We made it back down to the river after a long, hot, steep hike Friday afternoon and found the river in good shape with red horse suspended a couple of feet under the surface and smallmouth swimming lazily through them. I had high hopes for catching fish, but they seemed to be off their feed and did not co-operate. The top water bite was off and I only managed a couple of foot long smallmouth on a Mertz copper tinsel crayfish pattern.
Moved on down stream, switched over to a five inch black streamer, cast into a deep plunge pool between boulders and watched as a two foot long smallmouth came out of nowhere, flashed on my streamer and disappeared in the time it takes to read this sentence....
Tried to enjoy the rest of the day as best I could. Found some of these mussels in the tail end of a pool.
Can anyone identify these?
Ended the day with a dinner by the river.
Looks like we will have to wait until next year for better luck!
