Time to put the rod way for the year

I concluded, after a successful one and a half hours on the stream, that its time to put the rod away for the season.

I spent nearly a week of holiday vacation in western Pennsylvania that was grey, cold and cloudy every day.  Driving home from DIA at 9:30 a.m., the brilliant sunshine started to slowly push the fog and ice crystals from my brain letting the first thoughts of fishing seep in.

It seem to be a classic winter day for fly fishing, starting out clear and cold with a warm afternoon on the horizon.  It seemed to hold the promise of a mid day midge hatch so, after getting home and unloading, I decided to spend a few hours in the water.

By 12:30 I was stream side in Boulder Creek near the CU practice fields.  It was in the upper forties with nice winter sunshine reaching out into the river which made me feel like being selective.  I walked up the stream in no particular hurry, one hand balancing my 2wt rod and the other pushed down into a pocket to keep the chill off.  I stopped at the likely looking places, peering into the clear water looking for a pod of fish lined up poking their noses up at midges.  None here, none there, none anywhere.   It may have been a little early, I thought, and although I did see a few midges there were certainly no feeding fish to be seen.

After discarding the romantic notion of placing very small midges in the surface film upstream of feeding fish, I tied on a triple rig of Yellow Roayal Humpy dry fly followed by a #18 grey CDC emerger and a #18 olive bead head hunchback nymph of some sort.  Setting up at below a plunge pool I tossed the rig maybe 15 feet.  Some fish were feeding at the bottom, including some nice sized fish for this stream, but not interested in my offerings.  After putting one split shot on I caught a few 6-8" fish.  I put on a second shot and the dinner bell rang.  In an short time I landed 7 fish including a few 14" browns, all on the green thing, without moving from the spot on which I was standing.

At 2:00 I stopped and sat on the bank for a few moments to soak a few rays.  Now the midge spinners were really starting to thicken up.

Content, I decided that 7 fish in a few hours was good for a winter day and a great way to close the season for the year.  It's a good thing it was Dec 28, and that January is a fishable month .