Walk much?

We awoke at the same time at about 3:00AM to a small noise outside. We were expecting raccoons because of previous camps at this spot. We even stacked the coolers and the food totes in a way so that they were inpenetrable to critters. As we both looked out the tent window, we saw a skunk. We made some noise and shined  a flash light on it. As it ran off we both laughed. We never expected that. 2 years prior it was raccoons here at Lufkin Bottom. This year it was a skunk. Again, wildlife is the biggest reason I love this float.

Next morning started off a little warmer than it had been. I snapped some pictures before we started off.

This is the shoreline heading up-river from our campsite. I caught this little guy here before we got in the boat. He rose to a small white dry fly. I chose this fly because my BWOs I had been using got torn to pieces.

We floated down to this cove and grassy shore line. We decided to fish around it for awhile. We caught some small trout in the cove right wear the fast water meets the slow.

Some of the trout were browns and some were cutthroats. It was fun fishing even if they were just small trout. After catching my share of these little guys, I wanted to try the deeper fast moving water.

I grabbed my nymphing rod because it looked like a good run for it. After fishing it for awhile I saw a rise out of a BIG trout. It came up not once but twice! I quickly ran back to the boat and grabbed my dry fly rig. Another reason I had put down the dry fly rod was because the wind was picking up. After a few bad attempts at casting out to where I saw the rise, it was as far out as I could cast, I finally hit the spot. Time slowed down as I watched my white fly float down the run. Sure enough the big trout rose and took it! I was not just surprised, but completely amazed. The fish swam straight at me. I had no choice but to back up. Unfortuately I stumbled in some roots and fell backwards onto my rear end. I did this and lost tension on my line. When I stood back up, the fish was gone. Isn't it always the way. It would have been my biggest trout yet but that's fishing.

It wasn't a complete loss though. I tried that run again and hooked up with a good size cutthroat. It was among the biggest fish of the trip. It is a completely different experience when you catch a large fish on the surface with a dry fly. Its so visual and surprising when it happens.

After a quick lunch of peanut butter and honey, we pushed off. We floated by a few more eagles. These turned out to be golden eagles which aare even bigger than bald eagles.

We even caught sight of a second moose. Picture opportunities were not convenient but I managed to snap a quick shot. By now the wind was howling so we weren't really fishing but merely enjoying the float and the scenery.

We originally were going to stay another night on the river but the wind made us change our minds and row the rest of the way to the pull out. By then we were pretty much ready to go. It was the end to a great trip. When pulling out with the boat we saw this sign that asked for the heads of all the rainbow trout anglers caught. We released all ours but thought it was funny and worth mentioning.