New Rod, La Plata

The UPS man brought me my new small creek rod and reel today, and I scampered to the La Plata river to try it. I drove over the La Plata 4 days ago and it was looking very fishable, but today, when I ran up there like a kid trying to play with his christmas presents in a blizzard, I found the flow rate had at least tripled. The river was raging. I couldn't find slow water ANYWHERE apart from the beaver ponds which were suspiciously empty. Determined to see how a 5' rod would work, I decided to fish the creek as if it were July and just give it a shot. Walking through the brush was a dream come true with this tiny rod. I decided to use the fly I catch the most fish with up there, a size 20 Elk Hair Caddis, to mimic my normal day in that canyon. At first it was a bit odd, my thoughts being "where the hell is the other half of my rod?" but after a while it was effortless to whiz that fly where I wanted it. I don't see well enough to warrant a ridiculously far cast and that creek is thick with wood, so I could definitely cast further than I needed. If you're the kinda person who ties his leader around the rod with a resounding thunk (I'm not.. sorta) then untangling is a breeze the entire rod is right there. So far I am very impressed with the Rod, but I missed one very important thing... a fish! I'll take it out tomorrow and try my luck. We're talking about trolling for Kokanee at Lemon. Yay.