An exception to the rule.

 By now regular readers know what I think about the day after a front pushes through. With high pressure, a clear blue sky, bright sun and a 15 mph wind out of the north, the trout just won't rise, its a waste of time to even go. I went anyway. This morning I only lasted about an hour. There were march browns and gray fox hatching but not a fish to be seen.  Was back in time to tie flies before lunch.

Went back out about two and drove up to Deposit, it was a ghost town, no boats and no fishermen. Was pulling on my waders when an old river friend pulled in beside me.  We shared the pool with a few Hendricksons, caddis and a very few spring sulfurs.  Rising fish? Not so much. We each caught a nice fish but it was slow going. Most of the fish that did rise were juveniles.

Dropped down to the middle section of the WB about 4:30 and found a nice hatch of spring sulfurs being blown about in the wind. Was about a half hour before I saw a trout rise but the bugs kept coming and a few trout started to rise. Was a challenge to try to get a fly in front of a fish in the wind but they were willing to eat if you did. And then the boats arrived. They had to be dragged over the riff just upstream from where I was fishing. As soon as they cleared the riff everyone got back in the boat and rowed right through the fish I was casting to. "I'll be out of your way in a second", one said. No one said sorry and no one even made an attempt to row behind me. If you can't float over riffs and row behind anglers you should not be on the river. Having the right to float the river, doesn't make it right to float the river. At present levels the fish are in the main channels and wade fishermen are fishing to them. When a boat floats over the fish in front of a fisherman every ten minutes his fishing is done. For the record, none of the six boats that went by me were guides but I'd bet that several of the next five I could see up river were.

Left in something of a huff and took myself to the EB where the water is too low to float.  Was the best move I made all day. Saw one angler about a half mile away, caddis egg layers, march brown spinners, sulfur duns and feeding fish. Reduced my blood pressure by 25 points and put a half dozen good fish in the net. Never did check to see if the barometer dropped or there were just so many bugs the fish couldn't pass them up.

The bugs are hatching, you should be here now!

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