Summer on the Owyhee River

One of the larger Caddis that were hatching

Well the fishing was so-so last night on the Owyhee River. I spent more time simply observing the more subtle everyday happenings on a river than I usually do. I am hoping my observations help out tonight when I go back. Here is a quick summary of the evening.

All my usual spots had fishermen in them so I ended up at one of my not so favorite spots. It is a place I always try when everything else is filled up because it looks like a great spot but it has yet to produce like it appears that it should. I fished for an hour or so, caught one small fish on the smallest pheasant tail nymph I had, and then started really noticing all the bug activity on the river. There was a tiny caddis hatch and by tiny I mean the Caddis were tiny, not the hatch. There were midges all over the water. Then there was a hatch of larger caddis and I even saw what appeared to be a smallish stonefly I am guessing a Yellow Sally. I also noticed a lot of callibaetis nymphs floading in the water so that would explain the success with the pheasant tail. Then came the exciting part of my outing. In trying to wade a little too fast back down stream after taking a few pictures I slipped and fell. In flailing around trying to get my feet under me I reached out and grabbed at the nearest peice of brush along the shore which just happened to be a nice patch of stinging nettles. My right arm is still tingling today. It is funny I never remember nettles hurting this long when I was a kid but I am sure I didn't marinate in them like my arm did this time as my priorities where more along the lines of not falling rather than worrying about what it was I was grabbing on too. Meanwhile my arm was in there getting well introduced to the nasty stinging plants. After this debacle I moved to one of my favorite spots in the last hour of light and had numerous hookups with what felt like very nice fish but for some reason couldn't keep the fish on the hook. Maybe next time.