img_1711A number of anglers have informed me that the “bigger fish” have been harder to come by recently. This I would concur. Yesterday at 5PM I got the bright idea to tell my wife that I was going fishing…….. to catch her dinner. Shortly after I suited up a black fly bit me squarely on the back of my hand. I cussed, and slapped him down. As my hand began to swell I came upon  a spot where fish were rising but they were all under the mandatory 12 inch minimum demanded by the regulations. I pressed on. The sun had gone behind the ridge and the first mosquito bit me in the back of the neck, then another. I began to think I was headed home with my tail between my legs and readied for some good natured ribbing about my prowess as a hunter of trout. Finally a 12 and 1/4 inch trout ate my elk hair Caddis at the edge of a fast water dump and I was on my way. As I cleaned that trout it occurred to me what was happening on the streams. This trout was stuffed to the gills with every imaginable food item a trout could eat. He had been feeding for days on everything that comes alive in the stream at this time of year. There were scudds, and mayflies, crane flies and caddis flies. There were caddis houses, complete with the rocks and sticks used to build them. There was a plug of undigested food that was unidentifiable and was packed as tight as a twined bail of hay. This fish was fat with food. I am suspecting our underwater friends have been spending time at the drive through and will keep packing it in as long as the food is abundant. This will mean a bit of slow fishing until the next hatches crank up. When I got home with my prize for dinner, I prepared it for the oven. Two ticks crawled off of my sleeve. The bugs are out, they are eating me, and the fish are eating them. It all makes sense.