As we were on the road to an epic heatwave with unprecedented temperatures I opted to go after the chub.
With clear blue skies, hot weather and the rise op the hopper population it seemed like the thing to do.
Early start was not required for this fishing so I went en route late in the morning.
The plan was to visit the hot spots in reverse order.

While passing a high bridge I took a look down and for sure big chub where moving about.
I made and early stop at a spot were I figured fish would be present.
Unfortunately the high grass on the banks still had not been mowed so access was impossible.
I tried a few casts from the bridge but the chub did not fall for it.

The next mark was a short riffle where some small fish roamed the shallow water.
Although the hopper caused some interest amongst the small fish it was to big for them.
A small palmer dry fly did the trick on the largest fish of the school.

Further downstream a bridge was the next target and it held some big fish.
But again the hopper and even the large mayfly could not draw the slightest interest.
When I finally arrived at my hotspot I was happy to see that some mowing had been done.
The bad thing was they had not collected the hay and it was slippery as hell when you
had sandals as footwear.

I spotted some big fish lying inside a bend of the stream and figured my approach from
downstream was optimal.
As goes for assumptions … a recipe for disaster … the fish spotted me and bolted with
a huge bow wave through the shallow water.

With little wind and the burning sun it was hot at the streamside.
The horse flies had found me and I ended some of them.
On my stroll along the stream I spotted many chub but the best I could muster was that
a fish would slightly look up and inspect the fly.

When I finally spotted a pod of six big fish I thought I had hit the jackpot.
One of them would surely go for the fly but again the fly yielded only a hesitant look.
My last ditch effort to get one of the big fish was to splash the hopper hard on the surface.
It would either scatter the fish in all wind directions or yield a response. Luckily the latter happened and one fish out of the group rose to the surface and sucked
the hopper in.
Now I was connected to a big fish and it immediately took me into the weeds.
The only way to land the fish was to slide into the water from the bank and boy it was deeper
than anticipated.
Then again it was high summer so in the end I could land the fish, mission accomplished.

I tried some other spots after my success but the water was so low that even the landing
of the fly would scare the fish.
Only thing to do was to get some chow, when I finally arrived at the pub it was about 20.00 hrs
with most of the patrons already left.
The ladies of the kitchen had some fun with me was they made my Mexico with an overdose
of  jalapeños … just for fun.
Needless to say I needed a lot of extinguishing fluids.
I made it tough and even managed the obligatory cheese cake with coffee to end the day.