Like Clockwork, there was Orange…

Rarely does it fail that Memorial Day triggers the Salmonfly hatch on the upper Colorado River up through Gore Canyon. Water temperatures need to hit the lower 50’s sure, but for whatever reason it just always seems that Memorial Day is most often the weekend that they start to come out. The sterotypical conversation happened which goes along the lines of’

“Hey, its happening and you should be here”

“Love your enthusiasm, I’ll see you tomorrow”

Then I went home, packed my things and got out of the door.

The fish wanted some salmonfly in their diet, but there were also fish looking for the caddis that were flying around. At first we overlooked them because they seemed insignificant compared to the larger insects that were available, but we soon discovered that many of the fish were keyed in on caddisflies.

We slapped the big dries against the banks and pulled over and fished good looking runs. Success was evenly divided amongst the two tactics for the first 6 miles of our journey.

The lower few miles of our float slowed down as the salmonflies disappeared from the river and we were exhausted from the morning activities. A few more were to hand before we rowed the last mile down the river to the takeout. We made it just as the sun was setting so that we could drive home in darkness. I came home to a sleeping house and no one to tell my stories to, but I suppose that is what we will talk about tomorrow…