It’s my favorite. Changing foliage from summer greens to brilliant autumn colors, a certain crispness to the air reminding us that the cold winds of winter are never too far away, and absolutely brilliant trout and salmon.

Brook trout really show their stuff at this time of year, and this one was my best of this season – a colorful slab with a bad attitude – a white Soft Hackle Streamer brought this one to justice, but he was released unharmed except for his bruised ego. There were several other rainbows and brookies that were eating streamers today, so the streamer “bite” was on, at least momentarily.

The general consensus is that there are some salmon infiltrating the Trophy Stretch day after day, and our flows should stay at a good level for another week to ten days. They should be there in greater numbers this week and the cooling of the water will help too – it was a balmy 35 degrees air temperature this morning, and tomorrow will be even colder.

After that, who knows, so now is the time to be here, if your schedule allows it. Word is that nymphs are still producing the most fish, but if you prefer to swing flies and feel the tug of a hungry salmonid, there is no better time of the year.

You may notice that I was using a white streamer today. White and gray streamers seem to work better for me in the fall, while the olive soft hackle streamer is an absolute killer in the summer. I’m sure that olive would have worked fine today, but there were none in my box, so the white was the next best bet. I’m glad the trout thought so too …

Only three weeks left before the season closes, folks…