Tom is a long-time currentseams follower and an avid fly fishing show attendee and angler. He couldn’t have picked a finer day weather wise for a wet fly lesson: sunny, 85, 210cfs and 52 degrees water temp in the PTMA…and all those caddis! At one point I counted over 2 dozen of them crawling around his legs and backside: tan, black, and one funky darker one I couldn’t ID. Plus: micro caddis. Really small stuff that flitted around my forearms under the Church Pool bridge, enough of them to be a nuisance.

So where are all the trout? Not feeding near the surface. I saw just three rises in our four hour session. We stuck two, landed one, and that was two more fish than seven of the other nine anglers we watched or talked to had. One angler said he did very well nymphing, and so that spring trend has continued into mid-May despite the warm weather. Tom did an excellent job of managing his drifts, and he deserved far better than what the river gave him on this day. But he is certainly a dangerous wet-fly-machine in the making! Way to go, Tom.