The 9th Day of August, 2016

My day started off around 5 AM with the restless stirring of our two Golden Retriever puppies. Xena is about 7 months old and Thor is our latest addition hovering around 15 lbs at 4 months old. We lost both of our longtime dogs in the last 1.5 years, so the new pups have been good for life. They like to get up early which gives me a few minutes to savor the best part of the summer days here in the Bozone. The sky generally just gets brighter as the sun works it's way over the Bridgers, with just a few minutes of the "golden light." It's worth a look right now though, especially from the Belgrade side of the valley as the sunrise is almost straight through the saddle in the Bridgers.
Made my way south with the older pup and a buddy for a few hours of lake fishing before the wind picked up. We just fished dry/dropper rigs and picked up a few fish, thought we should have gotten more. Fish were up on Callibaetis fine enough, but they weren't hanging near the surface very long. Most of them seemed very focused on something, but didn't look to really be eating much other than the occasional spinner on a sporadic rise or two.
The wind started ripping around noon and that was that for the day, happy to have a motor on the boat when that happens.
I have been fishing with a 590 Sage MOD quite a bit in these kinds of situations. The rod has really grown on me with use as it's slower than what I typically fish with. But, it tracks very true to the casting stroke and seems to deliver line equally well in close as it does out in that 60-70' range too. Smooth loading transition makes for easy, delicate turnovers. The rod has a ton of feel to it when fighting a fish and working a loop. I wouldn't say it's my favorite rod of all time, but I sure do seem to fish with it a lot these days.
Summer is fleeting quickly and these early mornings are the memories that stick with me through the dark days of winter. The traffic isn't so bad, the air feels great, and it's not hard to remember why we live here on mornings like this.