So, after receiving word from my spy (Silent Reader, thanks Neal) that the bite was on the week of the 6th, I packed one fly rod and two fly boxes (one with Baetis imitations and one with October Caddis imitations), along with the tent, some single malt scotch, and food, and spent 4 days and 3 nights camped at Riverside Campground near Dunsmuir between the 16th and 19th of October.
Fishing was off & on, hot and cold; a couple here and a few over there.
Weather was my excuse, yeah, clear skies, no clouds, air temps in the high 70's.
While many October Caddis were in the air (hatching in the evening & posting sporatic during the day) fish didn't appear to be on them or on the big orange pupas I was raking across the bottom.
Fishing either in the campground area, above the parking area at Tauhindauli Park, or below the City Park, I caught fish on a really small black head nymph or dark colored Serendipities (like there's a lot of difference) and small Adams parachutes (drifted in the shadows), a couple came to the net farther downstream on Sunday to a Bead Head Green Lightning Bug as I was on my way home.
I saw Jet and son fishing the way a father and son should and had the unexpected pleasure of meeting up with the widow and son of a fishing partner who were celebrating his life on a stream that he loved.
While some of the folks with whom I was camping and fishing landed fish up to 19.5 inches (taped), I couldn't break 16 inches on this trip (except for one that left too soon with one of my flies in its jaw that may have been larger) but, I caught fish each day in each place I fished and I didn't litter the stream with any plastic thingyabobbers or skeins of brightly colored yarn.
I've done better and worse fishing up there but the socialization (as opposed to socialism)as well as the beer (it seems there was a keg at the campground) and scotch consumed around a campfire are always worth the trip.
Should be good now too.
Paul
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