With the opening of the trout season I just had to take a little visit to the stream.
I spotted the black Luftwaffe aka cormorants making a flyby.
The black birds in turn where being overtaken by geese presumably heading north.
Trout where plenty but I just could not get to them, not much cover right now so
the stockies where very wary.

I expected a circus like usual but maybe the strong wind and overcast skies
tempered the enthiousasm of the meat fisherman a bit.
Unlike previous trout openers I spotted only one other guy tossing a small
spinner under the embankment – which was directly intercepted by a stockie.

I did well at one of my hotspots with the dace, I could spot them in the current and they
respondend well to the nymphs I fed them.

With some fish caught and midday arriving I thought it was the ideal time to head to the pub and so I had (as usual)
a couple of cold ones and a meal in front of the fireplace – outside temp. was 12 degrees C.
The remaining task for the rest of the day was to get one of these trout as there where plenty of them so I should at least catch one.

As mentioned earlier it was windy outside, the forecast mentioned something about a break in the cloud
in the afternoon but the windflowers where mostly in their bad weather mode ie closed.
The rains of the previous night had stained the water somewhat which was postive as the levels had
steadily gone lower due to lack of rain.

To get a trout I figured I knew just which spot to hit and tossed a nymph first.
When the nymphs did not yield any response it was time to try a lure, a small beadhead zonker would
have more result for these recently stocked trout.
The lure raised interest as it was hit twice by a trout, the fish missed on both occasions.
Next I see a little brownie race after the lure but again a miss.
Finally I positioned myself at the front of the pool and used a fast sinking polyleader to get the lure deep.
That did the trick as a trout grabbed the fly and put a pretty bend in the 4-weight.

Mission achieved, on the way home I probed a spot where I had seen several trout earlier that day but guessing
by the footsteps around the spot I figured the most stupid stockies have left for the eternal hunting fields.

The day ended with a magical encounter as I ran across a deer in a small forest path.
I stopped and so did the deer, we just stared.
I had the chance to get the camera out and document this rare encounter.

The break in the weather eventually came along but the skies only cleared near sunset.
All in all not a bad day for an early season trout opnener.