We learn early in the morning that our guide is in the ER with covid and there are no other available guides, so we are out of luck and on our own. We feel badly for the guide but are also thankful he got covid before seeing us! The guy in the fly shop tells us that tiny midges are the trout’s only food source and therefore tiny itsy bitsy flies are used to fish. They are sooo tiny, it is hard to hold them in your fingers, much less tying a knot in the hole! Tying 2 flies on is supposed to resemble a cluster of midges, which we begin to comprehend after seeing them clumped on our waders and fishing line.
We stop in a variety of places, the river is quite mucky in places due to yesterday’s storm. It takes me a while to get my groove back since it has been a number if months since I last fished. Ray catches a couple; I catch 3 about the size of sardines. We don’t have much luck but we are learning about this river.
After lunch, we try to reach the other side of the river, driving down a bumpy dirt road until we reach a flooded out wash. The workman on a bulldozer waves to us saying we can make it in our rental Honda Passport, but we don’t chance it. so much for this side of the river. We do see lots of oil pumps everywhere, even on BLM land.
We get burgers from Three Rivers, sitting inside, a bit nervously, though it is practically empty. As we walk out, a couple of men on the bench yell to us, ”We don’t have covid!” Sigh…