Hot queens day trip

What a wonderful little trip. In a strange way this trip also showed what a weird phenomena our weather is. A week before the trip the area was covered with several inches of snow. A good week later it's scorching hot... In April!

I was hoping for nice warm spring conditions, but the three days felt like mid summer. Friday was my first day on the river and by the end of the day I was baked. To prevent my face from getting burned even further next day I wore a Buff with my face covered under my cap. This is a regular sight at a bonefish destination, but surely not in this part of the world...

The water level was higher than I would have liked to start with, but during the 3 days the level got higher and higher. I was worried that this would effect the fishing in a bad way. You know the type of nightmare: chocolate brown milkshake rushing down... But guess what? The river stayed clear, yay!

By the end of the first day the high temperature did start to effect the fishing. The snow in the mountains started to melt making the water quite murky. This was especially evident on saturday. At around 2 PM I had to stop fishing since I couldn't judge the depth of the water anymore. During that night the water cleared up again. In spite of not really ideal conditions the fishing throughout the 3 days was surprisingly good. 

As mentioned earlier I brought my ultra light gear with me. It sure is fun fishing with such light gear (2 weight). I generally fish nymphs almost exclusively but I was hoping to do some dry fly fishing with my ultra light gear. There was no surface activity so heavily weighted nymphs like bead heads was the ticket here.

Half way through the trip the rising of the water level meant I had to reach for a heavier rod. A 4 weight is still light but I needed some more back bone to handle the fish heading for mid stream where the current is pretty hefty. I used 5x tippet so too much pressure would mean break offs.

Before this trip I ordered a new tripod (I lost my tripod head as I found out during my previous trip) so I could make some nice video footages. My trusty old Creative Vado did a fine job.

The strong current did mean some challenges to make sure the lightweight tripod and Vado didn't get washed away. Another problem I encountered on this trip was due to the high water level on certain stretches of the river I couldn't find a spot to beach a big fish (one nice rainbow was around 18-19 inches) and take a picture. I don't want to put the fish on a dry bank and get the vulnerable outer skin damaged.

All together this trip has been pretty wonderful. The sun, the scenery, the fishing and the food made this trip more than I bargained for.

I really need to get a new camera before my next trip. The iPhone takes great pictures that's for sure but I don't like the idea of using it on the water without some kind of security (there is no way to attach a wrist strap by the way) to prevent me from dropping it in the water.

Update 4 May 2012:

I bought the Sony HX9V. Since it does capture FullHD movies in 50p, this camera does the job for a very nice price now it is succeeded by new models (same sensor) with only minor improvements (16Mp vs 18Mp). I can't wait to see the improved quality this little camera will capture, it is said to be amazing.

Update 7 May 2012:
I found on eBay a wrist strap accessory for the iPhone.

Update Jan 2013:
Here's a wrist strap for both iPhone 4(S) and iPhone 5. The price is an ouch...

Here's a short video I managed to compile from the few footages I shot.

Ps.
30th of April is a Dutch national holiday called Queen's Day.