Purple Haze

Purple Haze was in my brain,

lately things don't seem the same,

actin' funny but I don't know why,

'scuse me while I kiss the sky.

Last night on my way to the area that locals refer to as 'Up North' (which constitutes a huge area anywhere north of Spanish Fork, Utah) I was able to stop off and fish a small creek for about the last hour of light. Once I made my way to the stream I found some mayflies and caddis doin' their thing above the water. There wasn't any surface action going on just yet, but I figured it would still be a great bet and threw on a #16 Purple Haze. I hadn't ever fished this pattern before, but I've heard good things, liked the slim profile of the fly, and am a sucker for flies with a great name. Two casts in and I began to really like this fly.

Even fish this size can be a blast on dries

The next 40 minutes or so were filled with lots of fish about this size taking the Haze with complete confidence. Even if I was a little late in setting the hook I was still catching the fish (which shows how much the fish were liking the pattern too!). Seemed like every fish I saw rise would come to sample my fly as long as I had a good drift, and on a small stream like this good drifts weren't tough to manage. The night's highlight was this guy that I saw take a natural, I moved into a better casting postition (I wasn't wearing waders and was trying to stay dry, so it took a couple of minutes), saw him rise again and placed my cast. Just about a perfect cast/drift and he came and sucked it in. Sometimes everything goes just right and you wonder how you managed it (and why it can't always be like this).

Pretty nice fish for such a small stream

Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

- Kidder