortunately being such an elderly and feeble old man, I forgot to pick up one of my fillet knives there on the river when I left, so Sigh, I guess I will have to go back to get it.