Burke and I floated today. It’s almost late enough in the season to call it a winter run, but not quite. Need snow for that, and I’d say real winter hasn’t started yet.

Action was about what we expected for this river at this time of the year, which is to say, it was a little slow; but neither of us has ever discovered a finer way to fish a few miles of river, and our decisions on where to fish are sometime more aesthetic than based on fish counts.

We hooked enough fish to keep it interesting, fishing streamers and nymphs, mostly from the boat because the flows were perfect for it. This was a fun fish …..

Later on, we landed a fish with a serious injury.

We see all lot of claw, talon and beak marks in trout, but this was probably the deepest wound I’ve seen in a healthy trout. I say “healthy” because he seemed to be making out just fine. It’s interesting to see the process of recovery. You can see the darkening/bruising around the gash. Godspeed. Get bigger!

Oh, and this battle-worn fish-holder was broken today while trying to lift a 30″ brown trout, the loss of which is far too difficult of a story to tell here — on this day. Pat did not sit on this net and break it in half during a frantic struggle to save two tangled rods from busting a tip in the trees.