Kevin is from Montana and has just finished a one-year contract in the area. Before he moved here his previous employer purchased a guiding trip as a parting gift. Jump ahead more than a year and Blair and I took Kevin and his daughter, Morgan, down the river.
Blair took Morgan and taught her to cast a spinner. She was soon into fish. I took Kevin and started him with a bugger and he picked up a couple of fish. I was waiting to put on a dry fly until I saw some surface activity.
He wanted to use a dry dropper but I suggested two dry flies. I put a small elk hair caddis behind a large cicada with the simple advice to count to three before striking slow takes.
The action heated up and Kevin pulled the fly away too quickly a few times before landing a good rainbow on the cicada. He casted while we were floating until I would see a riser to target.
We found several fish to target with mixed results. One spot behind a clump of trees in the middle of the river had at least six fish visible. This time he counted to three with the elk hair caddis and was rewarded with a gorgeous rainbow. The rest were not too interested after that.
Another one was really funny. He presented the elk hair caddis perfectly and the trout did not even look. Then suddenly a caddis landed on the water and skittered across the surface. The trout came up and ate it. Next cast he twitched the dry fly and boom! he was on again.
He picked up a nice brown at the mouth of a spring creek then had a lesson in stalking. Those browns spook easily. We had a really big one feeding but he accidentally crossed the fish with the leader and off it went. It was pretty windy to be fair.
Morgan pretty much caught and lost trout all the way down the river. Blair said she landed 10 which is a pretty awesome result for a novice.
All in all it was another great day on the water!
