Cruise Control

Cruise control can be a derogatory term in the fishing world.  It connotates laziness.  But in my case now, it means the pressure is off, if it was ever there in the first place.  I've been to nirvana, sort of topped out, so now I can just fish.  I can go fish water I've fished less of.  Fish less crowded or completely alone water, not worrying about what I'm missing.  Cast that 3 weight some more.  Maybe toss a streamer/mouse at or after dark.  I'm not stopping or releasing the gas quite yet, just keeping a nice comfortable speed.

Just cruising.  Savoring each precious day of summer, of vacation, of wet-wading warmer water that still doesn't seem to be bothering the fish.  Relishing the daily PMD and caddis activity that will soon give way to the tiny shit again for 8-9 more months.  I still get up and fish the cool, calm, comfortable mornings pretty hard, cover some ground on both waters, and wing it from there after the whistle.  Maybe a little early evening fishing, maybe not.  Some evenings are boiling.  You can tell how good its going to be by the mosquitos.

Ya, nothing wrong with being in summertime cruise control, where the fish are still rising and the livin' is easy.

Now its six more days in post-creeks.  The 13th.  I've fished the "other" creek a couple mornings, and the big river for the last three.  Today though, I disengaged the cruise control and used the gas a little.  It was just another one of those "know when to say when" days, though I did act a slob.  I was already down river 1/2 mile, a dozen nice fish in, from where I parked. Coming back, I had to stay within the high water mark, but there were heads in my way.  What's a slob to do?  In all, I touched twenty fish in 5 hours, 9-1.  Up to 20 inches, and no dinks.  It was a parachute day.  PMD para spinner, PMD CDC parachute dun.  A couple on the Mole because I needed its darker wing in some cloud glare.  I think the fish eat the parachutes sometimes for a spinner, sometimes for a dun, once in a while as an emerger.  I can see 'em all the time, every cast, and every drift. All I gotta do is get the right float over the target, often within 1-2 inches of the bank.  At this point in the trip, I'm dialed in.

I just bought a John Deere riding mower for an acre of natural vegetation (weeds!) around my house.  Today, I was mowing them down like a Deere.  

Paraspinner for the win.  Silhouette.  Visibility.  Floatability. Durability (sometimes).

CDC for motion.

Still knockin' 'em down.

Sometimes you get 'em right in the nose, 12:00 high.

So simple, yet so effective.  And it really does float like a cork.

Look who actually showed up.  Gunner lives!  And still fishes!!

Bottom Lip.