Joe's Hopper and Foam Beetle

I might be jumping the gun a little (cuz apparently terrestrials virtually always work well at the West Boulder Meadows) but hopper patterns where catching fish yesterday. The plague has begun.

Finding that swagger on the Boulder

The (Big Timber) Boulder River is wide awake, and not just down low. I decided to head over there after seeing that temperatures had reached about 54 degrees at Big Timber already - it was my best shot at some blue-winged olives. But instead of staying low and maybe catching some mayflies and run-up rainbows, I decided to fish new water at the Boulder Forks FAS, which was good because I was able to fish the West Boulder for the first time.
Both rivers are absolutely stunning, with gin-clear water in beautiful settings. A fresh coat of powder made the scene all the more gorgeous. It was the warmest 32 degress I've felt in a long time, and the wind was minimal. Peace and trout.
Both the mainstem and the West Boulder were fishing - small fish in small pockets on the West, bigger fish in nicer runs on the main (appar- ently, the West de-iced only a couple weeks ago). I managed to bring a 19-inch rainbow to hand - a nice stepping stone on my way to filling Brady's shoes on Fridays.
Hopefully I'll have a chance to get better at holding fish for grip-n-grins (and more creative in shooting them). It doesn't make it any easier when you have to set the timer, balance the camera on a rock and hope it's in focus. At least it validates my claim.
For the third week in a row there were good numbers of winter stoneflies - I've seen more in the past three weeks than I thought existed in the world.
I wouldn't mind getting back over there before long - but we have other fish to fry (so to speak). Stillwater River, anyone?