It was somethin' else!

Most people probably thought today was a beautiful day.  Why not?  A mid October day with bright sun and the temp pushing 70.  What's not to like?  Well, standing in a trout stream you sometimes see things differently.  The "delightful' 10 mph breeze blew so many leaves into the river that there was no place to even land a fly.  Trying to cast a size 20 olive to a rising fish on 7x tippet was mission impossible.  Several times when I picked up my fly it was more than 10 feet from where I thought it was.  That said, three fish ate that little size 20 olive during the delightful afternoon I've been describing (two of them even have a souvenir olive to prove it).  (Don't fish small flies on 7x tippet in the wind).

At about 5:00 the wind died down and the olives started to hatch.  It was still warm and the spinners said "tonight's the night".  The fish began to go in earnest.  Boils everywhere.  There just couldn't be that many trout, but there were.  A replay of last night was in the cards.  The olive emerger would slay 'em.  I wouldn't be able to keep track of how many I caught.

So, how'd I do?  Well, after dozens of casts, of numerous flies, without so much as a sniff  (if fish sniff) at what I was throwing, I stopped and looked.  Not a single trout nose appeared, not a single olive disappeared, no spinners were being eaten.  What were they eating?  It was something else!

If you are reading this in hopes that I will let you in on the big secret, get real.  I didn't have a clue.  Saw nothing hatching and have not idea what they were feeding on.  It was exciting to see that there were that many fish in the river and very frustrating not to have any idea as to what they were feeding on.

Perhaps next spring they'll eat a Hendrickson.     

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