18" rainbow with my 2 wt...on a dry

Today provided one of those moments that I live for, the kind that makes me grateful for what I've been given...the kind that has me wanting to relive it, again and again. People who fish might understand, those that don't might think I'm crazy.

I had met a fellow fly fisher for lunch and therefore entered the river much later than I normally do. It was warm, I was lazy and there was no surface activity so I grabbed the streamer rod and started halfheartedly fan casting the pool behind my place. Suddenly it happened again...a crippled hexagina floated by and was soon replaced by a very subtle ring of ripples, not 10 feet from where I was standing. Not a sound accompanied the disappearance and had I not witnessed it I would have been totally unaware that the rise had started. I ran for my 2 wt and tried in succession a small elk hair caddis, a large hexagina dry and a smaller mayfly dry but nothing would stir the trout. I eventually looked through several of my old "floater" boxes dating from the 70s or 80s and found a rather ratty looking hexagina dry with a woven body, moose hair tails and an elk hair wing. I cast it into the lane the trout seemed to be feeding in and my heart almost stopped when a rainbow came up and , without inspection or preamble, took the fly. The fight was shorter than expected and added another layer of confidence onto the 2 wt. I can see this becoming my go-to rod for small streams or rivers.

So here I sit, still reliving the thrill of an 18" rainbow on a 2 wt rod and a dry fly. It just doesn't get any better than that.