Marshall's
Notebook

We had a beautiful day and spent the morning probing upstream runs with various nymph rigs. We only saw a few rising fish all morning. There were tiny Baetis and a few Isonychia were in the air most of the day. Drifting Hoppers was surprisingly unsuccessful. The fish were truly sluggish.

Our companion Monarch Butterfly spent an hour with us and after Bill landed the Brown Trout, the butterfly flew away.

Home - Highlight Gallery - Notebook Archive

Don't ever believe that fly fishing Solon to No. Anson is "easy fishing". More often than not, the fishing is technical and difficult. Bill's crew were well experienced and totally prepared. Pictured left are Pete and behind him, Bill's son and friend in Bill's drift boat.

After a hearty lunch, we moved down  to several back channels hoping to find fish rising to the small numbers of Mayflies. We had chances on several fish who struck Bill's Adams on the retrieve...a sign to fish an emerger. Bill's son hooked a Brown in a pod of risers and by 4PM we were getting a little rain.

We had a visitor. This newly-hatched Monarch Butterfly was now our companion and he fluttered around our shoulders, hands and settled on my left oar. I have a feeling this butterfly was in a former life, a fly fisherman or perhaps a guide. He stayed on my oar, then flew up and sat on Bill's wrist. Now this gets interesting. We were nearing the last good run after a somewhat frustrating "catching" day on the river. I saw several tiny rise forms, "Possibly Chubs, I said, but fish to them anyway." As Bill laid out the #16 Adams below the boat the Monarch rested on his casting arm. Bill stripped the fly back as an emerger. Then the 18-inch Brown ate the fly.