Little Getaway Day 1: Theories broken

I just got home from my little getaway to the mountains. It was over all good especially after too many times spent with cows. I made myself a great camping. But fishing in my secret holes turned out to be a little different from what I had expected, which had been based on my fishing experience here for the past three summers. I don't discuss which fly pattern worked when but the rule of thumb I had developed was "nice cutthroat have been caught from 10am to noon". By "nice", I mean 13 to 16-inch in this small mountain stream. Then in the afternoon, all I would catch is rainbow. Lucky if I get a 12-incher. This theory of mine was broken and I was puzzled a bit.

I am going to follow my log and memory with pictures.
I first noticed water level went way down from three weeks ago. As I walked upstream, I saw lots of stonefly nymphal shuck (outer skeleton). I didn't see these three weeks ago. So it must have been after water level dropped. I can't say when but I had some imagination and hallucination that large cutthroat would have been rising and gorging on large stonelfies on surface......

Next, I saw lots of midges hatching. Probably much more than I had ever seen. At the most productive hole, I observed trout (large ones) were feeding just below the surface. I can't emphasize or express the flash I saw under the water. So I trailed midge patterns behind a Royal Wulff Cripple as an indicator for tiny flies.

But I ended up only two so-so cutthroat caught on RWC. Not bad but I wanted larger individuals.

Furthermore, this happened and ended before 10:00am. There were any more risers at all. As mentioned above, I have experienced great fishing from 10am to noon, not before and not after, regardless of hatches and flies I use........

Just for a consolation, I caught lots of native rainbows.

I even broke my record for the smallest catch!! 3-incher!!??

I walked probably three miles or longer and stopped at here. I did this hike on my birthday last year. But this year, I think my body seemed to be in much better shape though I am supposed to be older.

On the way down, I did catch a nice leaping 12-inch rainbow but there was a battle to take a picture or two and I lost. So no pictures here. Then I did a little trick at my favorite hole and I finally landed a nice cutthroat that kept my self-esteem (just a bit).

Exhausted, now time to make a camp. I camped at the same spot as I did three weeks ago. But this time, I obtained an insect repellent based on bad experience with mosquitoes. It worked well but I think I simply camped at a bad spot. Good for solitude but it's right above the swamp.

Whatsoever, I stayed there. I had a good salad and warmed up a canned soup because I hiked and fished a lot all day. Here are rest of "camping essentials".

I wrote my diary and fishing log for the day. Then I decided where to go and what to do for the next day. My companion book for the night was Percy Jackson Book 4. This series is really good, as good as Harry Potter.

As I was reading, I saw two tiny midges were mating on my thumb!!! If I would express their sizes in fly-fishing, I'd say they were #32 each......... Most of us would be needing microscopes to tie and magnifying glasses to tie on tippet.

I'll post about the Day 2 tomorrow.

AM and PM separately.