Overcast, fog, rain showers, air temps nearing fifty — where do I sign up? The river was running clear and about 350 cfs, 40 degrees in the upper TMA.
So. The day began with my foolish decision to navigate a perilously steep slope down to the river. There was no snow. But, rats! I didn’t take into account the frozen tundra. I slid on my butt for about twenty feet, and my the only reason my ass didn’t end up in the river was because I managed to grab a sapling as I hurtled past. Thus chastised, I waded in, bloody fingertips (ice can cut you quite properly, thank you) and all.
You gotta love the naiveté of fresh stockees. They haven’t quite figured out that they’re supposed to hit that streamer at the head. As a result, I had about 400 hysterical tail nips, with some of the new residents following the fly almost to my rod tip. At least a half dozen of what was put in last week are already dead; I saw them on the bottom of one run, most missing heads and/or eviscerated my some unknown predator. Downsizing the fly from a 4 to a 6 resulted in more hookups. But you don’t need to see photos of recently stocked trout, do you?
If the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. I fished all by myself today. 
Since stockees were not why I came out, I headed to the TMA. I had visions of big browns. We’ll quote another British band here: you can’t always get what you want. So I had to be content with three sticks and several Deep Threats presented to appease the river bottom gods. But the smoke from that Rocky Patel The Edge corona gorda looked positively sublime as it mingled with the mists over the rain-speckled water.
And I left the river happy.
currentseams.com 
Your reports are awesome… Arent most of the fish in the Farmington wild?
Well, thank you kindly.
Most are not wild, although that percentage has increased over the years. The last census I heard was from fall 2013, with 50% of the fish wild. The DEEP’s Survivor Strain program has gone a long way toward introducing hardy browns into the river with the genetic chops to keep on keeping’ on.
You have to love the conditions we have now. I find myself looking for a stick to grab onto as I crawl out of the river onto the banks. Stockies are fun but can be abused. I hope everyone is useing barbless hooks and useing good release methods.
Unfortunately, there will always be abusers. None of the dead ones I saw displayed evidence of anything other than non-human predation.
“If you try sometimes, you might find,
you get what you need…”
Steve – great post as always. I can’t wait to get out there myself irrespective of the outcome. I am sure that I will get what I need 🙂
I think I need another of those Romeo y Julieta coronas…
Awesome post. I love fishin’ and singin’ in the rain….
No singing for me today. But I did plenty of talking to myself. (It’s OK. I do that.)