Red Body

In the afternoon, I had to make a run to St. Anthony to meet with Stephen at Planning. After, I decided to head north a few miles to Ashton, just to look around. Drove passed Miguel’s place in Marysville and on up to Three Rivers, just for the fun of it. On the way back decided to stop by the shop on Hwy 20 to pick up a few hopper patterns. The shop guy was great. We seemed to develop a rapport which lead to the disclosure that I had a place on the River. Immediately, the conversation amped a bit and it quickly became evident that he possessed certain knowledge that the river did, in fact, hold big fish. 

He slid around the counter containing tiny fly patterns and began placing them in the palm of his outstretched hand. Spreading them apart with his finger, he began describing the times of the day, conditions, presentations and rankings of relative effectiveness. I felt like I was drinking from a fire hose. Great info, necessary stuff, but way more than my fisherman’s brain could process in his rapid fire enthusiasm. Finally, I said, “OK, which pattern should I use tomorrow morning”? He looked up from pointing and staring at the palm of his hand, with a brief moment of processing the question and said, pointing to the tiniest pattern of them all, “this one”. Cool. While the pattern had the same shape and look of those in the swarm, it had a red body, as opposed to the black natural. I pointed this out, expecting a blistering rant. All he offered was, “it just works”. 

And that it did. That little bug with a cinnamon body and wispy white wings “killed”. My new pal gave up the secret handshake, unlocked the gate, coughed up the password, and solved the mystery. Thank you, my friend. Thank you.