December, 2007

Last Logbook Entry  é for previous days.

12/04:  Well as much as I kind of dislike these chance encounters with Mr. Skunk, I'm forced to admit I shook his hand one last time for 2007 today.

Having to do my monthly data gathering session at the county offices offered one last chance to get out on the Eagle before this week's predicted snowstorms hit starting tonight.  

The dog & I did our data business and then once more drove to the fairgrounds area to ply that water.  It's clearly much tougher fishing now.  

Besides the sub freezing air temperatures, the shore ice has closed in almost half the river - which generally means that the local trout have retreated underneath the ice I'm actually standing on.  That means I'm probably casting to empty water most of the time in the stronger currents in the middle of the river.

But hope sprang eternal anyway.  Actually I did have a couple of strikes in the first pool.  That was it for the day.  Walking a mile downstream to a very nice hole near the confluence with Brush Creek I thought surely would produce a fish or two, but it was not to be.

In addition to having to deal with frozen hands and frozen guides, the most unusual thing that's happened late this season was to actually have ice build up on the tippet itself.  Even repeated immersions and long drifts would not rid the flouro of that icing issue.  Don't know what causes the problem, though it was fascinating - and of course also irritating.

Unless we get an unusual day or two of thaw between now and when I start teaching skiing full time, this is probably the last trip for the year.  Sniff, sniff.

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