It really felt like summer out on the river this last weekend, hot and sunny, although it’s not really summer on the Provo without any PMDs or caddis on the surface yet, in my mind. The water flows are quite high on both the middle and the canyon, but the water clarity is still good. I mention water clarity because I’m always surprised at the extent to which people don’t try looking for fish before blindly casting and hoping for the best. Can you see the fish below?

I didn’t run into any surface action on either section, but the nymphing was good. Although I caught more fish on the middle, the best fish was caught in the canyon. Awesome color, size, and fought like a maniac.

When you venture into the great outdoors, especially near rivers, you often see, or have a run in with, some interesting wildlife. After all, we are entering their stomping grounds. Examples would be a bighorn sheep trotting up to your car before noticing you and freaking out, a mother moose threatening to trample you which causes you to scale a cliff in your waders to escape, a black bear hopping a fence, an eagle grabbing a fish, almost stepping on a rattlesnake, getting stalked by a huge mountain lion in the dark, the list goes on. In some cases, you wish the memory wasn’t happening in the moment (i.e. angry moose, mountain lion, etc.), but in most cases it’s awesome. This day’s interesting wildlife moment of the day was a mighty gopher snake defying physics and making a meal of a large rodent (picture not for the faint of heart). Mother nature is a mad scientist indeed. I figure by the time I’m retired, I’ll have had enough run ins to write some sort of book hopefully.

The older I get, the less important it is to catch fish, and the more important it is to just get out there and be reminded that there is more to life than running errands and being busy, both of which I am guilty of doing excessively. Somehow, seeing the crazy antics of the wildlife seems to remind me how petty it is to be concerned about which glass bottles I should order for keeping cold water in the fridge. Seriously, I’ve been researching and reading reviews for like a month…because I’m sure there is a huge difference between them all…anyways, life is short so don’t forget to have a few adventures. Even the ones that don’t seem so great in the moment, sometimes make for awesome memories later.