There were already a couple of cars in the lot when we arrived at the upper mile around 6AM. It was a Saturday, so that was expected. I decided to start in the flat water, as there were already a couple of guys in the bend pool, while Rob decided to fish the bridge and work back upriver. I soon spotted a nice male brown holding back behind a riffle. It was actively feeding and it wasn't long before I was hooked up. I managed to tire the fish, but right as I was about to net it the hook popped out. It was a nice fish, close to 22 inches. It took off down river and disappeared. I spotted another decent brown, this time a female. She was holding in fairly shallow, fast-moving water and was also feeding. After a couple of rejections and avoiding my split shot, she finally took the fly. She didn't put up much of a fight and I was able to coax her into slower moving water and get the net under her. She was a solid fish, maybe 19-20 inches. She swam off and I continued to work my way back down to the bend pool. Fisherman were starting to show up, so I headed down to the gauging pool and started working my way down towards Rob. I didn't get far before I spotted a nice brown holding in a pool. It took some work, but I finally hooked an landed the fish. I caught one more brown before getting down to Rob. He had been hammering the browns, landing 8, and had caught some monsters. One 20+ inch brown and a huge 26+ inch male brown. Better yet, he hadn't seen anyone all morning.

We'd fished most of the upper mile, so we decided to head down river. We found a pull-off without cars and decided to give it a try. I found a nice looking side pool and on my first cast I was hooked up. It was a good fish, but the hook popped out a second after I jerked. The next cast I was hooked up again, this time a beautiful 16 inch rainbow. Finally a rainbow, after not seeing any in the upper mile. A couple of casts later I was hooked up with another rainbow. They were stacked in the pool. I managed to pick up one more 20 inch male before finally working my way downriver. I found a couple of other promising holes and missed a few more fish, but didn't manage any more fish the rest of the morning. With the afternoon warmth coming, we decided to head over to the Fork for the rest of the day.

We came back the next morning a little earlier and were the first to arrive at the bend pool. The snow was coming down like crazy, with flakes as large as quarters. The browns were active and many were holding just off of the shallower water. I manage to hook and land 3 nice fish right away and missed at least that many. Rob and his brother arrived and the fish just completely shut off. We tried for another hour to coax a strike without any luck. We headed back downriver were Rob had caught the larger fish the previous day. I decided to head upriver while they worked the pool and soon spotted a monster brown holding in shallow water. A couple of casts later and I was hooked up. It headed off downriver and I gave chase. I managed to get it turned into shallow water, but when I attempted to net it, it took off again. I finally got it to a place where I thought I could get the net under it. I dipped the net into the water and got the fish into the net, only to slip and fall, breaking my net in half. The fish swam out and took off downriver again. It settled into the shallower water, tired from the fight. I scooped the fish up in what was left of my net and got a quick picture. It was a bright orange female that taped out to 26 inches. She was slow to go, but I left her upright in a slower moving pool. Rob and his brother has managed one small brown and had lost another monster, but fishing had been slow overall. We again decided to head over to the Fork to hit up some of the spots from the previous day. The best flies were black beauties, black biot emergers, miracle nymphs, red midges, and pheasant tails. The flows were up around 130 cfs.