You can contact Dennis at: DSmith7136@msn.com
September may offer the best fly fishing of the season; though I’m sure some would argue the point and say October is even better. No matter, fishing can be pretty good in the fall. The crowds of summer are gone, the big hatches are over and the fish seem (notice I said seem) more willing to try just about any damn thing that comes floating by. Or at least that’s what I’m being told by the guys who drop by to chat about their days on the river.
“We were up on the Thompson yesterday,” one guy told me, “And I don’t give a damn what you threw at ‘em, they’d eat it. We musta caught forty or fifty in that little stretch above Seven Pines.” Not an hour later, another guy told me pretty much the same thing about his day on the Poudre. “The fish were going crazy,” he said. The guys coming back from the Delaneys are saying the same thing. The fish, apparently are very hungry and not so very picky about what they eat.
Fine. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to enjoy it; I’ll be working in the shop selling flies and hanging stock. On my days off, I’ll be loading ammo for the deer rifles and sighting them in at the range with the boys. We’ll have to wait until the end of the month to wet a line, and we’ll do it at our deer camp on the North Michigan. We spend a week up there hunting deer, grouse, geese, ducks and coyotes, and we make certain to bring our rods along too. There are brookies in the little creeks and we hope to catch a mess for the frying pan one night. It would especially nice to be able to serve them as a side dish with grouse breasts or fresh venison, though in the end we’ll be happy just to watch them come up to take a dry fly.
Dennis Smith is an Outdoor Writer and Photographer. His articles and photos have appeared in numerous outdoor publications, catalogs and newspapers. Dennis can be reached at (970) 669-6074. Want to know more about Dennis?