For the first couple of hours today, I was catching a lot of whitefish, and getting frustrated at not catching more of the fish I was seeking. As the day began to fade, I accepted that my only trout for the day might be the nice rainbow that came unhooked as I was trying to get him into my net earlier (also frustrating). I contemplated heading back to the car, but decided to make the best of my final bit of daylight, and continue on. I soon began landing some nice fish, including a cutty that was one of the prettiest I’ve seen in awhile (see photo below). As I hiked back to the mighty Civic, I reflected on how easy it is to become frustrated and impatient when something isn’t going our way, when in reality, amazing things are just over the horizon, if we only persevere.

Winter fishing conditions were nice today on the upper Root, even hitting 30 degrees for awhile. As noted, the afternoon was a bit slow, but things really picked up around 4:00, and ended strong. I caught a few 16″ – 17″ fish on a red san juan, as well as a few on a light stonefly and a midge, all down deep. Throat samples from the fish were full of light colored midges.