September Days on the Water

Seasons change, but this can be a magical time on the river as more and more insects hatch and fish rising to eat them. I don’t want our September days on the water to end. You might recall I take more pictures when the fishing is slow, so I wanted to share some of those today. You’ll be the first to know what is hatching.

The image above is a small pool where I sit and wait for fish to rise. It’s a place for my own reflection and I marveled at the colors of these rocks. I thought of the Rainbows matching these colors and how nature makes that happen. I don’t know the answer why, but you could paint a picture of a Metolius trout with the colors seen above.

It won’t be long before the leaves begin to change colors. Fall on the Metolius is a beautiful site.

After fly fishing the Metolius over 55 years, I’m still amazed how no two days are the same. We were on the river several days after a cold front when rain passed through. A few insects were on the water, but no fish rising for them. Several days earlier, we tricked a few fish into rising to eat my flies.

The fish we did catch were smaller than previous years. We saw a few larger trout rise during the Green Drake hatch, but our fish were in the 11″ – 15″ range. In fact, both of us have landed smaller, some measuring 9″ and 10″. The river goes through natural cycles, but we’ve talked about fish size several times this year. I’m hoping a few larger fish will show themselves soon.

My favorite rising trout these days is “Island Fish“. You might remember an earlier post where I caught her eating a PMD. Well, since fish weren’t rising, I took some time to photograph her again. Here she is.

Can you see some of the rock colors on this fish?

We continue to see a lot of Little Olive Stones on the streamside vegetation and flitting across the water. I was able to capture a shot below where is was drifting in the current.

This is what they normally look like making a big commotion.

We had a decent PMD hatch where one day the fish were eating and a different day they were ignored.

And a couple images of what I believe are Flavs.

This is the time of year you can find Cascades Stones (yes, Cascades include a “s” on the end). They are a cousin to Golden Stones which I’ve seen as well in the middle river. It isn’t often I see them floating downstream, but over the years, I’ve hooked a fish or two with a Chubby Chernobyl dry fly.

Here is Dancingtrout casting her fly in the Dolly Hole.

And late the same afternoon these visitors showed up.

I don’t ever recall seeing deer next to the river at this spot. We’ll run into them as we walk back to the hatchery on occasion. Maybe they just came by to cool off closer to the river.

Enjoy…go fish!