What a fun little trip. As I began up the canyon, I felt that the river was a little on the fast and high side for my liking. I had never tried the Left Hand Fork of The Blacksmith, but I had heard that it runs lower during runoff sometimes. The water was just perfect and I quickly scored a nice cutthroat on a golden stone nymph. In the same run, I caught a brown as well. The next few runs were dead, and then I caught one more cutt. Unfortunately I had forgotten my fly floatant, and the creek was a bit on the small side for straight up nymphing with an indicator. About the time I made this realization, someone cut in front of me. I tried to drive up further, but the road was closed. I took off for the main fork and drove up further than I usually fish. I'm glad I did. Stoneflies and mayflies were coming off, and the fish were hungry. The water up in this stretch was a bit high, but very wadeable. I took a couple on nymphs, but then the fish started really keying in on the Turk's that was my indicator. Usually this is a welcome thing, but without floatant, my fly would soon become soggy and sink. I was getting tired of switching flies when I tried a new dropper I had whipped up the night before. A size 18 hare's ear tied with orange thread proceeded to vaccum the runs I hit. I ended up catching 22 fish on the main fork in about an hour and a half. Maybe 8 were cutts and the rest were browns.
Not too shabby. I did lose one nice fish in the 18-20" range when it ran into the current. Oh well, still a good little trip.
Total fish for the trip: 25
Total fish for the year: 48
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