Continuing my music-oriented post meme – the title of this post is a riff on this jam from my grunge-infused high school days.  Feel free to listen along while reading.

The Klamath basin – home of monster rainbow trout, swarms of insects, and beautiful vistas like this:

source: https://atowhee.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/klamath-revisited/

But during yet another heat wave in August, coupled with dry thunderstorms, our view was more like this:

There is a mountain over there, somewhere, I swear.

Amidst the thick smoke from fresh fires west of Crater Lake, the visions of the afore-mentioned large rainbows seeking refuge in colder spring-fed tributaries, along with predatory German Browns brought us to Agency Lake on this past hot weekend.

Regardless, this trip was pure adventure.  It was my first outing on my new Aquaglide Blackfoot HB – which has opened up a whole new world of fishing for me.

A smokey sunset on the slough of sorrow

The maiden voyage of the new toy provided me with great views, but no fish.  Josh caught what would be the only fish of the trip that evening… but watching the monster rainbows jump out of the water alongside a beaver slapping his tail noisily was both amazing and frustrating at the same time.

I would likely still be trolling around the Slough of Sorrow still – if it weren’t for the mosquitos the reminded me that the real reason for coming out was to float the beautiful Wood River the following morning.

Hazy Smokey Skies, and coats, in August?

The weather was beyond perfect for the float – but the fishing action was not there to match the temperatures.  Still – floating a pristine spring creek with a good friend, and nobody else around is priceless.

And then there was that other small thing that happened on the way home – but that is worth its own post some other time.