We arrived at Manzanita around 10am today. We were on the water by ll. The wind was already blowing. Then it started gusting and blowing and gusting and did I say the wind was blowing? it was very cold. After struggling with all of the stuff that goes wrong when fising from a pontoon in the wind for around an hour or so, I decided to beach the pontoon and try to find a sunny sheltered spot to just sit and thaw. Dave followed me in and we both sat on beach and watched the water. Finally around 1:20 a few fish started to rise and we noted Callibaetis in air and on water. I was too cold to give much of a damn but Dave waded out about 10 ft. and started casting. Finally got one on a Callibaetis dun then later on a Callibaetis spinner tied hackle stacker style. I actually did not see him catch the fish as I was finally warmed up and fell asleep.
Our friends were in a two person pontoon but finding it impossible to anchor and fish in the wind. Did I say it was windy? So, they also beached pontoon and we had lunch . I was ready to call it quits about 3:30 but our friends wanted to try another spot. So I headed to the boat launching spot and fished around the edges of the weeds and finally got one brown trout using a size 16 flashback HBPT under an indicator. Meanwhile Dave and our friends headed to another spot where they could beach pontoons and wade out into water. I stuck with not going too far from launch and had another grab on my bug but missed the hookup. Lost flies in the bushes, tangled leader on something on pontoon. Got it all set up again only to get caught in bush again. OK, That's it for me. Went back to launch, got out and sat in sun at table and waited, and waited for the rest to come in. They fished till 7:30.
Back in the old days when I was in my 50's I could fish from morning on into evening. Now, I only want to fish around 4 hrs either when Callibaetis hatch is on, or just fish evenings with midges.
All in all I was pretty miserable the whole day but it is always good to have a good days with good friends.
The wind slowed way down but did not entirely quit till around 7pm. Fish were rising then to midges.
Callibaetis started around 1:20 and was a fair hatch and lasted maybe an hour.Water temp at surface was 56 degrees.
Favoured: 0
